Category: Craft Dies

  • Stackable Die Cut Hearts | by Tracey McNeely

    Stackable Die Cut Hearts | by Tracey McNeely

    Happy New Year! Today we shift away from cards for Christmas and right into cards for sweethearts! Tracey here today to share a fun way to maximize your use of your Stackable Craft Dies. We usually use our Stackable Dies to cut full panels and adhere then to our card base. For this tutorial I am using the die cut pieces and not the full panel cuts to make three unique cards. I used Distress Oxide inks to add colour to three 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ white Bristol Smooth panels and with those pieces I was able to cut one with each of the three Amour Stackable dies. I prepared a video for you today showing you how I applied the ink first, flicked clean water on to each panel and absorbed the excess with paper towel. Then I cut the panels and used those pieces to create three cards.

    Each die produced different sizes hearts. I separated the hearts into piles–small, medium and large. I use the same design for each card but chose different coloured hearts for each. I even had enough hearts left over that I could still create a few more cards. I put them into a small resealable bag so they are handy when I am ready to use them.
    I used a sentiments from the Love and Miss You clear stamp set.

    I added a tiny piece of foam tape behind the tiniest heart on all three cards.

    I adhered the panels to a top folding card base using more foam tape. Here is a close up of the hearts.

    With hearts you can make cards for so many occasions all year long.

    I hope that I inspired you to make something from the heart today. Come back next Tuesday for more creative inspiration.

    Supplies

     

  • Winter Thanks | by Jeanne Jachna

    Winter Thanks | by Jeanne Jachna


    I hope you’re having a great day!  I’m sharing a winter thanks card because I’m thinking you’ve been very nice and will receive lots of nice things this holiday season!

    I trimmed a piece of Bubblegum Gingham card stock , and a piece of craft foam to fit the cover of my A2 size card.  Next I cut both panels with the Glitz Snowflake Layer C.  Next I stamped a Thank You Sentiment from the Just Because stamp set on the gingham panel and added a clear piece of acetate to the back of the gingham panel.

    I trimmed the outside edges of the foam panel to make it a bit smaller than my card base so it doesn’t peek out from under the gingham panel.  I added sequins from the My Valentine tin (you need to check all the wonderful varieties in the store!).    I adhered the Glitz Snowflake layers A, B and C inside the die cut window.  Remember the acetate backing keeps everything neatly inside.  Next adhere the gingham panel over the foam panel.

    It’s easy to change the look of this card by switching out the colors.  I chose pink for a soft feminine look but I think this would look great in just about any color  The fancy layered die cut steals the show and makes this look rich and expensive.

    Switching up the sentiment for a winter birthday or “just because” is easy too.  There are several sentiment stamp sets with this beautiful font script available in the store.

    Imagine the different color combinations you could make with this stunning die set!

    Wishing you all the best this holiday season and always!

    Supplies

     

  • House Warming Gift Tag | by Jennifer Svare

    House Warming Gift Tag | by Jennifer Svare

    Hello!

    The holidays are a great time to celebrate a new home by giving housewarming gifts to friends and even new neighbors that haven’t been welcomed yet!  These would even make a great gift for real estate agents, as they give a lot of housewarming gifts throughout the year.

    The Home Sweet Home die by Birchpress Design makes the perfect housewarming gift tag or card.  The versatility of this die is well thought-out, and it allows all the elements to be customized to any colors or patterns such as the gingham I used for the curtains.  I also love the embossing on the roof and door.

    The beautiful Sage Metallic Ribbon was used to tie the tag onto a pottery gift, but this would be great on a gift bag too. If making this into a card, the size perfectly fits a gift card.  The pool gingham and sage ribbon were not a perfect match by themselves, but when attached to the pottery gift with both colors it was a perfect match.

    Extra window inserts were cut to make flower boxes for the windows, filled with Nuvo Crystal Drop flowers and greenery.

    The Pool Gingham Paper was used for the window curtains, and added an extra homey feel to the tag!

    On the backside of the tag (or inside of the card), the Hooray for Everything stamp set shared the perfect sentiment for this housewarming gift.

    Check out the video for more information and details!


    Supplies

     

  • Inlaid Holiday Cards | by Tracey McNeely

    Inlaid Holiday Cards | by Tracey McNeely


    It is always exciting when we find ways to stretch the use of our products. Birch Press Design craft dies make beautiful cards with just one die and if you add the other layers to it your results are even more fabulous! Now if you add the inlay technique to your design it kicks it up even another notch and your results are extraordinary.

    Today I am going to show you how you can use the fabulous Shimmer Snowflake Stackable frames to create two one layer cards by using the inverse die cuts to create the second card. All the pieces that are die cut are used up between the two cards.

    For my cards I chose to use the Shimmer Snowflake Stackable frame B. A good mid-range size of snowflake. I cut one from red cardstock and one from silver shimmer cardstock keeping both the positive and negative pieces together from the inlaid technique.

    I like to use spray adhesive when I am doing an inlaid die cut technique. I lightly spray the card base, then adhere the frame and then inlay the pieces from the alternate colour one card at time. It takes some time to inlay the pieces into the frame but the process is relaxing and the results are stunning! The amazing stitching detail from the die is accentuated even more with the shimmery paper and the inlaid pieces.

    The second card came together much quicker than the first. Both cards are the same but look so different.

    You could use this die is so many different colour combinations . You could even use the other layers if you wanted to add dimension.
    I hope I inspired you to give this technique a try. Hope to see you again next week here on the Birch Press Design blog.

  • Serene Holiday Cards By Laurie Schmidlin

    Serene Holiday Cards By Laurie Schmidlin

     

     

    Hi there!  It’s hard to believe that November is almost over!  I try my best to have all of my Holiday cards finished by the first week of December.  I like the idea of mass producing cards but usually end up with four or five designs to keep things interesting.  🙂

     

    Today, I’m sharing one of those card designs with you.  The great thing about this card is that it is easy to personalize them by just switching up the accent color!

     

     

    When I first saw the Simple Church die I thought of the couple of Christmas holidays that we spent in Europe with our extended family.  I wanted to create a card to send to send to them that embodied the peaceful holidays that we spent together.

     

     

    I started by die cutting three layers (two white and one metallic) using the Shimmer Snowflake Frame Layer die set.  I alternated between a metallic gold and metallic silver accent color.  This design would also work well with other colors, such as red or blue.

     

     

    I then die cut the church using mostly white cardstock with just a few metallic accents.  This die set comes wired together and can easily be separated if you wish.  I found it handy to keep them together, but that is just a personal preference.

     

     

    I purposefully did not add a sentiment to the outside of my card.  I just really liked the simplicity of the mostly white design and thought that the sentiment could easily be added to the inside.

     

     

    My favorite thing about this particular die set is the incredible details!  There are separate cut lines for the window outlines so that you can add an accent color if you wish.  I also really love the detail on the roof pieces!

     

     

    I’m so glad that you joined me here today!
    ~Laurie

     

     

    Supplies

     

     

  • Birthday BalloonsBy Jeanne Jachna

    Birthday Balloons
    By Jeanne Jachna


    Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you’re having a great day!  Today I’m sharing a birthday card made with the Party Balloon die set! This set includes six nested dies – detached and deburred on a magnetic sheet.   The balloons each have a beautiful stitched detail along the outer edges and come in a variety of sizes.

    Balloons always make me smile and they’re perfect for any celebration!  I cut mine in a rainbow of colors!  Did you notice that where they overlap the colors change?  This is an easy technique to try!  I started by cutting balloons in the three primary colors (red, yellow, and blue).  Where they overlap I will cut the dies in secondary colors.

    I layered a yellow balloon over a large red balloon.    Where they overlap I want the color to be orange so I  cut a second smaller balloon from orange.

    Lay the orange balloon over the yellow balloon.  Next place the die for the red balloon over the red balloon and secure the die with tape over the orange balloon.  Pick up the die and die cut the orange balloon.

    Adhere the orange die cut piece over the yellow balloon.

    I topped the balloons with a simple sentiment – the Calligraphy Pop Happy Birthday Die.  I cut the sentiment from green card stock so it would stand out from the colorful balloons.

    I die cut the bit of purple balloon the same way I did the orange.

    The finishing touch was a sprinkle of gold sequins in different shapes and sizes.  If you love sequins you need to check out all the new mixes in the store!  You can see them all here!

    All the bright colors and sparkly sequins are a party inside an envelope!

    Finished Size 4.25 x  5.5″

    Supplies

     

  • Gingham Trifold Card with Matching Envelope | by Jennifer Svare

    Gingham Trifold Card with Matching Envelope | by Jennifer Svare

     

     

    Hello!  This fun tri-fold card uses the Shimmer Snowflake Frame set’s multiple layers to create a snowflake overlay with the top layer. This card was very hard to photograph, so the video below is a must-see of this card in action!

    Because this is a tri-fold card, the inner message space will not be seen when the card is on display. The Latte gingham paper matched the Kraft, and made the perfect background for that message space.

    To bring everything together, I made a custom envelope with the gingham paper.  I love how there is a beautiful, creamy white on the backside so that envelopes can easily be made using the reverse!  Using the B layer of the set, I trimmed off all but the frame and one snowflake for the perfect envelope frame.

    Thank you for stopping by, and here is a video of this card that shows a fun variation!

  • Snowflake Glitz  | by Tracey McNeely

    Snowflake Glitz | by Tracey McNeely


    Good morning, Tracey here for some Birch Press inspiration. Birch Press Design is sponsoring The 25 days of Christmas Tags event on my personal blog once again this year.

    The Glitz Snowflake die set it’s a gorgeous set that requires minimal effort to create gorgeous tags, embellishments and even Christmas ornaments.You can create gorgeous unique snowflakes with only a couple different colours of card stock. When you change the order of how you adhere Layers A, B and C together you get a completely different result. For my examples today I have chosen two colours of card stock and piece one glitter paper. For the first two snowflakes I have cut Layer B from the glitter paper.


    For the next two snowflakes I cut Layer C from the glitter paper. See how the snowflakes are completely different once again.


    To finish the tags off I tied a piece of silver cord to the top of the Snowflake so that it could become a gift tag, a package embellishment or an ornament to put on the Christmas tree. Packaged together they would make a lovely hostess gift for the holidays. Head over to the In My Creative Opinion blog to see the post for day 7 of the 25 days of Christmas Tags event and your chance to win a prize from Birch Press.

    Thanks for joining me today and come back again next Tuesday for more creative inspiration.

  • Alcohol Ink Bird | By Jeanne Jachna

    Alcohol Ink Bird | By Jeanne Jachna


    Maybe Jennifer McGuire made you do it too?  She’s inspired lots of people to get out their alcohol inks and start blending!   You can see her original tutorial here. I too hadn’t given much thought to my alcohol inks lately.  It’s really addictive once you start playing.  All you need is some glossy or YUPO paper and alcohol inks. You can use any brand of alcohol inks – maybe you have some marker refill’s handy.

    I wet my YUPO paper with alcohol ink before adding the drops of color to give me more play time and to soften the colors.  Alcohol ink dries very quickly!  The backgrounds are bold and beautiful, but a few things you might want to keep in mind…  work in a well ventilated area.  The smell from the rubbing alcohol is quite strong.  You’ll also want to be careful to not get the ink on your clothing – it will stain.  I worked on a glass craft mat.  This made clean up really easy.  The ink left on the mat is easy to remove with a cotton ball and rubbing alcohol.

    For this clean graphic design I die cut the morning bird from watercolor paper and used the negative cut.  I saved the actual bird die cut for a second project.  The added thickness of the watercolor paper adds rich texture and an expensive heavy weight feel to the card.  You can die cut the cover of your card panel and adhere the blended backdrop to the inside cover of your card so it shows through the open die cut window.

    The sentiment from the Just Because Clear Stamp Set was stamped with Versafine Onyx Black Ink.  I used a stamping tool to double stamp the sentiment.  The watercolor paper is uneven and I wanted to be sure it was stamped clearly.   I added a few gold sequins from the Not So Heavy Metal mix for some sparkle and shine.  There’s lots of new sequins in the store!  You can find them here!


    You”ll love the beautiful backgrounds you can make with alcohol inks!

     

    Supplies

     

  • Caramel Apple a Day | by Jennifer Svare

    Caramel Apple a Day | by Jennifer Svare

    Happy Harvest! These caramel apples were inspired by my visit to a nearby home boutique. I was reminded that it is “caramel apple season,” and I could not resist making these using the Apple a Day die set!

    The Maxwell Layer A die is so versatile, and was used to create the base of the card.

    There are three varieties here: Green apple with chocolate over caramel, classic red caramel apple, and a fun zombie caramel apple.

    Because there are three sizes of dies in the set, there are a lot of different variations that could be made.  I used the mid-sized apple which fit perfectly inside the frame.  Embossing added some texture to the frame, as well.

    The video below shows how I made each design ~ they are simple to make in a large batch, so everyone on the list can receive one! (The cards themselves are so fast; it’s the drying time that takes the most time.)

    I hope you enjoy the video, and also caramel apple season!  Have a great day!