Workshop weekend .......

Happy Sunday folks .....

And a very Happy Mother's Day to all you lovely mums out there

We got the weekend off to a great start yesterday with a lovely workshop with all my crafty buddies.
We were creating pretty designs using die cuts.
From beautiful floral cards with hidden messages (a very popular technique at the moment)

A really pretty CAS design where the die cut is the focal point on the card .......

And then, using die cuts to give a faux embossed look

The hidden messages are a really lovely way to use word dies ..... simply stamp your design onto a piece of white card .....  colour it using your favourite inks, pens or pencils and then die cut your word from the coloured image
I used Zig Clean Color pens to colour my stamped images ...... the pretty Dahlia from the Wplus9 Beautiful Bouquet range ......

 and the Ranunculus

Love these stamps ..... they're a great size and so easy to colour

I then die cut the word from the coloured image, and twice again from plain white card, this is so I can layer them and add a touch of dimension

Inlay one of the white die cuts back into the coloured image, and add in all the bits that you would normally throw away from the coloured die cut ....... bits like the centres of the letters and the gaps in between ...... does that make sense.  You want to create a complete bottom layer so that when you add the final coloured die cut word the picture looks complete (no white gaps), giving you this hidden or camouflaged look as it's sometimes called

I added a few splatters of ink here and there and the odd sequin ......

You can even add in stamped greetings too .......

The next design is really simple, however you do need larger dies for this depending on the size of your finished card.

So CAS ...... die cut the word from the centre of a piece of white card, and again from a couple more pieces.  Inlay and layer the plain white ones and then stamp a design on the top layer before adding that.  Choose a stamp that's quite detailed, or a small image so that you can cover most of the letters

I used an old SU stamp for the Hello, that unfortunately has now been retired and .... I used the new Distress Oxide inks to stamp with ...... love them!!!

Love these dots too ..... a great background stamp from Tim Holtz, stamped using Worn Lipstick Distress Oxide

Add in a bit of stamping to complete your greeting and the jobs done .......

And then to finish the afternoon we created a faux embossed look ..... using word dies again and numbers

Simply die cut the word from the same colour cardstock as your base card and attach across the card. Go over the edge with some to give a more random look.

Die cut the word again, this time from coloured card and layer over the top of one of the white ones to give a bit more dimension to it

Another option would be to colour one of the white ones using your inks or pens, the choice is yours. I've added a layer of Glossy Accents to mine to add a touch of shine, and I've stamped in the rest of the sentiment

Numbers are another great option for this technique ....... individual letters would look good too

I've die cut the 30 from the black card, and added a piece of pink behind

Stamped and embossed the sentiment underneath ...... and then used random numbers across the top of the card

You could do this design for any age ..... it doesn't only have to be for special birthdays, it could even be used for an anniversary.

Why not use your dies to cut fancy edges on your cards ......

These were cut using label dies from Spellbinders ........ place your piece of card through the die so that only one edge will cut and then run this through your machine over the cutting edge ONLY, don't run the whole thing through as you'll mark your card with the other side of the die and you don't want that.

Oh well, my little crafty break is over ..... back to normal next week with all next month's blog challenges to prepare for and lots of DT projects to do.  Good job I've got my new camera sorted .... or have I!?  It's not been easy trying to find a replacement for my broken one, buts that's another story.

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your day.
I'd better get a move on, the family is coming round later ...... we're having the first family Sunday lunch in the new house and Lauren's helping me cook it!

Cheerio until next time