Easy Die-Cutting Techniques

Hello everyone! I'm back from my month+ long hiatus. The holidays are a busy season, and although I got a decent amount of crafting done, I needed a bit of a blog break.

I'm back today with a few Altenew cards. I've jumped back into getting my Level 1 certification completed for the Altenew Educator Certification Program. Today's cards are for the Easy Die Cutting Techniques class, taught by the amazing Yana Smakula. This class is fantastic if you're really looking for some other ways to use your die cuts. You'll be looking at your dies in a whole new light! I highly recommend you check it out!

I started by using the Striped Leaf Cover die. This die is a great stand alone die, but this class really had me looking at how I could get more from it. Cover plates in particular make really great stencils. The great thing about stencils is that you can use them to cover the entire card front or opt to use only a section.  I die-cut the cover plate out of a thin, but durable paper and used that as a stencil.

I often think of greens when I use this cover die, but I thought it'd be fun to use some bright fall colours, so I used a red-orange-yellow colour palette of distress inks. I had so much fun with the stenciling that I had to make another one right away.

Here's my card submission for the class. I decided to jazz up the background by splattering inks over top. I recommend keeping some acrylic black ink on hand if you're wanting black ink splatters. I watered some down to get the bolder black splatters on the project.

To complete the card, I stamped 3 "thanks" from the Many Thanks set, cut them out and stacked them and then completed the greeting by stamping the "for your kindness" onto the stenciled background.

Here's my "cleaner" version of the card above. I opted for no paint splatters on this one. I used the same thank you set, but this time embossed one of the sentiments on red cardstock, using white embossing powder.

And here are the two pieces together!

This class definitely inspired me to go through my dies and seek out other uses beyond the original intended purpose. I can see myself using this technique with many other cover dies, or even making my own stencil by die-cutting several smaller dies.

Supplies:
Stamps: Many Thanks 
Dies: Striped Leaf Cover die.
Ink: Candied Apple, Ripe Persimmon, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed (all distress inks), Versamark, Black Onyx Versafine
Paper: white, red
Accessories, etc.: white embossing powder, black acrylic paint