Author: birch press

  • Hello Starlight Butterfly | by Crystal Komara

    Hello Starlight Butterfly | by Crystal Komara

    Hello friends! I hope your summer is going well and you are enjoying some beautiful hot and sunny days and cool ice cream summer nights! This is Design Team member Crystal Komara here today sharing a monochomatic purple and gold card using the Starlight Butterfly Layering dies.

    Card details:

    The base of this A2 sized card is made from 80 lb. Neenah Solar White smooth cardstock. I cut a 5 1/4 x 4″ piece of purple carsdtock and mounted that behind a sheet of purple gold foil paper from the Glimmering Gladiola cardstock paper pack from Memory Box Co. (Memory Box is a sister-company of Birch Press Design).

    I placed a 4″ x 3″ piece of vellum directly over the gold foil paper to “tone down” the pattern in the center of the card where I planned on adding the butterfly and sentiment.

    Using the Starlight Butterfly Layering Dies, I die cut Layer A (the top layer) from gold glitter cardstock, Layer B from a light purple cardstock and Layer C from a dark purple cardstock. I adhered all there layers together with a fine-tip liquid glue before adhering the butterfly to the card.

    Using the Hello Honey Script die, I die cut the bottom layer from dark purple cardstock and the top layer from gold glitter cardstock. I adhered the two layers together with a fine-tip liquid glue before adhering the sentiment to the card.

    I hope you have enjoyed this glittery card. Thanks for visiting and have a wonderfully creative day!

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  • ATC (Artist Trading Cards) Thank You Notes | By, Natasha Vacca

    ATC (Artist Trading Cards) Thank You Notes | By, Natasha Vacca

    Hello Birch Press friends, I am excited to be back on the blog today sharing an Artist Trading Card idea with you! Today’s project is using 3 die sets: Budding Twigs Contour Layers, Sylvan Berries and Leaves Contour Layers, and the Simple Dragonfly. Let’s get started!

    I started by die cutting all 3 sets: Budding Twigs Contour Layers, Sylvan Berries and Leaves Contour Layers, and the Simple Dragonfly onto Canson XL watercolor paper. I die cut 2 sets of the Budding Twigs. Next I used pigment powders to color each of the die cut layers. I place all the die cuts on my glass work surface, add the pigment powder to the die cuts with a fan brush, then spritz the pieces with water. I move the color around with my paintbrush. I set all the layers aside to dry.

    Once all the layers were dry, I added more texture to the layers using dye ink. I applied the ink to the edges of each layer and then adhered the layers together using liquid glue. Next I chose a background from my stash and trimmed the panel into 2 Artist Trading Cards (2.5 x 3.5).

    I then added texture to each of the ATC backgrounds using crackle paint. Once the paint dried, I added distress crayon over the crackled paint. Next I added washi tape from my stash, as well as applied distress ink and acrylic paint with a sponge. I then distressed the edges of each ATC.

    Once the background was complete, I chose a piece of coordinating cardstock from the Magnolia Plaid paper pad from Memory Box. I tore the paper and distressed the edges. Next I determined the placement for my twigs and berries and then adhered them with my tiny stapler to my torn piece of cardstock, with a piece of lace on the back. I adhered the dragonfly, as well as a thank you sentiment strip from the Foil Greeting Black Tabs set.

    I had a lot of fun creating these ATC’s today! I hope you enjoyed them! I’ll be back soon!


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  • Purple Rose | by Rosemary Dennis

    Purple Rose | by Rosemary Dennis

    Hello everyone! Rosemary here on the blog today with a card that was a bit of an experiment for me, lol! Let’s have a look at what I made.

    I started my card by going through the stack of contour layering dies I have pulled out in order to use to make cards and settled on the Dainty Rose and Leaves set. I have had this set for awhile, but I don’t think I have used it yet. I die cut all the pieces from white cardstock and then decided what ink colors I wanted to use. I don’t often use purple so I settled on that and pulled out coordinating purple inks to ink up all the layers of the rose. Two shades of green were used for the leaves. The I assembled all the pieces.

    Since I have been into adding texture the background of my cards I pulled out the Grace Layer A plate and embossed a rectangle of white cardstock I had die cut with the die. I wanted to try something a little different so I pulled out the Gilded Grace Outside Stencil set. This set of stencils was designed to coordinate with the Gilded Grace hot foil plate, but it also works with the Grace Layer A plate.

    I used a grip mat to hold the stencils and cardstock in place as I did the stenciling. I only stenciled a portion of the background as I wasn’t sure how things would turn out. I’m actually pretty pleased with the end result. The interesting and unique thing about the Grace Layering dies is that the centers of each die cut out allowing three different looks. I decided to die cut the center portion of the layer A die and layer the larger circle on top of the embossing. I adhered flower to the center of the smaller circle and popped it up in the center using thin foam squares.

    Here are the different products I used to make the card. I finished things off with a sentiment from the Crystal Lingo stamp set.

    I hope you enjoyed today’s experimental project! Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

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  • You Are Something Special | by Crystal Komara

    You Are Something Special | by Crystal Komara

    Hello readers and happy 1st of July! Welcome to summer here in New England (or wherever you might live). This is Design Team member Crystal Komara here today sharing a floral card featuring the Early Blossom Contour Layer Dies in varying shades of purple.

    I love placing colorful flowers against a black background. It really just makes the colors POP! And this card is a great example of how you can use any color palette you want to make a statement. Maybe purple isn’t your favorite color, these flowers would also look beautiful in pink, red, yellow or orange – the options are endless.

    Card details:

    The base of this A2 sized card is made from 80 lb. Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock. I cut a 5 1/4″ x 4″ piece of black cardstock and adhered it directly to the card base. I stamped the sentiment in the upper left corner using the Brush Sentiments Clear Stamp Set. I stamped the sentiment in Versamark ink and heat embossed it using white embossing powder.

    Then I set out to die cut ALL those flowers using the Early Blossom Contour Layer set. There is no rhyme or reason to my die cutting madness, I simply just keep cutting flowers from three different colors of purple cardstock and leaves from two different colors of green cardstock! Yes, sometimes it seems like I just die cut flowers for minutes at a time! I don’t count, I don’t assemble as I go. Yes, typically this leaves me with lots of “extra” pieces leftover. I often use those extra pieces to decorate the inside of my card, or I save them in a scrap pile!

    Once all the die cut flowers are glued together (in this case, the Early Blossom Contour Layer has three layers), I then arranged all the flowers and leaves on the card in a pattern that looked pleasing to the eye before finally gluing them all down to the card.

    I hope you have enjoyed today’s vibrant floral card! Thanks for visiting and have a wonderfully creative day!

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  • Bold and Bright Florals | By Natasha Vacca

    Bold and Bright Florals | By Natasha Vacca

    Hello Birch Press friends, it is design team member Natasha back on the blog today. Today I am sharing a colorful floral design with you using a few favorites from Birch Press! So let’s get started!

    I started by die cutting 3 die sets: Star Flowers Contour Layers, Rose Leaves Contour Layers, and the Peeking Flower and Leaves set. I die cut each of these sets using watercolor cardstock. Once they were die cut I added color to each of the florals and leaves using Lindy’s Magicals. I allowed each layer to dry before adding more color. I then added shine to each of the layers using gold magicals.

    I made sure each layer was completely dry, then I added more depth to each layer by adding dye ink to the edges of the leaves, as well as the floral layers. I then adhered all the layers together using liquid glue. I added foam tape behind the large leaves and then set these aside to work on my card panel background.

    I started with a piece of pattern paper from the Gladiola Plaid paper pad from Memory box. I then found 2 coordinating pieces of paper from my stash. I ripped each of these peices for a distressed look and inked the edges using Vintage Photo distress ink. I adhered the layers of pattern paper together using liquid glue and then trimmed the panel with my deckle trimmer. I inked the edges using Vintage Photo Distress ink and then adhered the panel onto a top folding card base.

    I then arranged the florals and leaves onto the card panel and once I was happy with the layout I adhered the layers using foam tape and liquid glue. I chose a Happy Birthday sentiment from the Happy Birthday Foil Greetings White Tabs set. I also inked the edge of the sentiment with Vintage Photo and then adhered this with foam tape. I had a lot of fun putting today’s card together and I hope this card inspires you to combine your die sets!

    Thank you so much for stopping by! I will be back soon with more crafty inspiration!


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  • Just a Note | by Sandhya Iyer

    Just a Note | by Sandhya Iyer

    Hello, friends! This is Design Team member, Sandhya Iyer, and today I am sharing a monochrome floral card. For this project, I used the gorgeous Cheerful Floral 3D Embossing Folder and Just a Note hot foil plate and die set.

    I started by embossing a piece of watercolor cardstock using the the Cheerful Floral 3D Embossing Folder. Next, I pulled out dye inks in shades of peachy corals and used a blending brush to gently ink up the raised portion of the embossed panel.

    Next, I ink cut out a rectangular frame from coral-colored cardstock. I inked around the edges to add more interest. Then, I adhered the frame over the embossed floral panel.

    Finally, I used the ‘just a note’ Hot Foil Plate and Die Set to create a glittery silver foiled sentiment die-cut. I inked around it in the same color and popped it over the floral panel with some foam tape. Then, I attached the panel to a white A2 card base and finished off with a few coordinating enamel dots.

    This brings us to the end of today’s post. Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you have fun crafting today!

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  • Hugs & Roses | by Rosemary Dennis

    Hugs & Roses | by Rosemary Dennis

    Hello friends! Rosemary here on the blog today with another card full of layers and texture. This time I used multiple tried and true Birch Press Design dies and one hot foil plate set for my card. Let’s have a look at what I created.

    Quite sometime ago I pulled out multiple Birch Press Design floral die sets that I had not used in awhile (or never!) to use on future cards. I went to this pile and pulled out the Rose Bunch Contour Layers die set as I had actually never used it on a project before. I then pulled out my Memory Box 6×6 cardstock pads and chose the Greenery and Blush pads to use for the flowers. Three darker shades of red and three shades of green were pulled from the pads to use for all the die cutting.

    Once I had those items selected I selected the die set I wanted to use for the foliage to go with the roses. I decided to go with the Oval Leaf Branches Contour Layers die set because of the variety of little leafy branches in the set. I used the lightest shade of green for the smaller branches and then the two darker colors for the larger branches. I die cut everything and then assembled all the various pieces.

    As I indicated I’m kind of into adding more texture to my projects and one way is with embossing. Birch Press has so many different dies that can be use for embossing on cardstock. For this card I decided to use the Wiegela Leaf Contour Layer die set. I used the main die to emboss my off white cardstock panel. I then layered on the roses and all the little branches. Layering the branches did require me to cut some of the branches apart to get the look I wanted, but that is one of the things I like about die cuts. The ability to modify them as needed!

    The embossed panel shown with the card was my first impression. It turned out okay with a little bit of cracking, but I decided to do a second one and this time I spritzed the panel with a little water before embossing it. The second one turned out perfect! Unfortunately I covered up most of the embossing, but the embossing was more there to just add another element.

    I finished off the card with a foiled sentiment from the Sugar Script Sentiments 1 hot foil plate and die set. I love the little touch of gold that it adds to the card. Well, that’s it for me. I hope you enjoyed today’s project. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

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  • Butterfly Birthday Greetings | by Sandhya Iyer

    Butterfly Birthday Greetings | by Sandhya Iyer

    Hello, friends! This is Sandhya, sharing a pair of birthday cards featuring the Eloquent Butterfly Layer Dies. I paired the gorgeous Anemone Grove foiled pattern papers and foiled greeting tabs with the butterflies to make 2 mini cards.

    I started with the gorgeous foiled pattern papers from the Anemone Grove 6X6 paper pack. I picked the dark green colored paper and trimmed it down to make smaller panels measuring 3″X5″. I then adhered the panels to white card bases making 3.5″X5.5″ cards.

    Next, I die-cut Layer A of the butterfly out of white card stock. For layer B I used a lighter layer of pink and yellow and for layer C I used a darker yellow and blush pink cardstock from the Sunrise and Blush paper packs. I assembled the butterfly layers and added a happy birthday tab to the center.

    Finally, I attached the butterflies to the card bases to complete my two birthday notecards. These were super quick and easy to put together. I hope this inspires you to get crafty today!

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  • Sending Hugs & Smiles | by Crystal Komara

    Sending Hugs & Smiles | by Crystal Komara

    Hello crafty readers! This is Design Team member Crystal Komara here today sharing a cheerful and uplifting slimline card made using the Eloquent Butterfly Layering set:

    I chose to create a slimline card because these butterflies are decent sized and I wanted to add multiples of them to this card. Because I used a black cardstock base, I also wanted lots of color from the butterflies to really stand out against the dark base.

    The base of this slimline card measures 8 1/2 ” x 3 1/2″. It fits inside a regular #10 business sized envelope.

    I hope you have enjoyed this cheerful and uplifting card! Thanks for visiting and have a wonderfully creative day!

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  • Monochromatic Hugs | by Rosemary Dennis

    Monochromatic Hugs | by Rosemary Dennis

    Hello everyone! Rosemary here today with a sweet monochromatic card that I had so much fun creating! I used lots and lots of different Birch Press Design products, as well as some products from Birch Press Design’s companion company, Memory Box. Let’s have a look at what I made.

    I recently did a little bit of organizing of my Birch Press Design products and as I went through them several items I hadn’t used in a while (or maybe I hadn’t even used them yet!) kind of popped to the forefront as items I could use to make the card for today’s post. I started with the Big Hugs Sugar Script die set and the Perky Bloom Contour Layers die set. Then I started looking through all my Memory Box cardstock pads and realized that I had not used the pad called Blush. Now that I had my starting point things really got going!

    I went with a light coral pink and a dark coral pink from the Blush pad. I die cut all the pieces from the Perky Bloom from both sheets and then alternated the colors. This resulted in two flowers. I decided to go with the one that has the light coral pink bottom layer for this card. I had a previously die cut stamen piece that I had cut from yellow cardstock. I like the little pop of yellow. I also die cut the Big Hugs from the sheets. Since I had used the light coral pink for the first layer of the flower I decided to use the dark coral pink for the shadow layer of my sentiment.

    When I layered the flower I used a combination of liquid adhesive and thin foam squares to give the various petals additional lift. Once I had the flower finished my creative juices really got flowing! I decided to die cut a piece of paper from the Memory Box Gladiola Plaid 6×6 pad to cover the front of my card base. I went with a piece that has a hint of yellow in it to tie in the yellow stamen in the flower. Then I die cut white cardstock using a Curved Cap Pinpoint Layers die. At this point I decided that I wanted to add some texture to the white panel so I looked through my background layering dies and landed on the Arista Layer B die. I love the detailing in this layer of the die set. So I embossed it using my die cutting maching. I offset the die to the right side of the panel for additional interest.

    I layered this panel on the card front using thin foam squares. I liked the look of the flower on top of the embossed image, but I wanted even more texture! So I pulled out the Fuddle Leaf Branches die set and die cut the smaller branch and layering pieces from thick vellum. The layering pieces were adhered with liquid adhesive. Then I arranged the flower and the little branches on the white embossed panel.

    At this point I thought I was finished, but nope, lol! I wanted to add one more thing! A sweet little vellum dragonfly! I used the smaller dragonfly from the Simple Dragonfly Contour Layers die set and cut all the pieces from the heavy weight vellum I used for the little leafy branches. A tiny coral jewel was added to the body for the final touch!

    I absolutely love how this card turned out. I started with a simple idea and just let my creativity go! It is so fun to do that and something I need to do more often. I hope you enjoyed today’s card. Thanks for stopping by!

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