Tuesday 3 April 2018

Same card three different looks!

Hi guys it’s Natalie on the CDD blog today and today I’m going to to create a card using dies to make a background. I love succulents and the four cacti dies at cdd are the perfect size to create a background. Originally I was just going to do an inlaid die cutting technique which is the card in the forefront of the image but then I couldn't resist mixing it up a little with the back two.



To begin with I cut out four base cards using the crazy stitched frame dies three with normal cardstock and one with Bristol smooth. Then we are going to cut out the cacti I tried to make the pattern random but so the same die didn’t end up next to each other. The dies I used are the three cacti from the South West Border Dies and the cactus die.



Make sure you save all of your pieces we are going to do an I lay die cutting technique on two of the cards the other one you can take out the pieces and save them for another occasion.
The first card I coloured in the cacti with copic markers taking them out first I find it easier to colour them you don’t get colour where you don’t want it!


The second card I mounted the whole card with the die cuts in onto black card and then used a watercolour technique with distress inks over the die cuts but in a loose technique so it looked messy.


The last card I took out the die cuts and discarded them for a future project then took the Bristol smooth cardstock we cut and water coloured the background with the same green distress inks we used on the previous background. I added foam tape to the back of the card we die cut and mounted it on top of the water coloured piece. Then mounted this onto black cardstock.



After colouring our cacti backgrounds its time to add the sentiment and finishing touches. I cut out nine happy die cuts so that we could layer them on top of each other so we would have three layers of three. Then I white heat embossed the word birthday from the Wishful Thoughts stamp set onto some black cardstock and cut it so that it was a thin strip. Then finished off with some black nuvo drops.
That’s my three cards for today using the same die cut background to make three different cards I hope you like it!

Happy Die
Cactus Die
Wishful Thoughts
South West Border Die
Nuvo Crystal Drops Ebony Black
Crazy Stitched Frame Dies
















Sunday 1 April 2018

Creating scenes with Dies

Hi guys its Natalie on the blog today and I want to show you how to create a scene card using your dies as stencils. They are perfect if you would like to create a one layered scene card but are nervous about drawing in the details yourself. I chose to create a garden scene with the Somebunny Stamp set and to create my background I used the Rainbow Die, Outdoor Landscape 2 Dies snd the Garden Border Dies.



I started by making the base of my card using the Inside Scalloped Rectangle Dies once cut take out the middle part from the frame as we don't want the frame to get ink on it and place the frame to one side. Taking the middle part its time to lay out our scene I cut out the garden border for the soil and the little picket fence from the Outdoor Landscape 2 Dies from some scrap paper so  I could lay them out with the clear stamps of the bunny and carrot house to make sure I have things in the right positions.



Once you have everything in the right place then its time to draw  around everything ready to colour in. Try to lightly draw the images in so that they are easier to rub out later on.. Now its time to stamp out the bunny and carrot house I decided to try out some no line colouring so I used the antique linen distress ink to stamp these out as its a light neutral colour. The last thing to add to the scene is some clouds you just need to cut out one cloud and then you can move it around a place a few randomly in the sky.



Then its time to colour up the image I used some warm greys for the picket fence, clouds and bunny making sure the ears are darker than the cloud to distinguish between the two. I used the same oranges on the carrot house and the carrots and again using the same greens on the carrot tops and bow tie. Then a few shades of blue for the sky and brown for the soil. I like to keep my colour pallet limited so that you focus on the image and your eyes aren't distracted by all the colours. Try and avoid colouring over the pencil lines so either draw up to them or rub them out lightly first as once the marker is over the pencil you wont be able to rub it out.
Once I was happy with the colouring it was time to stick the frame back together and place it on some warm grey cardstock. the trick I use to easily stick the frame and base together is just placing them together upside down and then running the tape runner along the joins this enables us to easily stick it to the grey cardstock. Then its just time to stick it to your card base and its all finished up! I hope you have enjoyed my tutorial today and I look forward to seeing all your one layer scene cards!





http://craftindesertdivas.com/rainbow-die/
Rainbow Die

Outdoor Landscape Dies 2


Somebunny

Inside Scalloped Rectangle Die

Garden Border Dies