Hello crafty friends.

How are you all doing, I wonder. I’m making cards and studying Japanese as hard as I can, for an exam in December. I have a set of cards today that are a little different to my usual posts. Firstly, I have quite a few masculine card in the mix. Secondly, this is more of a technique jump starter post, as I’m looking at different ways to use ‘border dies’, that is, dies that cut a strip from the centre of the paper.

First up, the simplest way to use dies like this is to find (or make) a piece of paper that you love and cut it to wider then your die. I used a front panel of Shimmer White paper, and cut the Gum leaf border from Paper Rose Studio from this before adding the coloured paper from the Inky Antics papers behind. I glued the patterned paper to the back of the cut out panel, being. sure to adhere the little tips of leaves and gumnuts.

The sentiment for this card, and the one below come from the Rainbow Poppies sentiment strips, also from Paper Rose Studio. To make the second card, I used the same steps, cutting the word “happy” from my front panel, only this time, I used my guillotine to cut the top of the panel, neatening the top corners of the p letters with scissors. The background again comes from the Inky Antics papers, and I used a stitched rectangle die to cut the papers, to match with the stitching detail on the die.

This third card frames the contents of the border die within another die. There are many dies you could use for this technique, showing most of the background, or just allowing small pockets to show through. I chose the Card Creator 2 die, with its large square windows, cutting two in white and one in gold. Then I used the Pebbles Border die as my feature die. Once again I used the Inky Antics papers, and spent some time piecing together my jigsaw puzzle! I used double sided tape on the back, so I could just peel it off and stick the whole arrangement to my card. But first, I white heat embossed my sentiment from the Lotus bouquet stamp set. This card has a white insert on the inside, because the card is too dark for a regular pen.

Finally, I used the die to make an embossed impression in the paper. I used an embossing mat, and ran this through my die cutting machine. The mat ensures that the die has no hard surface to press against to cut, so the die only leaves an impression on the paper. I used the Ella’s garden Rose and Brick border die for this card, and taped the die cutting surfaces very very very gently with my clear embossing ink pad before laying the die onto card very very very carefully, without moving it. That way, when I ran it through my machine, I was able to emboss the lines with gold embossing powder. I then used inks and blending brushes to rub some colour onto the design, mixing them a little which gives a bit more of a grunge effect. You could be more careful, and use a smaller blending tool for a cleaner final result.

You can try any of these techniques with any border die, and I hope you’ll be encouraged to try. Until next time, happy crafting!

Blessings,

Donna