Category: Craft Dies

  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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!

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  • 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.

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  • 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!


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  • 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!

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  • 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.

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  • Vintage Hugs | by Allison Frazier

    Vintage Hugs | by Allison Frazier

    Hello, Birch Press friends. I am excited to be back on the blog today sharing this bold card featuring some new products! There are some great new word dies that just came out, and I chose one of my favorite sentiments of all time – hugs.

    I really was in the mood for a different and bold color palette, and the new Glimmering Gladiola paper pack from Memory Box was just what I needed as a jumping-off point. I chose some purple paper with a gold foil leaf design as my background. I took some darker purple ink and blended that around the edges of the panel before glueing it onto an A2 card base.

    Next, I used the new Sunrise Cardstock pack to pick four different colors of orange/yellow to create the layers for the Perky Bloom. This flower is so easy to assemble, and I love it in these colors! Instead of choosing large leaves to complement the flower, I chose some smaller leaves from the Tiny Tuft Flowers and Leaves die set. I cut these out of purple card stock and adhered them to the card base underneath the flower.

    The Big Hugs Vintage Sentiment is fun because you can assemble it in different ways. For my card today, I used the base layer die to cut purple card stock. I then took that base layer and die cut it with the detail layer die in order to create the purple outline. Finally, I glued that outline onto a white base layer. I stamped the subsentiment “sending” with VersaMark ink onto purple cardstock and then heat embossed it with white embossing powder. I splattered the card with white paint before adhering both of the sentiments with liquid glue.

    To finish the card, I added some purple and orange fairy jewels around the design. I hope this card brings a smile to your face! Thank you so much for joining us today.


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