Rainbow Hello

I am so excited to be joining the design team here at Seven Hills Crafts! Through the Seven Hills Crafts store, I have been able to get products from so many wonderful brands, which has fuelled my love of card design.

To say a big hello to you all, my first card as a member of the team features the MFT Big Hello die-namic, which is perfect to create a bold greeting on a card. Teamed with rainbow colours, it's sure to brighten anyone's day.

I die cut the largest rectangle frame from the MFT Single Stitched Rectangle Frame die-namics. I taped the MFT Chevron Grid stencil over the die cut rectangle, and blended on distress ink in rainbow colours.  I then added this and the frame to the front of a white notecard.

To create the shaker element, I cut two tags from white card, using a die from the MFT Stitched Traditional Tag die-namics. From one of the tags, I die cut the MFT Big Hello Die-namic and added acetate behind the letters. I doubled up foam tape on the reverse of the tag, around the die cut word, then added some rainbow mix sequins from Neat and Tangled. I attached the second tag on the back to seal the shaker together.

I added the shaker tag to the card, then added some clear sequins to finish the card.

Thank you for joining me on my first day as part of the team here at Seven Hills Crafts. Have a lovely day.

MFT Stitched Traditional Tag die-namics

MFT Big Hello die-namic

MFT Chevron Grid stencil

MFT Single Stitched Line Rectangle die-namics

Neat & Tangled Birthday Bash sequins

Turning a negative into a positive.

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and today, I'm being a little negative...

...but don't worry, it's all in the name of creating something pretty, by using the negative space from a die-cut!

I love a cool background and a statement sentiment to make up a card, so thought I would try this technique out to see if it was enough to stand on it's own.

I started by creating my background.  I inked up a piece of card using various Distress Inks, going form dark to light green, creating an ombre effect.  I wanted a kind of teal/turquoise colour, of which there are not nearly enough of yet (Come on Tim!), so went over the whole piece in a light blue to create my own colour.  I then inked up My Favourite Things 'Sketched Chevron' background stamp, (still one of my favourite ever background stamps, it very rarely leaves my craft table.  It's just so subtle, and pretty, and versatile.  Love it!), in the same ombre of inks, gave a very light spritz of water, and stamped onto my card.  I then added a few sploshes and splashes of water, and of some pearl and copper mica powder sprays I had made up, to add extra interest.

I knew I was going to need even dimension across my whole piece of card, so that the less supported areas didn't droop and distort, so I adhered a piece of of black foam sheet across the back of my entire piece, making sure to hit every area with glue so even my teeny pieces would stay intact once cut.  I then took Lawn Fawn's 'Scripty Cheers' die, and cut it from the upper centre of my card.  Once cut, I made sure to keep the piece in the card using a piece of low-tack tape, so everything stayed exactly where it should be.  

I then took another piece of card, slightly bigger than my main panel, and heat embossed, pretty much the whole thing, (that powder just goes on and on doesn't it?!) in this kind of copper/rose gold colour, paying extra attention to the edges and the area which would peek through my die-cut space.  I then put glue all over the back of my main panel, apart from the actual die-cut itself, and adhered to my embossed card.  Once in place, I carefully removed my 'Scripty Cheers' die-cut, leaving the negative space, and the wee little pieces, in place.  

I built up my sentiment to say a little more by heat embossing another stamp from my stash, onto vellum in the same powder, cutting into a little flag, and adhering to my card using a scattering of sequins I used to embellish with.  I mounted my whole piece onto a cream card blank, and that was that.

I really like how this turned out and am going to go back through my stash and see what else would work well.  So don't just look at your dies as the piece that actually cuts, think how many awesome designs you can get from the space it leaves behind, and turn your negative, into a positive :)

I hope you like it.  As always, everything I used is linked below so be sure to go have a quick snoop around the store!

See you next week.

Jillx