Mini Slim

Quick and Easy Die Cut Duplicates

Posted on by Lynn Hill

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! As an Irish-blooded lassie I couldn’t welcome you to my blog post any other way today. My mother’s maiden name was O’Neil and her mother’s maiden name was McStravick. A few years back my brother and I were looking through some old pictures and papers of Mama’s and we found my great-great grandfather’s naturalization papers from 1916 and the U.S. Passport he received six years later. He was born in 1855 in Ireland and arrived in America via Ellis Island. The O’Neil side came to America by way of Belfast and Ellis Island as well. Yep, official Irish here – and family proud.

I pray the luck of the Irish is with you today!

For my project this week I thought it would be fun to make cards for several of my mini friends for the Easter season. While doing so, I realized I should share my easy way to cut multiple pennants (from Taylored Expressions Pennant Parade) without having to line up and tape each die before cutting over and over again. We’ll get to that as we come to it.

I wanted these cards to be in primary colors so I chose card bases and scalloped backgrounds using the TE Bold paper pack. I selected coordinating Buffalo Plaid Brights 6×6 paper from My Favorite Things to provide the visual background for each card.

Each child’s name was cut from bold colors using the Taylored Expressions Cap It Off Alpha set. They were cut a second time using white cardstock to provide the outlines. I selected one letter in each name to be replaced with a Bunch O’ Bunnies silhouette and a puffy pom-pom tail. 

I am constantly writing notes to myself so I am always searching for a great paper desk pad. I generally use My Favorite Things’s grid pads but they have recently discontinued them. I ordered both Simon Says Stamp and Taylored Expressions grid paper pads to test them out. The Taylored Expressions pad is officially my favorite now because it not only has a grid for measuring and aligning, but it also has alignment windows to help line up and center A2 cards (horizontally and vertically) and a 6-inch square alignment window, too.

I cut each buffalo plaid sheet with a stitched rectangle die then aligned them on the grid paper using the A2 lines. I used a piece of vellum folded in half to help create a straight line for my lettering. The vellum was aligned and taped across the plaid paper ¼ inch from the bottom. I didn’t have to measure it, I lined it up with one of the grid lines that just happened to be ¼ inch from the bottom of the paper. 

Each letter was assembled with a white outline and then fed them through the Xyron Create-a-Sticker 150 machine. I actually used glue on two of the cards but decided the mess was more than I was interested in dealing with so I thought I would give the Xyron a try. Whew! That made my job ten times easier and much quicker too. I didn’t have any trouble with the letters coming apart after the adhesive was applied. 

After attaching the letters and bunny I tied a bow at both ends of a piece of 1mm burlap string. I used trial and error to decide my string length. I tied the bow on the loose end and then tied the second bow on the spool end of the string…retying until the length was not too long or too short to create a banner for my pennants.

I needed at least 25 pennant pieces because I wanted to make five cards with five pennants each. I almost dreaded the repetition until I realized I could make a template to make my project much easier.

I will explain the process I used to stamp and cut the templates but if you want to scroll down to the video you can actually see the process and maybe understand it a little better.

I used the Misti stamping platform to align five pennant stamps in a row. Using similar bold colors as those used for the names, I applied ink to the stamps in one color, adjusted the cardstock in the Misti, and repeated the process with another color until I had six rows of pennants in six different colors (Catherine Pooler Premium Dye Ink – Rockin Red, Orange Twist, Limoncello, Grass Skirt, Fiesta Blue, and Queen For A Day).

I then stamped one more row of the pennants on a separate card to create my cutting template. The Pennant Parade pennant dies come in a set of three so I aligned the three dies on the first three pennant stamps, cut them out, and then aligned two dies on the remaining pennants and cut them. 

Having a template really sped my cutting process. I was able to align the template on a stamped row of images and tape it in place. I then slid the dies on top of the template where they locked in place once they were in proper alignment. I cut three of the pennants at a time in each color and then repeated the process with the final two pennants in each color.

Sometimes a visual makes things easier so I have attached a video I made while stamping the pennants, making the template, and then cutting the pennants from cardstock.

Before I took the stamps from the Misti door I stamped a few more rows of various colors of pennants and placed them in an envelope with my template. Once you have removed the stamps from the Misti door it would be nearly impossible to replace the stamps in the same pattern. By going ahead and inking the extra stamps makes it possible for me to reuse my cutting template in the future.

Once the pennants were cut I was able to adhere them to the card using 3D Foam squares. I tucked the string behind the pennants and assembled the cards. My mini friends always enjoy getting mail and I know they will love these bright and cheerful cards when they arrive.

Supplies:

I do not receive compensation for listing the items I have used in this post; however, I like for you to be able to easily click links to order any items you might find interesting. When Possible I have included two links in case items are out of stock on one site.

As usual, I would love for you to share this post with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. If you liked what you saw today and would like to be sure to catch all of my posts, scroll to the bottom of this page and subscribe to my blog via email. I also try to post regularly to Instagram (@LynnHillIsACraftyMess) and occasionally on Facebook (@LynnHillIsACraftyMess). 

Last week I was lamenting about not being able to find any purple tape in the “old” style. I asked around this week and hear that the new style is not currently available either. I hope that means they are reformulating it back to the original style!! Today’s question has to do with the Pennant Parade dies. Does anyone else wonder why the dies don’t come in a five pack since all of the Pennant Parade stamps come in sets of five? I guess I’ll just have to order a second set of the dies to that I can get the best use out of the templates I make. Thanks for stopping by today, and Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to you!

Faux Watercolor Technique

Posted on by Lynn Hill

In the early days of America, and probably before, farmers used small notebooks to keep track of their crops and the day-to-day activities on their farms. The fact that many farmers didn’t read made the images they drew in their notebooks an important and valuable asset for their homestead. The small drawings of seedlings, pests on the land, and random marks reminded them of what they could expect from year to year. These were some of the early field notes. Of course naturists, scientists, and researchers still use small notebooks to record their observations of whatever they are studying. And, traditional Field Notes have become popular

Taylored Expressions recently aroused a love of Field Notes with a fun kit of card making tools titled just that, Field Notes. Florals are often a favorite of card making enthusiasts but I will have to admit I haven’t been much of a fan because I just can’t seem to make them consistently nice. But this line of stamps intrigued me and once again I decided to give florals a try.

I bought most of the items from the Field Notes (Set 1) line and started out by mimicking a card that was shared on the Fans of TE Facebook page (thanks Teresa Dolan for the outstanding idea). 

Daniel Smith Watercolors

For my first card (the “copy”) I used Daniel Smith Watercolors (cobalt teal blue, spa green, burnt umber, and Aussie red gold) to watercolor the flower. I cut the flower using the Sketchbook Florals die and created a background using the Frayed Edge masking stencil and snippets from the Field Notes sentiment set. I propped the flower up using Scrapbook Adhesives 3D Foam strips and splashed the project with walnut ink before adhering it to an A2 background and card. And, don’t forget to generate interest in the contents for your recipient by adding a sneak peek of the artwork to the envelope. 

Don’t forget to decorate your envelope with a sneak peek of what is inside!

My second card was also created using Field Notes elements but I decided to use my new favorite and chose a mini slim side-fold card. I enjoyed using watercolors for the first card and decided to switch it up just a bit  but still used a watercolor technique (some call it faux watercolor). I used only two colors to create the flowers (Marvy LePlume II markers in #4 green and #20 magenta). I placed the stamp in my Misti and colored the flower portion of the stamp with magenta ink. After stamping the image onto Stonehenge warm white paper I colored the stamp with green ink covering the stem, leaves, and the center portion of the stem all the way up the stamp. 

Card #2 was created using a Faux Watercolor Technique

For the faux watercolor technique, I used a wet paintbrush to pull the ink from the edges of the image being careful not to mix the green too far onto the buds of the flowers. To highlight the lighter magenta color I began at the top of each bud with the wet paintbrush and pulled the color down to meet the darker magenta that had had been created when the magenta and green had mixed.

I die cut the flowers and then cut my background pieces using patterned paper and the largest of the Petite Scallop Mini Slim Stacklets dies for the base and a rectangle cut from the Stonehenge paper using the Stitched Mini Slim Stacklets. I cut two small tags from the Sketchbook Florals set and stamped the white one with a Sketchbook Florals sentiment.

Field Notes and Sketchbook Florals

I splashed walnut ink on the Stonehenge rectangle and the flowers. After letting them dry I then assembled the card onto a mini slim side-fold base, first attaching the sentiment tags with a very small button brad and finally adding some Stampin’ Up All The Trimmings embellishments to the card.

I have to admit, I have never been a fan of floral cards. That’s partly because I find it difficult to make florals look nice. That all changed with this stamp set and I would highly recommend trying the Field Notes products. Better yet, check out the new Field Notes #2 Kit! (I don’t get any kickback for any of the links that are included on this post, I just like the products and wanted to make it easy for you to check them out and/or buy them too).