It’s always so much fun to get to play with new tools, and
let’s face it – die cuts are not only all the rage, but they are by far one of
the most versatile things you can have in your crafting arsenal.
When I got the opportunity to do a couple of designs from
the wonderful company,
Top
Dog Dies, I couldn’t wait to get my fingers all inky and my cardstock all
clipped.
The first die I played with was this wonderful background
die cut called
Leaf Mosaic. I cut it once out of watercolor paper, then
once out of black cardstock. I used
Distress Ink in several different colors with a blending tool to color the
watercolor paper die cut. One trick here
is to add in layers. I kept getting more
and more vibrant colors as I added more ink, which was the end result I was
going for. After that, I added the black
cardstock die cut to the back side of the colored one, off set just a tad bit
to have it peeking out from behind. The
die cuts then were added to some purple colored cardstock. I tied a bright ribbon to match, then matted
it again on green cardstock and then onto the black card. A small purple rhinestone at the center of
the bow finished it off. Simple, but in
my opinion, stunning!
I was then interesting in using the same die a different
way. I stayed with the watercolor paper
and cut the background three different times.
I used a craft knife to cut each leaf out of the background, giving me
36 separate leaves. I had an older leaf
stamp that didn’t match the cutout exactly but enough for the idea of veins on
the leaves. I used my watercolor based markers
in many different shades to color directly on the stamp, and then stamped each
leaf. Immediately after stamping, I used
a brush lightly dipped in water to dab onto the ink to make it bleed just
enough to form a water-colored-look. The
edges were treated with Distress Ink to age them just a touch. Each one is completely different, but that’s
the fun of this technique. I used the
leaves to fill up the side of the card, just like a large pile of freshly raked
fall leaves. I kept this card very simple,
just adding some tall hand cut letters to spell out “Fall”, colored again with
the watercolor based markers. They were
outlined with a glitter pen, and then covered in crystal lacquer. A small “happy” die cut word fit over the
larger letters to complete the card.
The last one I’ll share today was made using the adorable
set called
Haunted
House. This one has a bunch of cute
elements to the set, and I used all of them.
I started my card using my Distress Inks in several different shades to
make a night sky. Then I flicked some
watered-down gesso on it with a small brush to create the starry night
background. I die cut the main house out
of bright yellow, adding the detailed house cut out of black cardstock right on
top. Using both glitter glue and a white
gel pen, I added some sketchy highlights and edges. I also added a little bit of white chalk ink
to the edges to help it pop off the background.
The house sits on a torn piece of black cardstock treated the same
way. The graveyard was easy to complete
as it was all part of the die cut set. I
just added a few ink stokes to make them dimensional. I added the moon, stars and bat die cuts from
the set as well, covering them each in glitter glue to add some sparkle. The sentiment is stamped in chalk ink, then
smudged and highlighted with both a glitter pen and a white gel pen.
These were so much fun to play with… and I am thrilled for
the opportunity of guest designing for
Top
Dog Dies. You should definitely pop
over to their website and check out all they have to offer over there.
Thanks for stopping by.
Hugs,
Jodi
