Author: birch press

  • H-E-L-L-O | by Crystal Komara

    H-E-L-L-O | by Crystal Komara

    H-e-l-l-o readers and happy June! This card will welcome you to summer many times over in an array of rainbow colors! This is DT member Crystal Komara here with you today sharing this fun clean and simple (CAS) card using the Jumbo Lingo Hello die and two single white curved leaf branches.

    Card details:

    The base of this A2 sized card is made from 80 lb. Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock. Using the Jumbo Lingo Hello die, I die cut the sentiment many times from a variety of cardstock colors. To keep it simple, I die cut all the shadow bases from color cardstock and the thinner top layer all from white cardstock. I then arranged the “hello’s” in a pattern that seemed pleasing to my eye, while also not accidentally spelling out a bad word!

    Using the Contempto Greetings Stamp set, I stamped the hello circle in Versamark ink on black cardstock and then heat embossed it using white embossing powder. I used the coordinating die to die cut the sentient out. I adhered the sentiment to the center of the card using 3M foam adhesive to pop it up. I then die cut two white leaves using the Curved Leaf Branch and tucked them underneath the sentiment. Easy and colorful!

    I like how this card turned out, it’s fun for summer with those rainbow colors and what a cheerful way to greet anyone. Thanks for visiting and have a wonderfully creative day!

    Supplies

    57229 Big Lingo Type Hello

    57513 Curved Leaf Branch Contour Layers

    8160 Contempo Greetings clear stamp and die set

  • Thank You Card and ATC Duo | By Sandhya Iyer

    Thank You Card and ATC Duo | By Sandhya Iyer

    Hello, friends! This is Design Team member Sandhya Iyer and I am sharing a thank you card and Artist Trading Card (ATC) duo. For my focal point, I chose the Rose Leaves Contour Layers die set. I used the Thank You Foil Greetings black circle tabs for the sentiment.

    I started by die-cutting the Rose Leaves Contour Layers out of watercolor cardstock. Next, I pulled out Distress Oxide inks in varying shades of green and used a blending brush to ink the leafy layers. For the delicate and more detailed pieces, I leave them attached to the area around them after die-cutting and ink them before popping them out.

    Next, I smooshed some green and pink ink on my craft mat and inked a watercolor panel. I layered on Antique Linen Distress ink over that for a vintage look. Then I added more interest and texture to the background using pages from an old book, washi tape, and snow gauze.

    I adhered the larger leaf to the panel and added the thank you sentiment tab. Then I added a generous splatter of black ink. Finally, I added a black mat to the panel and attached it to a kraft card base.

    I repeated the same process with tiny variations to create my ATC. Instead of the watercolor panel, I picked a small tag from my stash and inked it with Distress ink.

    As this is a mini tag, I added some twine for added interest and assembled the focal cluster with the mixed media tag, the inked die-cut leaves, and the sentiment tab.

    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!

    Supplies:

    57522 Rose Leaves Contour Layers
    ST009 Thank You Foil Greetings Black Circle Tabs
  • Delicate Hello | by Rosemary Dennis

    Delicate Hello | by Rosemary Dennis

    Hello everyone! Rosemary here on the blog today. Can you believe that May is almost over? I can’t! Time is going by too fast. Today I’m sharing a card that I created by combining two contour die sets to get more mileage out of them. Let’s have a look at what I made.

    I have wanted to use the Birch Press Design Crystal Lingo stamp set for along time. The large image in the stamp set is a fun one and great for creating backgrounds. So one day I got out some pens I have that have liquid watercolors in them and created a ton of background. I started by embossing the crystal image on watercolor cardstock with white embossing powder and then coloring them with one color per image. Now I have multiple background that I can create with. As I was thinking about the card I wanted to make I decided to use two of the panels I created. I chose panels in a sort of coral pink and one in light yellow.

    Above are the two panels I used after I cut the pink one in half and die cut a piece from the light yellow one.

    Now it was time to decide on what dies to use. I knew I was going to use the small Vintage Hello Sentiment die set so I needed to keep the dies I used more on the delicate side. I went with the Phlox Blooms and Leaves Contour Layers and the Hillside Branch and Bramble Contour Layers die sets. The smaller flower in the Phlox Blooms set was perfect to add to the Hillside Branch die where the little berries are supposed to go. To color the flowers and branches I used the same watercolor pens that I used to create the backgrounds. The pinks on the flowers turned out darker than the background strip, but I think that is okay.

    I die cut all the pieces out of watercolor cardstock and colored them with the pens. Once they were dry I assembled them using liquid adhesive.

    Here is a close up of all the flowers after I assembled them and then arranged everthing on my card front. I had a little scrap of the pink background left over so I decided to die cut the bottom layer of the Hello Vintage Sentiment from that scrap and the top layer from white cardstock. They were together with liquid adhesive and adhered to the card front with a combination of liquid adhesive and small foam squares to finish off my card.

    I really like how my floral branch turned out and glad that I decided to try combining these two die sets. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day.

    Supplies

    57507 Phlox Blooms and Leaves Contour Layers

    57550 Hello Vintage Sentiment

    57524 Hillside Branch and Bramble Contour Layers

    cl8155 Crystal Lingo clear stamp set

  • Happy Birthday Vintage Sentiments with Florals |By, Natasha Vacca

    Happy Birthday Vintage Sentiments with Florals |By, Natasha Vacca

    Hello Crafty friends, it is Design Team Member Natasha Vacca here today. Today I am sharing the beautiful new Happy Birthday Vintage Sentiment die set. I paired this with the beautiful Anemone Bunches 3D embossing folder from Memory Box. So let’s get started!

    I started by creating the floral card panel using the beautiful Anemone Bunches 3D embossing folder. I ran the folder with a piece of Hammermill cardstock through my die cutting machine. Once the paper was dry embossed I started to ink the floral background card panel. I used a combination of Distress Oxide Inks, as well as some Dye Inks to color the florals, leaves, as well as the background.

    I continued to color the dry embossed background, until I had the colors and texture I was looking for. Once the background was complete, I trimmed the panel using my deckle trimmer. I then added more distressing using my distress tool and then inked the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

    Next I added splatters to the card panel using gouache from my stash. Once the splatters were dry, I adhered the panel to a top folding card base. Next I die the the sentiment – Happy Birthday Vintage Sentiment. I die cut the shadow layer using white cardstock. I then inked the shadow layer using Distress Oxide Ink. Next I die cut the Happy Birthday sentiment 3 times using a green cardstock from my stash. Before I die cut the 3rd layer, I heat embossed the panel, then die cut the sentiment from the embossed panel. I then adhered the letters together from the Happy Birthday sentiment and added the sentiment to my card front.

    I had a lot of fun creating today’s card and I hope you enjoyed it! I will be back soon!


    Supplies


    57551 Happy Birthday Vintage Sentiment

    Supplies


    ef1042 Anemone Bunches 3D Embossing Folder and Cutting Dies
  • You are the Best | by Sandhya Iyer

    You are the Best | by Sandhya Iyer

    Hello, friends! This is Design Team member, Sandhya Iyer, and today I am sharing a floral card featuring the gorgeous Rose Bunch Contour Layers and the Sugar Script Sentiments 2 Hot Foil Plate and Die Sets. Oh! And I did grab the Dainty Rose and Leaves Contour Layers set to create my greens.

    I started by die-cutting the rose bunch contour layers out of watercolor cardstock. Next, I pulled out Distress Oxide inks in varying shades of pink and used a blending brush to ink up the rose layers. For the delicate and more detailed pieces, I leave them attached to the area around them after die-cutting and ink them before popping them out.

    I repeated the same process to create three sets of inked leaves from the Dainty Rose and Leaves Contour Layers. I arranged them to my liking and adhered them down to a small panel cut out of watercolor cardstock.

    Finally, I used the ‘you are the BEST’ sentiment from the Sugar Script Sentiments 2 Hot Foil Plate and Die Set to create a gold foiled sentiment die-cut. I 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 gold embellishments.

    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!

    Supplies:

    BPF505 Sugar Script Sentiments 2 Hot Foil Plate and Die Sets
    57495 Rose Bunch Contour Layers
    57499 Dainty Rose and Leaves Contour Layers

  • Bold Hello | by Rosemary Dennis

    Bold Hello | by Rosemary Dennis

    Hey there! Rosemary here on the blog today and I’m sharing a card that took me way out of my comfort zone! My card uses the “blackout” technique that I have been seeing on blogs and Instagram. Full disclosure it took me quite a few times to get a panel I was happy with, but it was fun trying out this new technique.

    For this technique you start out with a panel of white (or some other light color) that you emboss with a 3d embossing folder. For my card I used the beautiful Open Studio/Memory Box Gracious Floral embossing folder. After much trial and error I settled on using white distress heavy stock cardstock. After trimming down my panel to A2 size I misted it with water, placed it in the embossing folder and then ran it through my diecutting machine. I let my panel dry thoroughly before moving on to the next step.

    For the second step in the process you apply to the debossed (or backside) of your embossed piece. As you can see I used distress inks and detail blender brushes to apply the ink. With this technique you can get fairly messy with the application of your inks because in the next step you will be engaging in what to me was the scarry part, lol!

    The scarry part is applying the black ink (the reason it is called the “blackout” technique)! I learned through trial and error, again, that you have to apply the ink with a firm swiping motion on the cardstock. If you are too timid with the application of the ink you run the risk of getting alot of black ink in places you don’t want it. Now as you can see from the photos the ink does get left in certain areas, but that is because parts of the embossed image are not as deeply embossed as others. I hope that makes sense.

    There were still spots where I did not get full coverage and for those areas I used a small black ink cube and used a corner of the cube to apply the ink. Using the corner allows you to get into those small areas without getting more ink on your image. To finish off the card I used the new Big Hello Vintage Sentiment die set and a sentiment from the Crystal Lingo stamp set. I die cut the bottom layer of the Big Hello Vintage sentiment from heavy weight vellum and the top from Memory Box glossy black cardstock. I used liquid adhesive was used to adhere the pieces together and to the front of the panel. I heat embossed the sentiment in black on vellum, die cut it and adhered it with rolled up medium sized glue dots.

    Overall, I’m pretty happy with how my blackout panel turned out. It got me out of my comfort zone and trying something new. Was it perfect? No, but that is okay because this is a handmade card after all! Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

    Supplies

    57549 Big Hello Vintage Sentiment

    8155 Crystal Lingo clear stamp and die set

    EF1026 Gracious Floral 3D Embossing Folder and Die

  • Happy Birthday Bloom | by Crystal Komara

    Happy Birthday Bloom | by Crystal Komara

    Hello crafty readers! This is Design Team member Crystal Komara on the blog today sharing one of my most recent card creations using the Perky Bloom Contour Layer. This bold and oversized flower has quickly become one of my favorite contour layering dies from Birch Press Design this release.

    Card details:

    The base of this A2 sized card is made from 80 lb. Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock. I dry embossed a 5 1/4″ x 4″ sheet of black cardstock using the Blooming 3D embossing folder from Memory Box Company (a sister company of Birch Press Design). This is one of my favorite embossing folders. I adhered the black embossed cardstock directly to the card base.

    To create the flower, I used light pink, dark pink and yellow cardstock. I die cut the Perky Bloom Contour Layer multiple times from each of these colors of cardstock and then kept layering them to see which color combination I liked best. The good news was I die cut so many colors that I have plenty of other pieces leftover to make more cards! When I was satisfied with the flower, I adhered the flower to the card using 3M foam adhesive for added dimension.

    For the leaves, I used the Wiegala Leaf Contour Layers. I die cut the leaves from two different shades of green cardstock and layered the two together using a fine-tip liquid glue. Lastly I heat foiled the sentiment using the Sugar Script Sentiments 2. I used the ‘happy birthday” sentiment from this set. I heat foiled white cardstock in gold foil. Then I used the coordinating die cut to cut the sentiment out. I adhered the sentiment to the card and then added a couple clear rhinestones to resemble watery dew drops.

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

    Supplies

    57531 Perky Bloom Contour Layers

    57513 Curved Leaf Branch Contour Layers

    57515 Wiegela Leaf Contour Layers

  • Let’s Create ATC’s |By, Natasha Vacca

    Let’s Create ATC’s |By, Natasha Vacca

    Hello Birch Press Friends, it is Design Team member Natasha here today! Today I am sharing ATC’s – Artist Trading Cards! I had a lot of fun creating these, so let’s get started!

    For today’s project I started by creating the background for my ATC’s using the Anenome Bunches Embossing Folder. I used the folder on my gelli plate to create the background. The background was created using acrylic paint and a dry embossed panel using the embossing folder. I just love the texture this provides and it gives you another idea and way to use your folders!

    I trimmed down the panel I created into 2 ATC size pieces. Next I took a piece of scrap paper I had saved from the Magnolia Grove Paper pad. I used my fingers to tear the paper. I love the distressed look this gives! I then adhered this to my ATC panel and added splatters to the background using black and gold ink. I then inked the edges of each panel with a dye ink. I then set these aside.

    Next I started to work on my flowers using the Prime Peony Duo Contour Layers die. I die cut the flowers and stems using the Greenery and Blush Paper Pads from Memory Box. Once these were die cut I used dye inks in my stash to add more depth to each die cut. On the center of the flower I heat embossed this piece using gold embossing powder. Once everything was inked, I adhered all the layers together using liquid glue. I completed the ATC’s with Birthday Sentiments from the Happy Birthday Foil Greetings Black Tabs set. I love these foiled sentiment strips!

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


    Supplies


    57504 Prime Peony Duo Contour Layers

    Supplies


    st007 Happy Birthday Foil Greetings Black Tabs
    pp1022 Magnolia Grove 6×6 pack
    sp1012 Blush 6×6 pack
    sp1011 Leafy 6×6 pack
  • Eloquent Alcohol Ink Butterflies | by Crystal Komara

    Eloquent Alcohol Ink Butterflies | by Crystal Komara

    Hello Birch Press Design readers! This is DT Member Crystal Komara here today and I’m so excited at how today’s card turned out. I’m going to kind of toot my own horn here, for just a second, but it currently is my absolute favorite card! I know, I know, this changes over time and with each new card that I make, but for today, I’m gonna let this card have its moment and shine as my “favorite!”

    I have long used alcohol inks in my card making. I think they make for beautiful background and accent pieces. If you’d like to see more examples, please click on any of the following descriptive links:

    ~Alcohol Ink Leaves

    ~ Alcohol Ink Easter Eggs

    ~Alcohol Ink Birthday Balloons

    ~Alcohol Inks Hearts and Butterflies

    ~Alcohol Ink String Art

    When I have the time, I sit down and make a ton of alcohol ink art pieces, I’m talking like anywhere between 50-100 pieces at a time and then I put them in a bin and tuck them away. When I need to make a “quick card,” I simply pull from the pre-made bin and finish my card. Many of the alcohol ink backgrounds I create often feature rainbow colors, similar to today’s.

    Card details:

    The base of this A2 sized card is made from 80 lb. Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock. I then cut one of the pre-made alcohol ink pieces down to 5 1/4″ x 4″ and adhered it directly to the card base. Next I created two butterflies using the Eloquent Butterfly Layering set. The first butterfly was made from pink cardstock and the second butterfly was made from orange/peach cardstock. For both of the butterflies, I die cut Layer A (the top layer) from white cardstock. I adhered the butterflies to the card using 3M foam adhesive for added dimension. Lastly I added a couple clear rhinestones on the body of the butterfly for even more sparkle.

    I hope you will enjoy this card as much as I do! Now excuse me while I go make twenty more of this one to send to friends!! Thanks for visiting and have a wonderfully creative day.

    Supplies

    57426 Eloquent Butterfly Layer Set

  • Gladiolus Greetings | By Sandhya Iyer

    Gladiolus Greetings | By Sandhya Iyer

    Hello, friends! Design Team member, Sandhya here with a fresh pair of cards to share. The gorgeous new Vintage Sentiment dies pair beautifully with the foiled pattern papers. I chose to pair the two and added some vellum foliage for added dimension.

    I started with the gorgeous foiled pattern papers from the Glimmering Gladiola 6X6 paper pack. I picked the peach and purple colored papers and trimmed them down to make smaller panels. Next, I cut out mats for these panels with coordinating cardstock from my stash. I die-cut the Vintage sentiment words out of the center area of these panels before attaching the pattern paper to them.

    Then I went on to die cut the shadow layer for the sentiment dies out of white cardstock and assembled the sentiments. I used plenty of foam tape to attach the matted panels to white card bases. Before attaching the sentiment, I decided to add more dimension and movement. So I die cut some vellum leaves using the Lush Leaves Contour Layers Die set and the Oval Leaf Branches Die set.

    Finally, I attached the foliage and sentiment die-cuts to the cards and finished off with a few clear drop embellishments.

    Supplies:

    57547 Big Hugs Vintage Sentiment
    57549 Big Hello Vintage Sentiment
    57525 Oval Leaf Branches Contour Layers
    57521 Lush Leaves Contour Layers
    PP1028 Glimmering Gladiola 6×6 pack