Getting The Most From Layering Dies

I thought I'd show off one of the new layering die sets from Altenew today - the layering dies are a new concept from them and you can do a lot with them if you get a bit creative!  There are 3 sets to choose from currently but I went with the floral version today.

For the first card I went for a 70s vibe on my colours and cut Plate A from orange card stock, Plate B from lemon and then cut some more card from a darker yellow to sit just behind the flowers.   This is easy to do, I just drew around the flowers on the die cut of Plate A lightly with pencil and trimmed just inside the lines with scissors.  Doing that means you get some variation in colour between the flowers and leaves as the green background layer shows through the leaves and gaps but not the flowers.

For the second card I went for a more simple look - just simply cutting plate A from dark pink pearl card and plate B from lighter pink - but this time I snipped off the leaves so only the flowers were used.  This gives you a nice "gap" in the middle to tuck in a sentiment. I used one from the ever versatile Birthday Messages by Hero Arts.

The third example is actually going to be my Mum's birthday card so I went all out for a more detailed example using layers of copic colouring.

I die cut plate A from black pearl card stock and then cut plate B from white and had another sheet of the white to hand for the base layer.  To get the shading on the petals I simply flicked some dark pink away form the "holes" in the floral layer of the die cut plate B, blending into a paler pink towards the end. If you keep laying the Plate A die on top its easy to see where the petals are.

To get the colour in the correct place on the base layer is a little more tricky - except if you use the die as a stencil ;-)  Cut Plate B from thin paper and secure it to the base layer.  You can then easily apply colour through the holes so you know its where it needs to be (you could do the same thing with plate A to colour Plate B if you find it easier)   Here's what the stencil colouring looks like half way done.

For the final card I experimented with double-debossing to see if it would work and it does!  I simply ran both dies through my machine using a sandwich with a rubber matt so they would deboss the pattern but not cut.  Just do it one after the other on thick card stock using the cutting frame around the edge to line them up.  I blended some oil pastels gently over the top (think brass rubbings!) to make the debossed lines pop.

  
NEWS FROM THE STORE

• We have now received the new release from Sugar Pea Designs and will get it added to the store as soon as we can.
• There are several new releases pending for early May from Neat and Tangled, Lil' Inker Designs, Waffle Flower Crafts and of course the regular monthly release from MFT.
• Lawn Fawn have just announced a list of retired products ahead of a new release in late late May.  We will add the retired products to our discontinued page in the coming days - if you want them, grab them now as they won't be coming back!