Easy Die Cutting Techniques - AECP Journey

Hello and welcome back! Today's card or rather cards I should say, is all about easy die cutting techniques. This is class #9 out of 10 for this level and then I get to my final assignment for level 1. I have really enjoyed them all thus far and am learning so much! If you're a card maker then you really should check out the classes that Altenew has to offer. You can take as many or as few as you'd like and they have so many different ones to offer. 

ETA...I have lost some of my photos when I changed blog providers, so there aren't as many as before.

For this class I decided to get out my alcohol inks and do some inlaid diecutting. What is inlaid die cutting you may ask? It's pretty much when you die cut an image from one piece of paper and then cut the same image from another piece. You then remove the image cut from one piece and place it in the other...I hope that makes sense. Alcohol inks are a pretty amazing medium to use and you get a different result each and every time. For these inks however, you don't want to use a regular cardstock or paper, as it is too porous and the inks will absorb right away into the paper and not give you the desired effect you are trying to achieve. For these inks I use Yupo paper. It's a mixed media paper that has a plastic coating to it and for that reason the inks do not absorb into, but rather they sit on top of the paper. This allows the inks to move around and do their magic. A quick tip when using alcohol inks....if you happen to to get them on your hands, which you are bound to do, just rub some hand sanitizer on your hands and the alcohol will remove it no problem. Oh and also make sure you are using the inks in a well ventilated area, as the fumes from the alcohol can be a bit strong after awhile.

 

For my first card, once I had the inks as I wanted, I grabbed my gold deco foil and while the ink was still a bit tacky in some areas, I put the foil over top of the piece colour(gold) side up and pressed it over the whole piece, making sure to put some good pressure and really rub it in. Gold foil looks pretty amazing with the alcohol inks and what I was left with was a gorgeous blue, brown and gold foiled piece of art. I then die cut the hello out of this piece. If you try this inlaid die cutting technique, make sure to keep all the little pieces that are part of the image or word, so you can place them back in. I cut this twice, once from the inked panel and a second time from white card stock. 

 

Once all cut, I removed the hello from each piece and adhered the inked background piece to my card base and then placed my white hello die cut piece as well as the little inked pieces for the e, l and the o in their proper spots. And that's it for this one...simple but it still delivers that punch!

So for the second card as I didn't want the pieces to go to waste, I reversed what I did on the previous card and put the inked hello die cut into the white background. All it needed was a secondary sentiment and a few mixed gold sequins and there you have it...easy peasy!

For the 3rd card I had a piece of alcohol inked paper that I had made at first that I wasn't that crazy about, set aside. It was still in the same colours, but it just wasn't sitting right with me when I made it. So I grabbed my cube cover die that I am a bit obsessed with right now (there are so many possibilities with it) and die cut the inked panel and also a piece of white cardstock. I adhered the white die cut to a piece of fun foam and added the little pieces in their proper spots on the white...a bit of paper piecing, if you will.

I then heat embossed the happy birthday in gold on a piece of vellum, so as not to distract from the design as the vellum is more delicate than cardstock, wrapped that around the back of the card and then added some gold sequins and that's it. Oh and don't throw out any pieces at all, as you can always use them for future cards. Here is the cover die cut out that will be put to good use another time. This is what I took the small pieces from.

I really love how they all turned out! I feel they have a bit of a sophisticated feel to them...perfect for anyone! This was a wonderfully informative class, as I learned some new techniques and 1 in particular that I've been wondering how to do for awhile now, so I'm definitely going to attempt it soon, as I know now...thanks to Yana (the instructor) and her amazing skills!

Thank you again for taking the time to stop by. I would love to hear what you think of my cards down below in the comments. I hope you have a wonderful day and take some time out for yourself. Until next time :)

Supplies used:

• Altenew Mega Hello die
• Altenew Cube Cover die
• Altenew Birthday Builder stamp set
• Altenew Mega Greetings stamp set
• Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 80lb cardstock
• Ranger Fine Detail Gold embossing powder
• Pinata Havana Brown, Burro Brown and Blanco alcohol inks
• Ranger Stream, Turquoise and Pitch Black alcohol inks
• Ranger Alcohol Blending Solution
• 92% alcohol
• heat embossing gun
• vellum
• mixed gold sequins
• white fun foam
• Lawn Fawn Black Licorice dye ink