Hello crafters, it’s Dawny P with you today here at the Tonic Studios blog.
The project I’m sharing has been made using the Decorative Oval Layering die set. This is a truly versatile, elegant and pretty set which has lots of uses including layering, creating your base cards, stenciling and making frames. It’s a clever set and all the dies work with and compliment each other, and you can layer them up or just use them individually. The designs on the dies are pretty and lacy but they have a contemporary feel to them as well and I think they’re stunning. And being a verso set, you of course have your inside and outside edge dies so you can stretch the set ever further.
There are 11 dies here and you will need your A4 die cutting machine to use the 2 largest, but don’t let that put you off because the other 9 will happily go through your A5 machines. In fact, today’s project can be made using A5 plates except for 1 step which you could easily miss out with no real impact on the overall card. I’ll explain in more detail during the step by step but I included it just to show you another dimension to the set.
Today’s project is an easel card and I used the 4th largest die to make the base. I’ve also put together a short compilation video which shows the actual card in more detail plus 3 other cards I made using the set and I hope you’ll find it useful.
So let’s get cracking and make something pretty - fire up your die cutter and off we go!!
Fold a piece of A4 cardstock in half and give it a once over with your bone folder. Now place the die so that it overhangs the fold a bit as shown and run it through your machine.
Top Tip
I’ve used craft perfect cardstock here which is 216gsm. Don’t overload your machine by using cardstock that is too thick.
Take the first piece you cut and fold one side to the middle. Add glue to one section of the folded side only as shown.
Top Tip
When you’re folding, use the holes in the pattern to line it all up nice and neatly.
Now take the second piece you cut and stick it to the section with glue. It will look like this from the side. Your base card is now done.
Top Tip
You can use this technique with a lot of dies you might have.
Now for the decorative pieces.
Cut 2 in white as shown.
Open up the base card and stick these white die cuts down on each half as shown.
Top Tip
Fold your card flat at this point, as if you were putting it into an envelope. Because we are missing a tiny bit of pattern where the die was overhanging the fold in the first step, it might be necessary to trim a bit off of the white die cut on the bottom section of the card by the fold. If you need to do this, mountain fold the bottom section and it will then be easier to see how much you will need to trim away.
Cut 1 each in white, blue and kraft.
TIP - there are 2 dies that look similar in the set but they are actually different. One is larger than the other and this is the larger die. You’ll know it’s the right one because the pin holes are on the inside of the cutting edge
Take the kraft piece and cut this inside edge die into it.
Oops, somebody didn’t clean out the die before taking the photograph!!
Apologies.
Do the same with the blue piece and then take the smaller oval die and cut this into it. This die has the pin holes on the outside of the cutting edge.
You’ll end up with a pretty frame.
Stick the frame down onto the white piece of the same size.
Additional step for A4 machines - please ignore if you have an A5 machine.
I wanted to create a scalloped border using kraft card to sit behind this so this is what I did.
Cut a frame using the 2 largest dies from kraft.
Cut small sections from the kraft frame and glue on the underside of the white piece before you glue down the blue frame.
That’s the additional step finished. It’s just another way of using the larger die other than to mat and layer etc but the card will look just as nice without this step.
Using the die with the pin holes on the outside of the cutting edge, cut one in white and one in blue.
Cut the inside edge die into the blue piece…
… and glue to the white piece.
Cut one in white as shown and glue to the centre of the last piece.
Open up the base card and glue down these pieces as shown.
Add a sentiment, some flowers and sequins and you are all done.
