Easy Die Cutting – AECP Post 6

• HandmadeByTasha

Hey Crafty People!

Wow, things have been crazy busy these last few weeks!

Obviously the world seems to have turned upside down, and we are all just trying to get through this in the best ways we can. From our point of view that means Homeschooling our two daughters, which is taking up a lot of my energy! On top of that I have been making as many thank you cards as I can, and trying to get them out to some of the Key Workers that are keeping the world turning. That does mean that I have had a little less time to blog, So I’m really sorry but I have some very exciting things coming up so please just bear with me and ‘normal’ service will be resumed shortly!

Lesson 6: Easy Die Cutting

Cutting, leaving in place

Today I’m focusing on the next subject towards to go my AECP Level 1! This time round the class that I want to focus on is Easy Die Cutting, which is a brilliant, comprehensive introduction to die cutting. For the more experienced crafter, it’s a great refresher course on some basic techniques.

Whenever I feel like I need an inspiration boost I like to go back to some basic techniques; I often find well-loved techniques that I have forgotten over time and I love to inject those back into my crafty repertoire!!

‘Borrowing’ inspiration from myself:

I was inspired to borrow some design elements of a couple of my previous cards, but to use some of the techniques taught in the class to change things up a little bit! I am still completely in love with the new-to-me fine frames die from Altenew, and I just want to just frame all the things, so I decided to kind of mash together 3 of my previous cards to create this new hybrid version! 

Painting with brush pens

I stamped the large Poppy from Altenew’s Paint-A-Flower collection in Antique Linen Distress Oxide; this is a very pale and water soluble ink, these properties allow its use for No-Line Colouring because as you add colour the stamped lines fade. This creates a softer image as opposed to the traditional dark outline you would have.

I used my Arteza Real Brush Pens on Bristol Smooth heavyweight paper, and worked on a petal at a time, making sure to pay attention to where the shadows and highlights would naturally fall.

Die-cutting my panel

Once completely dry I added a sheet of double sided adhesive to the back of my panel; adding this before die cutting means that you do not have to add tiny amounts of adhesive to every tiny little detail of your inlaid pieces. (I must admit I have a somewhat love-hate relationship with these adhesive sheets; I love the convenience of already having adhesive but I hate that you have to get it right first time because it’s stuck tight.)

I used some light-tac masking tape to hold my die into the position I wanted on my panel and ran the whole thing through my Big Shot twice to make sure the die got through the thick Bristol and adhesive panel.

My favourite method for inlaying a design is to attach the entire thing onto a thin sheet of printer paper, because it holds the pieces together whilst not adding any bulk to the panel. I attached the outer portion of the panel and then with the frames and inner panel still in the die, I used that to position the inner pieces as I adhered them.

I love the texture this adds; it is a much less subtle look than the embossed frames from my recent CAS design but is still one entire image that continues over the entire panel, as opposed to another of my recent projects they utilised a different pattern completely in this frame area.

I decided to round the corners of both the panel and a black card base, I stamped a simple sentiment from the same Poppy stamp set with Versamark sticky ink and added Superfine Platinum embossing powder from WOW! I also decided to add a single line of embossing using a T-square ruler and Versamark pen.

I finished off this card with a single layer of the fine frame cut from gold mirror cardstock; this is one of my favourite design elements at the moment!

The 3 stages of this die:

  • Embossing with the die
  • Cutting, leaving in place
  • Cutting & Changing

I love that I now have 3 designs showing these fine frames being used in the same basic way but to different extents!

I think it’s important that through my AECP learning journey I develop the skills needed to pass on my crafty knowledge & passion; and I like that I was able to show developing ideas across a set of cards.

Thank you for visiting my blog, if you’d like to see more of my artwork & how to’s and/or hear my thoughts on living with a chronic illness then please consider subscribing. T.

  • Strathmore Bristol Cardstock
  • Craft UK C5 Card Blank & Envelope – Black
  • Wilko’s Gold Mirror Cardstock
  • Double Sided adhesive sheet
  • Altenew – Fine Frames die
  • Altenew Paint-A-Flower – Poppy
  • Altenew Lavender stamp set (Thank You sentiment)
  • Arteza – Real Brush Pens (Watercolour)
  • Royal & Langnickel Zen watercolour brush
  • Versamark ink pad
  • Versamark pen
  • WOW! Embossing Powder Super Fine – Platinum
  • Nuvo Vintage Drops – Black

6 thoughts on “Easy Die Cutting – AECP Post 6”

  2. Absolutely brilliant!!!
    Thank you for entering your work to the AECP assignment gallery.

    Reply

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