Category: die cuts

Poppystamps: Mother’s Day Bouquet

Today, I’m sharing a card created with a combination of Poppystamps dies that would work for any occasion, including Mother’s Day.

MothersDayMay2014

The Meso Background was cut out of white cardstock and attached to a white cardstock base. I cut the Meso Background from cardstock backed with a Be Creative tape sheet (cut to size). Although it can be a little tricky getting the die cut piece onto the cardstock base, it’s worth it, as there are no gaps in the adhesion.  I cut the Wild Rose Bud several times, out of green and coral-pink cardstock. I added a sprig of greenery to the bouquet in the Tall Vase.

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Paper Smooches SPARKS: Hang in There

Today, I’m sharing a card created using the sketch over on the Paper Smooches SPARKS blog.

My son is in the throes of studying for college finals, so using the vertical sketch, I created him a “Hang in There”/Encouragement card. I know that I found studying for and taking college finals to be extremely stressful!

SparksDraftApril272014Supplies:

Hollyhock Bouquet

In most cases, I create cards with the end in mind, or at least a vague idea. Such was not the case with this card, which grew to be quite tall!

ImpressionObsessionHollyhocks

My inspiration for this card comes from Dina Kowal. She’s both a designer for Impression Obsession, as well as a member of their design team. She shared a card recently combining the Hollyhock and Mason Jar dies.

I cut white cardstock with the Hollyhock die several times,  and colored the flowers with Copics. I’ve never colored die cuts with Copics before, but I have to say it’s certainly easy and you can get the colors you want! I used the Mason Jar die to cut a piece of patterned paper that I colored with a Copic to add shading along the sides. I added a shadow under the mason jar with an Amuse Studios set. The sentiment comes from the Hero Arts “All Occasion Messages” set. The sentiment says “Hello Friend.” I simply cut it in two, as I find myself frequently needing a little sentiment to fit onto tiny tags (this tag was cut with a punch). The background paper is Strathmore 140lb coldpress watercolor paper. For this card, I wanted something off-white with a little bit of texture. I buy the Strathmore paper in a big pad and cut it down to size.

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Just Cut Tulips

I’ve been watercoloring with Distress Inks a lot lately – stamped images, die cuts, whatever I can find that will take the ink.

IOTulips

You have to give a little visual leeway with this card in terms of whether the tulips are really in the watering can (that right-hand tulip leaf is sticking out!). I got to this design the long way round. At first, I planned to put the watering can, which is cut from Strathmore 140 lb cold-press watercolor paper and colored with Broken China and Vintage Photo, directly on top of the stamped and colored tulips. But when I watercolored the cast shadow, it was a mess. (I’ve subsequently practiced painting cast shadow bases!)

The dry-embossed card base, with the circle cutout, is my design fix for the poorly painted cast shadow. By the way, the Bazzill 100 lb. cardstock is becoming my go-to supply – even dry-embossed and holding the watercolor panels, it’s standing strong.

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