Two Dies Three Ways

Hello friends and Merry Christmas!  Today I would like to share with you how to use your dies creatively to make cards that are essentially variations on a theme.  My first card uses the Merry Christmas Background from Memory Box.  We have a similiar die from Lil Inker Designs that would work well too.  This die cuts out the background panel and the letters that spell Merry Christmas in different fonts.  You can cut the die from any color cardstock or it's perfect for the beautiful glitter paper we have in stock right now.

Here are ways to use the background panel and the letters:

• Layer the background over colored cardstock or glitter paper
• Place Scor tape (double sided tape) across one or more words on the back of the background and insert letters cut from a third color cardstock or glitter paper on the front of the background.
• Add a die cut icon such as the fir tree or the ornament.

Warning: Cutting these backgrounds can be addictive!  Once you cut the background from one color cardstock or glitter paper, you wll want to cut it from another color to contrast with the first color.  This means you will have a pile of red letters, for instance, and need another background for these.  And on and on! 

Let's look at some examples of these different treatments.

For this card I first cut the background from black cardstock.  If you're thinking "black for Christmas?"  YES!  It is very dramatic and plays very well with traditional Christmas colors of red, gold and silver.  Next I cut the background from red glitter paper and placed scor tape on the back of the black background across the words I wanted to highlight.  I inserted the red letters on the front of the background and mounted the black background on gold glitter paper.  Card done!

For the next card, I took the background I cut from red glitter paper (above) and placed it over a white card.  I cut the background again from gold glitter paper and using the technique outlined above, inserted them into the background as shown on the card below.  I cut a fir tree from green glitter paper and mounted it with foam tape to the left side of the card.  Note:  Be sure to cut your additional focal image (tree, ornament, etc) first and place it on your background to determine spacing and which words you want to highlight.

For the final card (below) I used more of the red glitter paper letters on a white on white background.  I "hung" the ornament from the christmas word.

Can you see how you can go on and on with the different colored backgrounds and letters?  There's no stopping!

For my next set of cards I used the Memory Box Poinsettia Band die.  Here's the first card:

I used black again for the background on a white card.  I cut the Poinsettia band from gold glitter paper then from silver glitter paper.  The die cuts the outline of the petals and the petals separately so I adhered a thin strip of foam tape to the middle of each gold petal and inserted them back into the silver petal outlines which I had glued to the back mat.  To complete the card I die cut the Wishing You Manuscript die from gold glitter paper and adhered it to the bottom of the card.

Inside the card I die cut Merry Christmas from silver and mounted it on black then gold.

You can easily make a second card using the die cuts you have left over.  Your second poinsettia will be silver petals in a gold outline.

For my next card I cut the poinsettia clear of the attached band and used the Memory Box Grosgrain Ribbon die to cut gold glitter paper to place behind the poinsettia.  I cut the poinsettia from both red shiny cardstock and gold glitter paper then inserted the red petals in the gold outline and mounted the gold petals with foam tape on top and to the right of each red petal.

A sentiment from Penny Black's Holiday Snippets and an enamel dot complete the card.

For the third card in this series I used the same colors (in the reverse) and both poinsettias cut free from the band.  I cut the Grosgrain Ribbon die twice from red glitter paper and placed the ribbons to look like a package.  The tag was cut with an MFT Tag die and the sentiment is from a Poppystamps Christmas set.

I hope this little tutorial ahs given you some ideas for using your dies creatively in trios!

Holiday Hours

The Stamp Act will be closed from Monday, December 18 through Monday, January 1.  We will reopen on Tuesday, January 2.  Merry Christmas!