3 -ways to Stretch Die Cut sentiments

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3 -ways to Stretch Die Cut sentiments

So here is a little insight into how my creative brain works. It is definitely not a straight path from thought to card. I started off with a single card based on a masculine theme with greens, blues and offsetting and layering the Big Words Birthday die. Colours weren’t working for me. I put it aside and went off and did other things. It’s amazing how giving my brain a break and going off to do other stuff, helps with the creative process. This is when other ideas start growing.

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Easy Build Your Own Shadow Box with New Poppy Posy Bundle

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Easy Build Your Own Shadow Box with New Poppy Posy Bundle

The new Summer Collection is now available from LDRS Creative. My favourite from this collection has to be the Poppy Posy Bundle. Love all the bits and pieces and wanted to put a card together that used all of the elements. This type of shadow box is fairly simple to build once you’ve worked out the dimensions. The first time I made this shadow box it took a little while, fiddling and some trial and error to make the dimensions work to fold and fit into an A2 size envelope. Lucky for you I have all the dimensions all worked out and laid out below.

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Stretching Your Dies with Home Design Dies

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Stretching Your Dies with Home Design Dies

Here is a way to modify your die cuts and come up with a whole new look for them. I will be modifying the Home Design Dies with the Foliage Add-Ons dies. Instead of creating a large home with the die I will be creating lots of mini homes. By using the the left and right side of the main house die and a simple cut with the scissors you can stretch the use of the die and create small colourful mini homes.

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Inlay Shimmery Butterflies Technique

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Inlay Shimmery Butterflies Technique

My craft space is a small area off the corner of my bedroom, so every once in a while when it starts to look a little chaotic, I need to organize and remove a few things. At the moment I am in the midst of reorganizing and major tidy up of my crafty space. While cleaning up a shelf I rediscovered my water colour shimmer powders. It has been a very long time since I have pulled these out and played around with them. Which got me to thinking that these fun powders combined with the Large Butterfly Die would make some really pretty shimmery butterflies. Bonus the inlay technique instructions below gives you enough butterfly parts (parts in a crafty way, not gruesome poor butterfly way) to create two cards.

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Butterfly Shaker

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Butterfly Shaker

Continuing to play with the New LDRS Spring Collection. Really love the big dies that are in this release, so far I have played with the Large Leaf Dies and Large Flower Dies. You can find some inspiration for ink blending with the Large Leaf Dies and Large Flower Dies on my instagram feed @samjolden or LDRS blogs feature day. Today however I am creating a shaker butterfly with the Large Butterfly Die.

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Ways to Step-Up Die Cut Elements. Using Home Design Dies

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Ways to Step-Up Die Cut Elements. Using Home Design Dies

The New LDRS Spring Collection has the most wonderful die set to create adorable little houses that are the perfect size for gift tags for a house warming gift or a card to celebrate a new home. Today I have used the Home Design Dies and the Foliage Add-Ons, along with the Home Sentiment Stamp Set to create a collection of gift tags and card. There is barely any need to provide instructions to create these tags/card, but I’ve added lots of tips on ways to step-up your little house and add texture. But really it is all about die cutting the elements and having fun building your little house.

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Big Word Love Die: 2 for 1 with Positive and Negative Die Cuts

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Big Word Love Die: 2 for 1 with Positive and Negative Die Cuts

The Big Word Love Die from the recent LDRS November Collection is perfect for creating with both the positive and the negative elements. And because I wanted my cards to have a spring vibe I combined the Love sentiment with the Flower Doodles Collection. Also the large ‘O’ opening in the negative portion of the Love sentiment was just calling out for a flower in the centre of it.

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Doodle Flowers: Creating Depth with Stamps and Dies

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Doodle Flowers: Creating Depth with Stamps and Dies

On occasion you see a stamp or die set and you instantly know the card you want to make. That’s what happened when I saw the Doodle Flower Dies from the recent LDRS November Collection. I immediately thought back to the Wild Flowers Slimline stamp set released last spring and knew that I want to combined the two sets together. The stamp floral and the die floral have a similar whimsical feel that work well together. With the Wild Flowers Slimline stamp set I created a subtle tone on tone background with softness and depth behind the Doodle Flower Dies. I had a hard time deciding how to handle the sentiment because I didn’t want to cover any of the vibrant flowers. Can you see where I snuck the sentiment in? Found the perfect small sentiment in the Spring Gift Tag Stack stamp set that fit perfectly on a die cut leaf and then tucked it behind a flower.

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