We are so very thrilled to be welcoming the oh, so talented, clean and simple designer Cristina Kowalczyk to the CLASSroom today! Being the busy mom of two (one being a new-born) I don't know how she manages it all, but she does so beautifully. She has guest designed for us in Julie Ebersole's online class - Fold It, Pop It, Flip It, Zip It and a number of Online Card Classes including the upcoming Holiday Card Workshop. Currently Cristina does design work for Wplus9 Design Studio, Papertrey Ink, Embellish Magazine AND Runway Inspired.
To see more of her beautiful creations visit Cristina's blog, My Paper Secret! I would appreciate if you would head over to Cristina's blog now and help us thank her for sharing her talents with us here in the CLASSroom today. Please leave your comment on her post about being a guest here. As our way of thanking you for taking the time to do so you will have a chance to win some of the fabulous products she used in this post! You know you are in the right place if you see the following picture.
Thank you Cristina for sharing your beautiful project with us here in the CLASSroom today! -Ellen
Once upon a time, when I was first starting out in cards, I swore that I would never get a die cut machine. I thought it was just one more supply that I didn’t really need. Ha! It didn’t take long before I surrendered and bought a Cuttlebug, and that one little purchase completely changed my approach to cardmaking.
These days dies are more popular than ever, and I have a collection that I can barely contain. I’m always looking for new ways to use them, and today I made a card using one of my favorite techniques – insetting.
Insetting your die cuts is a great option for when you want to keep your cards flat for mailing without losing the detail of the die.
You can see what I mean in this card, which features wonderfully intricate snowflakes dies from Impression Obsession.
If I had done a negative die cut, I would have sacrificed all that detail, and if I had simply adhered the positive die cut over the base, it would have added an extra layer.
Instead, I started by cutting the negative spaces out of a layer of cardstock (because of my design, that piece in the corner separated from the rest, but don’t worry, I’ll just tape it down like everything else).
Then I cut the snowflakes again, this time out of colored cardstock.
All that’s left to do now is place the colored snowflakes in the negative openings.
And voila! Everything’s flat and flush, which especially important for mass mailing holiday cards, but still colorful and detailed. I stamped a trendy banner sentiment from Hero Arts/Studio Calico’s Spread Joy set and used a glue pen to add a bit of microfine glitter (‘tis the season for glitter and if you’re in the market for some, seriously, you can’t do much better than this stuff from Glitter Ritz), and that’s it!
Thanks so much for joining me in the CLASSroom today, and a gigantic thanks to Ellen for having me! - Cristina
