Hi everyone!

I love using die cuts on my cards. They are a great way to add dimension, patterns, and style to a card and I think they inspire me to be even more creative.

Today, my card incorporates two new-to-me techniques I learned in the “Easy Die Cutting Techniques” class I took as part of the Altenew Educator Certification Program (AECP): using a die as a stencil and inlaying my dies. I love these classes because they force me to think outside my normal “box” and try new things. This class delivered on that in spades!

For this card, I started with the background. I die cut the Altenew Layered Plaid (B) die from heavyweight card stock and used the resulting die cut to very lighly ink blend the plaid pattern on my panel using Altenew Jet Black Ink.

Next, I used the Altenew Waterbrush Hello die to cut the large word “hello” out of the ink blended panel. I also cut the “Hello” 4 times from black cardstock and glued those 4 layers together to get a nice thick sentiment.

To create the inlay, I used foam tape to adhere the ink blended panel to my card base. This create a gap between the card base and the panel that I could then fill by inlaying my black sentiment. The four layers of black card stock I used for thickness on my sentiment turned out to be just the right amount to fill the gap and make the inlay even with the top of the panel. You can see how this turned out in the close up picture below:

With the panel and inlay complete, I die cut my flower and leaves from the Altenew Fantasy Floral die set using scraps of cardstock I had on hand. The Fantasy Floral die set is a layering die set – which just means that each layer of the flower is cut separately and then put together, kind of like a puzzle, to form an image (in this case, a rose).

Once all my pieces were cut, I arranged them on my card front and adhered them with liquid glue.

At this point, I felt like the card needed just a bit more dimension, so I added a sentiment strip from my Taylored Expressions Simple Strips sentiment stamp and die set to the top of the card using foam tape. The Simple Strip stamp and die creates multiple sentiment strips with one inking and one run through the die cutter. It’s a great way to mass produce sentiments so that you can have them on hand when you need one. In this case, I felt like the addition of the “hug” sentiment to the “Hello” was perfect for my intended recipient.

Lastly, I added some Glossy Black jewels from Pretty Pink Posh to add a bit of sparkle to the card.