We’ve been creating innovative craft supplies for over 20 years, so when we decided to create some new craft dies at Birch Press Design, we set out to do something a little different than what is on the market. We created a very intricate look at Memory Box, easily identified in our detailed birds and floral shapes – but at Birch Press we thought we would focus on creating some texture on greeting cards by using layers of shapes.

The result is a large collection of dies that coordinate – circles in graduated sizes, squares that layer beautifully and other shapes that play off of geometric simplicity. We designed these shapes to be used on their own – but also to be stacked.

For a paper artist, the possibilities are endless! You can layer several colored layers together for a colorful look – or if you plan on adding more to the card, you can keep the layers monochromatic, like we did here with some simple, crisp white layers. The design we used was the Circa Set – Layer A, Layer B, and Layer C.

For the Circa set, we designed the circles to “telescope” into the center, slightly offsetting each circle so that when they are layered together, the shapes seem to converge to the center. Sweet!

Adding a simple shape on top completes this pretty look – here we used the Poppystamps Delicate Dogwoods die (#1444) (cut the die out in green, red and yellow cardstock, then layer together and adhere to the front of the card). The look is beautiful – and you can make a dozen of these cards in no time!

Don’t be surprised if you want to run your fingers over the card once assembled – the little reservoirs that are created in the card create touchable texture and the way each contour catches the light is breathtaking.

Who knew you could create such lovely texture with layers of simple white paper? Just add these layers to the front of a white notecard (or any of our colored notecards!).

Wondering if you can still get an interesting look with a single layer! Absolutely!

This is the Circa Layer A by itself – adding some subtle background texture to the Poppystamps butterfly dies (1378 Devyn Butterfly Trio and 1389 Emelia Butterfly Trio). The result is subtle – but still fun and it creates a nice and simple backdrop to the colorful butterflies.

You can purchase the poppystamps dies at a craft store near you or by visiting poppystamps.com – and if you are ever in the Seattle area, we suggest you try one of the cupcakes shown in the pictures from Trophy Cupcakes! You can not go wrong with Salted Caramel or Strawberry Lemonade – yummm!