Left Overs….Using Your Scraps

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Good afternoon! I have been busy participating in the Altenew Educator Certification Program. The current course I am working on is the AECP Level 1 Easy Die Cutting course. There are ao many alternate ways to use your dies other than creating a focal point for your cards.So,, I wanted to show you some cards that were inspired by this course. My cards are pretty much a compilation of all things good from the classes.

I was inspired by everything and I think these cards demonstrate that. I will share most of the details with you. If you have any specific questions please feel free to contact me at info@expressivepaper.com

This is what I started with. Alcohol inks are easy and fun. It’s quite therapeutic. But what I also did with my panels was to add somemica powders. They are beautiful and activate with just water. So of course I ended up with quite the stash of panels sitting on my desk. I didn’t like all the areas of the panels but some were perfect for a floral die set I have been dying to use from Altenew. It is called Fantasy Floral 3D die set. The product is linked below. So off I set to use my stash. Here is Card 1.

The focal point for these cards was created using a Gelli plate and the mica powders with water. Basically, I put the powder directly on the Gelli plate and then sprayed water over them. Then the card stock (Neenah Classic Crest 110lb) was placed over them. I continued to add more powder and water until the panel was filled and I was happy with the result. Although I didn’t love EVERYTHING about the panel I had some beautiful areas that I knew would work with the beautiful Fantasy Floral dies set from Altenew. Once the panel was dry I cut several pieces using all of the dies. I also cut pieces from plain white card, silver card, and a soft lilac card stock. Once you have all your bits cut glue them together with liquid glue. You will see them on all of the cards.

Card 1 is pretty straightforward. This is an A2 top-folding card panel. I then stenciled a leaf pattern onto the card base using a stencil I had from Gina K Designs. I used the Gina K Master Layout 2 rectangle for the main panel. The ink set I used is the Cerulean Skies 6 mini ink set. For the main card panel, I partially embossed the white card stock with a swiss dot embossing folder. I think this adds interest to the card.

Select one of your flowers. This will be your focal point. The leaves were cut out of white card stock and I used the ink set to color the leaves.

The sentiment is from the You Are Everything stamp and die set. I stamped it in the darkest color and then sprinkled on a Sparkle embossing powder from Hero Arts and heated. I also cut 3 additional white YOU ARE dies and stacked them with the stamped sentiment. This just adds dimension to your card. The smaller sentiment was stamped directly onto the main card panel.

The embossed panel is adhered to the stenciled base with foam tape. Everything else is glued down with liquid glue. Some Round Silver Confetti from Kat Scrappiness was added for some bling. Card 1 is done.

Card 2 is a Z-Fold card. Here is a link for how to cut a Z-Fold Card by Jennifer McGuire and as always she takes it to the next level. Check it out HERE.

The Z-Fold card measures 5 1/2″ by 8 1/4″ it is scored at 2 1/8″, 4.25″ . You can see that I partially embossed up to the first scoreline. Use an embossing folder you have it really adds another layer to your card. The part of the card measuring 4.25″ was stenciled with a brick stencil. It’s an old one. I felt the brick gave the appearance the flower was growing on the wall. Here the die-cut flower adds new dimension to your cardWhat do you think?

The smaller sentiment came from a Tim Holtz sticker label set. The link for this is also below. I layered a 1/4″ piece of white card behind it. This provides stability to the small sentiment as part of it hangs over the interior of the card. I also added some Kat Scrappiness Sparkly Diamond Jewels.

I couldn’t find a green card stock that I liked so I just used my Altenew ink block on top of the leaves. I did an ink blend around one of the die-cut layers you can see it in the picture above. I glued the lilac piece directly behind the focal point on the inside of the card with a leaf. The other leaves were added to the front of the panel under the flower.l Some Sparkly Diamond Jewels from Kat Scrappiness were added. Card 2 is done.

Card 3 is my favorite and probably the easiest. It is an A2 top-folding card. I adhered a number of white die-cuts from the second-largest die to the white panel. Then I cut this panel with the Gina K rectangle. I cut a lilac panel slightly larger and glued these panels together. This panel was added to the base with foam tape.

I cut some leaves out of some scrap glitter card stock that was a champagne color. I used my alcohol markers to get the green I wanted. I cut a strip of the mica panel to go under the sentiment and flower. Glue down the strip, add foam to the back of the flower. The sentiment is from the Tim Holtz Label Stickers. I cut it in half so it would fit in my layout. I always run a black marker around the labels to cover the white that shows underneath. Then it was glued on top of the strip. Layout your leaves and flower. Glue everything down. Using the plain white die-cuts makers your card appear to be embossed without having an embossing folder. This is a great way to use your dies. Card number 3 is done.

I hope you enjoyed these layered die-cut cards. As you can see there are so many ways to add layers to your cards using dies in different ways and my goal was to show you some today. As always, thanks for stopping by I would love it if you would subscribe to my blog and follow me on Instagram @expressivepaper.