Cards and Die Cuts

Whilst I was away at Easter I visited my all time favourite craft shop. Its called Sew Simple and its at Tavereham Garden Centre.It has everything, well a bit of everything crafty. I go there to get paper, wools, fabric, ribbons and more. I like it because they always have something a bit different and they also have a great loyalty scheme which means every now and then I get an  extra £10 to spend. I know its not a free gift because to get it you have to have spent money, but it does feel like an added bonus. You can also visit Sew Simple online, so why not give it a look?  

http://www.sewsimpleonline.co.uk

Anyway, whilst I was there this time, I got several sheets of scrapbook paper, which you'll probably see in later posts, and several new die cuts which I have only just had time to try out.

Three of the dies I purchased

They are all from the new Xcut range from Docraft. I am  particularly fond of the squiggly one it gives such an interesting twist to the basic rectangular shape. What I also liked was they came with a magnetic sheet for storage which is fabulous. All I can say is, "Come on Spellbinders get with it, lets see some of your Nestibilities come with a similar sheet, rather then the silly sticky stuff you presently use"


Anyway I decided to try some of the scalloped rectangles to make up some cards, which you can see below.

 

As you may spot no dies used here

I also used this opportunity to try out a technique Shelia from our crafting group introduced us all to last Tuesday. We used chalk based ink pads and scrunched up cling film to create sponge effect backgrounds. I think its a lovely technique and so simple, just scrunch up a piece of cling film and then using the light colours first sponge ink in short patting type moves  over the paper/card surface. Gradually build up your colours to create the effect you want. I used different purple tones  as well as greens and reds.

A close up so you can see the sponge effect and the gems on the Alium head

After I made the backgrounds above I then used a an Alium Clarity Stamp to give a central image. I then mounted the card onto paper from my paper stock and embellished the image with gems. I finally added a sentiment to complete the cards.  

I like the die cuts and the sponge effect so I think both will probably feature again in my card making and scrapbooking.