Let's Craft & Create Challenge #105: Use Dies or Punches...

Welcome to another challenge from Let's Craft & Create. This month (Challenge #105) we're asking all of you to create something using your dies and/or punches. I have a bit of an addiction to dies, so I was really looking forward to this one.

I decided to take the opportunity to create a Christmas card using a "partial die-cutting" technique. For a fabulous video tutorial on this technique by the talented Jennifer McGuire, just click here.

For my card, I selected a set of five snowflakes by Impression Obsession. I simply lined these up at the bottom of my white mat layer and then did a "partial die-cut" up to a specific line that I had penciled in about 1 1/4" from the end. Here's a look at my completed card:

I think this angled view shows the front of the card a little more clearly. You can even see the little rhinestones I added to the centers of the extending snowflakes and to the "i" in Christmas.

After finishing my "partial die-cutting," I cut away the excess cardstock from in between the snowflakes with a craft knife.

Then I used a Dee's Distinctively die to cut "Merry Christmas" from my white mat and also from some coordinating metallic green paper.

Once this die-cutting was done, I embossed my white mat with a Darice snowflake embossing folder and inlaid the metallic green Merry Christmas. I had to be careful to also inlay the white centers of the "a" and in the top part of each "s."

Here's a little closer look at those snowflakes and how they simply extend down from my cardstock panel.

The inside of my card is fairly simple. I stamped my sentiment (Inkadinkadoo) in gray ink.

Because my card has such soft colors, I also wanted a softly colored sentiment.

The one special thing I did on the inside was to arrange my snowflake dies around my sentiment and then use my rubber embossing mat to emboss the die shapes onto the sentiment mat. This is the first time I've ever tried that, and it worked pretty well. I may be doing more of this in the future.




Now, for some fabulous inspiration from my teammates, please click on the links below to see their amazing creations.

 

Eileen

Karen

Catherine

Cheryl – that’s me!

Gail

Ursula

Deborah

Maryvonne

Hazel

Mary

Sabina

Monika

For more information about the challenge and the prize, visit Let's Craft & Create and link your "Dies or Punches" projects soon.

 

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.

Cheryl