Happy weekend, Ellen Hutson fans! Today I have a fun partial die cut border technique to share with you, using Julie's Essentials by Ellen Up The Happy stamp set and coordinating Up The Happy dies:
Here's how to make the pretty butterfly border:
1. Starting with a standard 1/4-sheet (4.25" x 5.50") of watercolor paper. Place butterfly die along the right edge of the paper to determine how much of the butterfly you'd like to appear hanging off the edge. In my case, it was about 7/8". Lightly mark a pencil line to use as placement.
2. Position the pencil line on the watercolor paper along the left edge of your die cutting plate and tape the paper to the bottom cutting plate, using washi or low-tack tape. Also tape the butterfly die in place on the paper (cutting edge down) -- you don't want anything moving around!
3. Place the top cutting plate over the paper and die, making sure the left edge lines up perfectly with the lower cutting plate. Everything that is under the cutting plate will cut, and anything hanging off the left edge of the cutting plates will NOT cut. Run through your die cutting machine. Repeat the butterfly cutting three more times. HINT: Cut the top and bottom butterflies first, spacing them an even distance from the top and bottom edges, then cut the two center butterflies. I didn't do this with my first attempt shown above and came out a little uneven!
4. Once your butterflies are die cut, trim along the straight pencil line using either scissors or a craft knife and straight edge.
5. I am horrible at stamping onto die cuts -- I never get them straight! So I used my Misti to position the uninked butterfly stamp onto each butterfly die cut, one at a time. Pick up the butterfly stamp with the Misti's lid, ink the stamp, then stamp.
I used these Distress Inks (from the top): Picked Raspberry, Twisted Citron, Tumbled Glass, Shaded Lilac:
6. Once all the butterflies were stamped, I used a water brush to lightly blur the inner butterfly lines and move the color around.
7. Next, I also used the Misti to stamp the sentiment in two different colors. First, I masked off the center "Super Lucky" words and only linked the upper and lower "the world is" and "to have you" with Versafine Onyx Black and stamped those words:
As you can see below, I didn't mask too well and a little bit of the top of the "Super" word also stamped. BUT I didn't worry too much about it, since I knew I would be embossing the "Super Lucky" next. Because the Misti will stamp in exactly the same spot again, the first accidental black stamping will be covered with embossing powder -- yay, card saved!
Just be sure to let the Versafine black ink dry thoroughly first AND use an Embossing Magic Bag or anti-static powder over the whole sentiment area. Clean the sentiment stamp and mask off the top and bottom portions, so only the "Super Lucky" words get inked with Versamark or other clear embossing ink. Stamp, then heat emboss with Super Fine Silver embossing powder.
8. Using a VersaMarker or other clear embossing ink marker, draw a line along the right straight edge between the butterflies (shown above) and also silver heat emboss.
9. To finish the card, I made a standard A2 card base (4.25" wide x 5.50" tall) from Neenah Solar White cardstock and adhered a 1/2-inch strip of Bazzill Licorice Twist to the left side of the card front.
10. Next, trim 7/8" from the right side of the card front. Adhere a 1-inch strip of Licorice Twist to the inside right edge of the card.
11. Adhere the butterfly panel to the card front using foam tape.
We are super lucky to have you joining us today in the CLASSroom ... thank you!
