Hello crafty friends! Things are starting to look a lot like Christmas in my craftroom now that October is here. Today I am sharing a little peek with you of some new products coming to Birch Press Design soon!
Can you tell what’s new here? I hope I sparked a little excitement. Stay tuned a full tutorial will follow soon!
Hi there and Happy Fall! It’s Tracey here today and as I was blending my leaves for today’s post the leaves outside my window are almost blending just as fast. Just like a light switch summer turned off and autumn has arrived.
For today’s card I used only one die, Layer B, from the Autumn Breeze Layer dies. A brilliantly designed set of three dies that all work together but can each work independently of one another giving you options to showcase two different scenes. Layer B can be used all on it’s own and cuts all these beautiful stitched leaves.
I cut a panel from Bristol Smooth cardstock and I ink blended each individual leaf using Distress Oxide inks. I used Squeezed Lemonade, Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade, Candied Apple, Fired Brick, Ripe Persimmon, Peeled Paint and Walnut Stain to create a variety of different coloured leaves.
I cut another A2 sized panel of Bristol Smooth cardstock and then ink blended a background using more Distress Oxide inks. I started with Crushed Olive and then brought in some Peeled Paint from the edges and finished off with some Walnut Stain just on the edges.
I covered the card front with a piece of gold paper from the Polished Foil pad and then I adhered the green ink blended panel over top. Each one of the blended leaves was inlaid into the die cut. The gold splatters were created from red gold metallic watercolours.
Once dry I added a sentiment from the Pumpkin Lacework stamp set. I used the ‘Fall is in the air’ quote which I gold embossed on brown cardstock and die cut it with the co-ordinating Pumpkin Lacework die set. The sentiment was added with foam tape to complete the card.
Thank you so much for stopping by today and I really hope I tweeked your interest to look at your layered die sets a bit differently. What you can do with only one layer?
Happy Crafting!
Supplies
Hi there its Tracey here today and I would love to share a bit of Autumn inspiration with you. I love summer, but the nights are getting cooler, the days are getting shorter and the sunflowers are in full bloom, which for me means fall is on its way.
Using fall colours along with the Viloa Plate Layers die set will change the mood to autumn. This die typically would be used the most in the spring or summer. I have created four cards to show you how you can create a whole different feel with your layered dies just by changing the colour. This is a great way to maximize the use of your dies. Remember that each one of the layers in a die set can create a beautiful card all on it own. I gave this die set a late summer, early autumn vibe.
This first card uses all three layers of the Viloa Plate Layers die set. I wanted to make the flowers look like sunflowers so I chose my colours carefully. The layer C die has holes it will show your bottom layer which is typically your card base. What ever colour that is will show through. I added a soft blue cardstock panel to the card base. Layer C was cut from brown cardstock and Layer B from golden yellow. Then I ink blended a panel of Bristol Smooth cardstock with Squeezed Lemonade Distress Oxide ink leaving it a bit lighter in the centre of the panel. Once it was dry I cut it using Layer A. If you wait and make sure your panel is dry before die cutting the cut is always so much cleaner. All the layers were glued together and then glued to the cardbase.
Card two uses only Layer A from the Viloa Plate Layers die set. It was cut golden yellow glitter paper from the Delicate Pastels Glitter Pad. The card front was covered with a panel of light yellow cardstock and the glitter piece was glued directly onto the card front giving it a nice tone-on-tone appearance but with the added bonus of sparkle!
The next card uses only Layer B from the Viloa Plate Layers die set. It was cut from a golden yellow cardstock. I ink blended Wild Honey Distress Oxide ink around the edges giving to give the die cut a bit of depth. The card front was covered with a panel of soft blue cardstock. The die cut was glued directly to the panel.
The last card uses Layer C of the Viola Layer die set. This might be a favourite of mine. It was cut it with the soft blue cardstock. The Layer C die creates beautiful stitching lines when it cuts which make it a perfect die to use all on i’s own. I ink blended Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide ink around the edges of the die cut. Once again I did this to add some depth to the design.
All of the sentiments are from the You Are Awesome stamp set. They were all embossed with a gold pearl embossing powder on brown cardstock.
When you have a set of Birch Press Design craft dies you can use just one die or all of the dies together o maximize your investment. Just by choosing a colour palette you can change the mood of your dies and your cards. All of your dies can be used year round!
Thank you so much for stopping in to craft with me today and we’ll see you next time!
Supplies
Hi there, it’s Tracey here with you this morning. Today I might be using the wrong design principles to create a sparkly card that looks right in my eyes.
I started by ink blending the Midnight Mandala Stencil with Shaded Lilac Distress Oxide Ink over a panel of Bristol Smooth cardstock. I cut the panel down to a 3 7/8″ x 3 7/8″ square making sure the flower in the centre of the stencil was right in the centre of my ink blended panel. I had to do a little math and use my T-square to move out 1 15/16″ from the centre point of the flower.
I cut of piece of royal blue cardstock from the Twinkling Jewel Glitter Pad to a 4″ square. I adhered this panel to a a 4 1/4″ card base. Next I adhered the ink blended panel over the glitter panel. This leaves a tiny 1/16″ border around the ink blended panel.
The String Art Circle was cut twice, once with a bright green cardstock and once with the same royal blue glitter cardstock. I adhered the green string art circle to the centre of the ink blended panel and then I inlay the green centre. Next I adhered the royal blue string art circle over top slightly offset.
The sentiment is from the Big Lingo Type Hugs die set. I cut the shadow using white cardstock and the inner letters from the royal blue glitter cardstock. I glued the letters over the shadow. Before adding it to the card I added tiny pieces of foam tape to the back of the word hugs and then placed it over the centre of the string art circle.
So much glitter and sparkle! The best is that the glitter on the Twinkling Jewel Glitter papers stays put, no getting all over your hands and workspace or recipient!
You could use any of the Birch Press Design stencils to create magnificent backgrounds to use along with any of the stand alone die cuts. Add in some of the beautiful glitter paper and you have a gorgeous card whether you used sound design principles or not! Thank you so much for creating with me today and have a great weekend!
Supplies
Hi there it’s Tracey. Today I am going to show you how easy it is to use one basic card design and by changing just one element you can make multiple cards each with a different theme.
Each one of my four cards uses the newly released Kinsley Layer Set. The background paper for each of the die cuts was custom made using Distress Oxide Spray Inks. I sprayed some ink on my glass media mat and then sprayed some water onto the ink. I picked up the water with a foam blending tool and ran it back and forth across a panel of white cardstock until the whole panel was covered. I left some time so the first coat dry and then gave each of the panels a spritz of the same colour Distress Oxide Spray Ink direct to paper to add some subtle interest. I let the panels dry completely and then I cut four of the Kinsley Layer Dies Layer C from each panel. I chose to use only Layer C because on its own it creates a beautiful stitched pattern.
Next I used the new Jumbo Lingo word dies to create glittery sentiments from the Twinkling Jewel Glitter Pad to co-ordinate with each of the die cuts. I used Jumbo Lingo Hello, Jumbo Lingo Thanks, Jumbo Lingo Hugs and Jumbo Lingo Happy. I cut the shadow from vellum cardstock and the individual letters from the glitter cardstock.
Each white A2 sized card has a 5 1/4″ x 4″ mat that I adhered the Kinsley Layer die directly to and the sentiments added to the top with liquid glue. The mat was then adhered to the card base directly making the card nice and flat for mailing.
Thanks so much for stopping in today. Give it a try, choose a simple background and change up your sentiments to make a collection of cards to have at the ready. You never know…
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Hi there, it’s Tracey back today with a little inspiration from Birch Press Design. I created two colourful cards from one die cut.
These cards were both made with the Grandiose Bevel Plate Layer A die. For the first card I cut one Grandiose Bevel Plate Layer A from 110# white cardstock and set it aside. I ink blended a 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ panel of Bristol Smooth cardstock with a rainbow of Distress Oxide ink to make a rainbow of pink, orange, yellow, green and blue.
I tapped a bit of water over the panel and picked up some colour with a paper towel. Once dry I die cut the Grandiose Bevel Plate Layer A die from the panel and because I am going to inlay the pieces into the white panel and use the outline for my second card. My die cut machine is a Gemini Jr, so the cut is facing up. A piece of 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ cardstock is placed over the back of the die and I flipped it over so I could see the coloured pieces. There are a LOT of pieces to inlay so this helps keep it organized.
I covered the back of the white die cut with strong double sided adhesive tape so the pieces would fully inlay. I used an embellishment wand to help me pick up the tiny pieces to inlay.
Once I was done inlaying the pieces I attached it to a white card base with foam tape for dimension. I finished it off with the Hello Honey Script die that I added with foam tape.
For the second card I used the frame cut from the first card. I cut two additional white Grandiose Bevel Layer A dies and glued them together, then put the coloured frame as the top layer. To finish it off I added the Thanks Honey Script die with foam tape.
Thank you so much for stopping in today. Come back tomorrow for more inspiration on the blog.
Supplies
Hi there, it’s Tracey back today with a card tutorial and video using a very simple design that uses one stencil and a very lovely stamp set.
I used the Birch Press Design Bold Stripes Stencil for my background on my A2 sized card. I cut a panel of Bristol Smooth Cardstock to 5 1/2″ x 4 1/4″ to stencil using Distress Oxide inks.
I stuck my panel down to my glass media mat with some purple tape to keep if from shifting. Then I sprayed a generous amount of Pixie Spray on the back of my stencil and placed it over top of my card panel. Using 2″ wide Post-it Tape I selectively masked the stencil so that there was no cross-contamination between colours on the stripes. See how I just simply kept moving my masks for each line of the stencil. Watch the video below to see all the details about how I created today’s card and there might be a few tips along the way.
Each stripe of the stencil is ink blended with a different colour of Distress Oxide ink in a soft rainbow palette, starting darker on the right and fading out to the left.
When the stenciling was done I allowed the panel to dry completely. Next the large outline corner rose stamp was clear embossed with VersaMark and Versafine Onyx black ink.
Once I finished the embossing I trimmed the panel down to 5 1/4″ x 4″ and adhered it to my white top folding card base with foam tape. I stamped and white embossed on black cardstock the two line sentiment from the same Birthday Rose Corner stamp set. The two lines were also added with foam tape.
Thank you so much for stopping in to create with me today and I hope that I have given you an idea of a fun design to try. Stop back in tomorrow for another inspiration post here at Birch Press Design.
Supplies
Hi there, it’s Tracey back again today. You’re getting a double dose of me this week. I am a big fan of adding colour to my projects with Distress Oxide Inks and today I have a special treat for you. I have five cards that were created with the Birch Press Design Midnight Mandala Stencil and Distress Oxide Spray Inks!
I used only two colours and one stencil and no two cards are the same. The process can be a bit messy so I use a homemade spray box. It is a 12 x 12 x 5 1/2″ priority mail box that I use whenever I splatter, flick or spray ink or watercolours inside the house. NOTE: I NEVER spray anything toxic inside the house such as spray paints or adhesive
The first two cards are very simple, I put a piece of white cardstock inside the box and laid the Midnight Mandala Stencil over top. The first card uses Picked Raspberry Distress Oxide Spray. The bottle was primed and just sprayed a few times over the stencil. Then I lifted the stencil to reveal to design on the white cardstock panel. The stencil got a quick wipe off with a baby wipe and then the process was repeated with Peacock Feather Distress Oxide Spray. I set the two panels aside to dry.
For the next two cards I sprayed the entire background of the white cardstock panels with each colour of Distress Oxide Ink. One card was sprayed pink first and the other blue first. Once they were dry I laid the stencil over top of the coloured panel and then sprayed the other colour over top.
The last card was a combination of both colours of Distress Oxide Spray Ink. The difference with this card is that I did not wait for the first colour to dry before spraying the second colour. I sprayed the pink at the top of the card front and the blue at the bottom. What ended up happening as they met in the middle was a beautiful shade of purple. TIP: Do a bit of trial and error with the colours you choose when wet colour mixing. You don’t want to end up with a muddied panel.
All the panels were trimmed down to 5 1/4″ x 4″ and adhered to a white card base. The Honey Script Hello, Honey Script Thanks and Honey Script Hugs dies were used for the sentiments. All the shadows were cut from vellum and all the words were cut from white cardstock and glued together. They were attached to the card fronts with foam tape.
This was a fun project to put together, really easy and I ended up with five unique cards.
Thank you so much for stopping in today and I hope you are staying well. See you next time here at Birch Press Design.
Supplies
Hi there it’s Tracey here today and I have a card and video for a bright and fun birthday card using the Party Balloon die set along with the Modern Alphabet die set.
I used the two largest balloons from the Party Balloon die set and I cut them with Bristol Smooth cardstock. I ink blended Distress Oxide inks on to each balloon. Once done I flicked some watered down Perfect Pearls on to the balloons for some extra interest and shine. I added the balloons to my card front with tape runner and the large pink balloon intentionally hangs over the edge of the card front. I drew the balloon strings on to the card front with a ruler and fine tip black marker.
The Mod Alphabet die set was used to cut the word ‘happy’. I cut both the shadow and the smaller letters with white cardstock. I coloured the smaller letters with Copic markers to match the colours of the balloons. I glued the alphas together, added foam tape to the back of each letter and set them aside. The word ‘birthday’ from the Best Friend stamp set was stamped in the bottom right of the card. Then I trimmed where the balloon was overhanging the card with scissors.
I lined up the word ‘happy’ and finished the card off by drawing a line across the neck of the balloons.
Thank you so much for joining me today and I hope I I’ve inspired you to make something pretty today. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and we’ll see you next time!
Supplies
Hi there, it’s Tracey back this week with another post using fabulous Birch Press Design along with the fun 3D Embossing Folders from Memory Box Open Source.
I started off by embossing a piece of Bristol Smooth cardstock using the Memory Box Open Source Crysanthemum Fields Embossing Folder. I have never used these thick embossing folders before and I was a big perplexed as to what sandwich to use in my Gemini Jr. die cutting machine. Through a bit of Internet research and a bit of trial and error I found a sandwich that worked in both my Gemini Jr. and my Big Shot! These amazing 3D Embossing Folders work with the same sandwich! Today I used the panel embossed with the Gemini Jr. die cutting machine using this sandwich:
1. Bottom plate
2. Magnetic sheet
3. Embossing folder with paper inside (no top plate!)
I ran it through the machine and got a gorgeous embossed/debossed impression.
I chose to use the embossed side of the panel and used blending brushes to lightly add colour over the raised images. I set the panel aside while I worked on the other elements for my card. Using another piece of Bristol Smooth cardstock and I ink blended the Distress Oxide inks a little more heavily to create a solid panel to co-ordinate for the bottom of my card. I flicked some white gold pigment watercolor onto the bottom panel.
I trimmed the embossed panel down to 5 1/4″ x 4″ and then adhered it to a white card base using tape runner. Once the other ink blended panel was dry I used the Hello Topper die to cut across the top. Then I cut the word die ‘hello’ from white cardstock and added in into place with liquid glue.
The sentiment ‘crafty friend’ from the Just Because stamp set was white embossed direct to the panel underneath the word hello. The whole ink blended panel was trimmed down to 1 1/2″ high, not including the bump up for the word hello. I was added to the bottom of the card with with foam tape for dimension.
Thank you so much for stopping in today to craft along with me. I hope you are staying well and that I have inspired you to make something beautiful today.
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