It's All Cut and Die: CDD

Showing posts with label CDD. Show all posts

Thursday, May 17, 2018

Craftin Desert Divas "Flashback"!

Hello CDD fans and welcome back!! I'm here today to share a card made using "older" stamps and dies from Craftin Desert Divas! It's always nice to go through your stash and find a set that's a bit older but still totally awesome. Speaking of "totally", I used the Greeting Word Die Set which happens to have this word in it!! I have never come across this in any other company. And the font is fabulous!

This set was released a couple of years ago and I love it! I haven't used it in awhile but this was the perfect time. For the images, I used the Tickled Pink stamp set. Again, this set was released awhile ago but is still fun and trendy. Who doesn't love a beach bound flamingo??

I stamped, coloured and fussy cut my images out, then planned the scene I was going to create. I die cut a circle from the Stitched in Circles Die Set and did a bit of messy ink blending with Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink. I wasn't concerned with getting a smooth blend as the "patchiness" gives the look of clouds.

As you can see, I changed my mind. I decided to ink blend directly on a panel cut from the Fancy Frames Die Set. I used the negative space from the circle die cut as a quick and easy mask.

Now, this is where I cheated a bit. I could not resist using the brand new Beach Scene Dies on this scene!! I die cut the "sand" and umbrella and used Distress Inks to give them colour.

Before adhering everything to the die cut panel, I did some masking of the sentiment with washi tape to break it up into two separate stamps.

I adhered everything to a kraft card base with a combination of liquid glue and foam adhesive.

Of course I stamped "fabulous" a little crooked but I went with it!

A little Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents add a bit of sparkle and shine to different areas of the images.

I hope you enjoyed this "look back" at some of the older products that are available in the shop!!

Here's a list of all CDD products used:

Sunday, April 29, 2018

Anything Goes with Stencils with Craftin Desert Divas!

Hello crafty friends and welcome back!! I'm here to share a couple of projects featuring two ways to use a stencil and embossing paste. This was the first time I tried either of these techniques and it was so easy and super fun!!

I started by die cutting two panels using the largest scalloped die in the Fancy Frames Die Set out of Strathmore Mixed Media paper. This paper has become one of my favourites for all ink blending and watercolour techniques. It isn't quite as heavy weight as your typical watercolour paper but it is bright white, stands up to water well and inks blend beautifully on it.

I chose the new Star Galaxy stencil and three Distress Oxide Inks in the colours Picked Raspberry, Peacock Feathers and Wilted Violet. For my first technique, I decided to colour my white Texture Paste with the inks.

Basically, just smoosh some ink onto a slick surface, drop a blob of texture/embossing paste into and mix with a spatula. A plastic knife or old credit card would work as well! I laid the stencil over the die cut panel and added the paste. I mixed up all three colours and overlapped them on the stencil.

Looks pretty awful, doesn't it?? When the stencil is pulled off, the result is fantastic!

I did have a couple of areas that I pressed too hard with the spatula which resulted in a couple of "smoothy" areas but I was okay with this :)

For my next background, I decided to add colour to the panel first. I used the same colours and wasn't too worried about getting a smooth blend. I added a lot of water splatters to give a bit more interest.

I placed the stencil over top and applied the white texture/embossing paste.

As you can see, these are two completely different looks!

I noticed that because the inks were still wet when I applied the embossing paste to the ink blended background, the white areas started to wick some of the colour. If you think this might bother you, I would recommend waiting for the inks to dry!

I chose the Magical Unicorn set for my images because I thought they work work perfectly with these backgrounds. I stamped a few images, coloured them with my alcohol markers and fussy cut them out.

I ended up only using the two unicorns but I love that rainbow image!! I used the unicorn on a cloud image for the coloured embossing paste background. I embossed the "Make a Wish" sentiment from the same stamp set onto black cardstock using white embossing powder.

I used foam adhesive to adhere both the sentiment and the focal image.

To finish the card off, I used some Clear Wink of Stella on the mane, Glossy Accents on the horn and picked a few of the tiny hearts out of the Lady Bug Sequins pack.

The other background was finished in a similar manner.

I used a combination of liquid glue and foam adhesive to adhere the images and sentiment.

I also used the small cloud die (which was a free with purchase die) to create a puffy place for the unicorn to sit. A bit of glitter pen, Glossy Accents and a few silver sequins complete this card!

Thanks for hanging around to the end of this long and "photo heavy" post! I appreciate you stopping by today and hope you got inspired to try these easy techniques!!

Here's a list of CDD supplies used:

Wilted Violet Distress Oxide Ink

Picked Raspberry Distress Oxide Ink

Peacock Feathers Distress Oxide Ink

Sunday, April 15, 2018

Using Small Stamps with Craftin Desert Divas!

Good morning friends and welcome back! I'm back to share a cute and fun card that makes use of all those tiny stamps that you may have! I'll also show you a simple yet very effective masking technique!

In almost every stamp set, there comes a variety of tiny images that are there to help you create scenes or backgrounds. I call them "filler" images. Just like the way extra sprigs, leaves and baby's breath fill out and complete a bouquet of flowers, these tiny stamps act much the same way.

I started by creating a simple mask using the middle heart from the Nested Hearts Die Set and a piece of 4.25 X 5.5 inch copy paper. I wanted the mask to be the same size as my card front to make lining things up easier!

I adhered the mask to the white panel using a dot adhesive and removing some of the stick with my fingers. I don't have any removable tape so this worked well!

I went through all my CDD stamps and choose some of the small images with the same theme. In this case, bugs!

The Ladybug Garden and Garden Bugs sets were perfect! I started by stamping the largest of the images I had chosen in the centre of the heart. I wanted to make sure I had enough room for this image and also for it to be the focal point.

When stamping inside a mask, you want to be sure that some of the images are stamped "outside". This is maintain the shape you are going for. I ended up needing a couple of more images to fill in more of the heart. I found the cutest flowers in the Twinkle Toes stamp set and a tiny heart in the Magical Unicorn set. These finished the stamping off perfectly!! Next, I removed the mask.

I coloured all these cuties with my alcohol markers.

To emphasize the heart shape a little more, I decided to add colour around and behind the images with a light grey markers.

I trimmed this panel using the medium rectangle die from the Fancy Frames Dies. I actually didn't get it centred so to fix this I added some twine along the right side of the panel.

The sentiment is from the Ladybug Garden set and stamped on a banner from the Flag Banner Die Set. I adhered this panel to a piece of beige/pink cardstock cut from the largest die from Fancy Frames.

To finish off, I added a few Shimmer Sequins, some glitter pen and Glossy Accents!

I hope you enjoyed my project today and maybe found a little inspiration! I encourage you to take a look at your stamp sets and get some use out of these itty bitty images!

Thank you for stopping by!! You'll find a list of all products used below!!