Category: Craft Dies

If you love to craft and you’re a coffee fan then you are in the right place!  Birch Press Design is a Super Sponsor for the Fall Coffee Lover’s Blog Hop!  It’s a way to celebrate two of your favorite things.. crafting and coffee!

You can get all the details here on Amy Tsuruta’s blog  Coffee Loving Cardmakers where you can get all the details on how to link up your own card!  Amy has lots of fabulous prizes to give away including a $20 gift certificate to the Birch Press Design Store!  To sweeten the deal we’re giving away  a second $20 gift certificate here on our blog!    I couldn’t pass up on all the fun so I made a card of my own with some wonderful craft supplies from the shop! 

I  started with a background of lace using the Fiori Cover Plate Layer A.    I wanted to add a bit of color but not have it take over the design.  I didn’t want the blue gold rimmed coffee cup to disappear into a blue background.

I inked up the top portion of the die cut with Tumbled Glass Distress ink.  Next I splattered it with water, and then some Broken China.   For the finishing touch I added a splash of white ink.

I added some Watercolor Wildflowers to keep the card feminine and to add some fall color at the same time.  The triple stamp flowers are stunning and look lovely in any color combination!

We’ve added lots of die cut words to the store including this Calligraphy Pop Thank You.  The “Morning Cup” is from Poppystamps (our sister company).   I thought a fun swirl of rhinestones would make for some amazing steam coming off that cup! 
Want a chance to win a $20 gift certificate to the store?  Just leave me a comment!  Let me know what’s your favorite way to start the day!   One random comment selected through Random Number Generator will be selected as the winner.  You have until 12 am US EST on September 25 to leave a comment and I’ll post the winner on September 26!

Finished Size 4.25 x 5.5″

      

 

Have you seen all of the new items in the store?  So many brand new beautiful stamps and dies!  When I first saw the Glitz Snowflake set, my heart actually skipped a beat!  I have long been a fan of Birch Press Design snowflakes, but these are the prettiest ones yet!  And in true Birch Press Design style, there are three different layers, making them even  more versatile and fun to create with.

I like to get a head start on my Christmas card each year, so I really appreciate having new holiday themed items already in the store!

I decided to create a note card without a sentiment so that it could be sued for either a Christmas card or a holiday thank you!

I started by sponging on some Distress Oxide inks to a white square background.

I then lightly spritzed it with water.  The ink is very reactive with water so it creates a fun splatter look.

I then die cut the Glitz Snowflake Layer C out of my inked background.  I also die cut the Glitz Snowflake Layer A out of white cardstock.

I covered the white snowflake with a fine prisma glitter.  I have found the easiest way to do this is to spray the die cut with spray adhesive and then sprinkle on the glitter.  This ensures a full glitter coverage.

I then layered the snowflakes together by adding liquid glue to just the center parts of the snowflakes.

I tucked in the die cut snowflakes back into the sponged background.  I added dimensional foam to the back and mounted it to a white card base.

What about you?  Do you like to start creating your holiday cards early?

Thanks for joining me here today!

 

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Happy Tuesday!  Today I’m sharing how I like to add sentiments to intricate or busy backgrounds.

By clustering images around the sentiment, it helps to draw the eye making the sentiment stand out more.  Here, I embossed the flowers and sprig from the Time to Celebrate stamp set onto colored cardstock and die cut them out using the coordinating Time to Celebrate die set.

To create my card, I gathered the supplies I would be needing.   I usually do all of my stamping and die cutting in advance, making it much easier to assemble my card.

Another trick that helps smaller sentiments to stand out is to add contrasting strips of cardstock.  Here, I adhered some Gold Scallop Foil Tape to a piece of white cardstock.  That little bit of gold can really add a lot to a card!  Also, by embossing the sentiment (I used one of the sentiments from the new Time to Celebrate stamp set) on a darker strip of cardstock, it creates contrast and draws the eye immediately.

The Fiori Plate C is still one of my all time favorite backgorunds.  The pattern is absolutely lovely and the stitching adds so much detail.   With the clustered flowers and contrasting sentiment strips, I’ve created a focal image that not only draws the eye but also compliments the detailed background.

Thanks so much for joining me here today!

Time for some more Tuesday inspiration using Birch Press Design’s craft dies and stamps.

Today I am showing you another way to add colour using the Birch Press Design Stackable layer craft dies. I am using Peony Blooms Layer A, Peony Blooms Layer B and Peony Blooms Layer C along with Ranger Distress Oxide inks. I have put together a video tutorial for you.

After I sponged my three panels with Distress Oxide inks I spritzed water on them so the Oxides could work their magic. These are the three panels I sponged cut out with the Peony Blooms Stackable Layer dies. In order from left to right Layer A, B and C.

Once adhered together I prepared the cad base. Once again using Distess Oxide ink to sponge the background and spritzed it with water and lifted the excess with paper towel.  All layers were adhered together with Elmer’s Craft Bond Spray Adhesive (see previous tutorial done by designer, Laurie Schmidlin). I sponged some more Distress Oxide ink on to my base panel and also spritzed it with some clean water.

The die cut layers were adhered to the front of the card base. I added my sentiment stamped and die cut from the Make a Statement Make a Statement clear stamps and Make a Statement craft dies.

These close up photos really show how much depth and dimension can be achieved with these dies and just a few gradient changes in colour.

Perfect for a summer birthday.

With the Stackable craft dies the possibilities are endless. I hope I inspired you today to make something beautiful.

Thanks for stopping by!  Every Tuesday we feature items from the craft section of the store!  Today I made a shaker card inspired by a beautiful Summer day!

I started by cutting the Fiori Plate layer C from pink card stock, and layer B from white card stock. I adhered the two layers together and placed a large acrylic block over them to keep pressure over them as the glue dried.    The cover plates are sized perfectly for an A2 card (4.25 x 5.5″) Next to make the shaker…

I placed two ovals from the Memory Box Open Studio Stitched Oval Layers inside each other and cut them in my die cut machine to create a frame.  Using the larger oval die I cut a piece of acetate and adhered on the reverse of the frame.  Next I added adhesive foam tape to the reverse side of the frame.  I usually leave  an opening in the adhesive foam tape at the top of the frame.  After I attach it to the card base I add sequins.  Then I add a piece of adhesive foam tape to seal off the opening so my sequins don’t escape.

I added iridescent pink and clear sequins to the inside of the shaker.  I love that you can still sett he beautiful stitching of the Fiori Plate layers inside the shaker window!

I stamped the floral and dragonfly images from the Dragonfly Greetings stamp set in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored them with Copic alcohol markers..  I purposely left the brush strokes on the butterfly wings to add contrast and interest.

The Dragonfly Greetings is a beautiful stamp set with floral images, dragonflies, and simple sentiments.  The coordinating die cuts make it easy to get a clean detailed cut with one pass through your die cut machine.

I hope you find time to make something beautiful today!

Have you had a chance to use the new Peony Blooms Stackable Dies yet? Watercolouring has become my new favourite colouring medium to use in crafting. Today I am going to use Peerless Watercolors in dilute washes for the layers of my peonies to create a monochromatic flower with lots of dimension.

To begin I cut one each of the Peony Blooms Stackable dies–Layer A, Layer B and Layer C using 140 lb cold press watercolour paper.

I started by cutting small pieces of the watercolor films from the Peerless Watercolor book that I was going to use for the flower and foliage. I colours I used were Royal Scarlet, Royal Crimson, Carnation Pink, Light Green and Brilliant Yellow. Put each piece of cut film into a different tray of a watercolour palette. Add a small bit of water to each of the trays to dissolve the colour from the film and tint the water, then remove the film from the trays with a pair of tweezers. ETA: Carnation Pink was added to the palette after photographing.

Starting with Layer C I applied a generous amount of water to the die cut flower and then I painted the flower with the full strength of my dilute Royal Scarlet wash. I set it aside to dry.

Next I did the same with Layer B using the Royal Crimson dilute. After the first layer of colour dried a bit I went back and added some darker highlights to the edges of the flower in the same colour but directly from the film in the book. I set that layer aside to dry.

For Layer A I painted the Carnation Pink dilute directly to the dry die cut and then set it aside to dry.

For the leaves I painted Layer C in Brilliant Yellow and added Light Green to the centre. For the leaves in Layer B I mixed some of the Brilliant Yellow and Light Green together in last available palette in my tray to make a yellow/green then I painted the Layer B leaves with it. I added more water to the custom yellow/green dilute to lighten the colour a bit more and painted the last leaves from Layer A.

Once all papers were dry I assembled the Peony and leaves onto a white card base, isn’t the dimension achieved from the monochromtic watercolouring amazing? Finally the thank you sentiment from Dragonfly Greeting clear stamp set was die cut using the die from the Dragonfly Greetings die set and adhered to the card.


I hope you enjoyed today’s tutorial on watercolouring in a monochromatic colour scheme and see how well it works with the lovely detailed dies from Birch Press Design. See you again next Tuesday for more Design Team inspiration.