Nancy's Creative Mess: *Inlaid Die Cuts*

Happy Monday!! I'm back with another post for the Scrap 'n Stamp design team... following along with the Random Acts of Cardness prompts, today I am sharing a card I created using inlaid die cuts. This is a fun technique that leaves you with a smooth card front, perfect for mailing (instead of a bulky card that could get damaged in the mail).

I started out with a white panel cut to 3 7/8 X 5 1/8" and I used Purple Tape to adhere my dies to the panel so that the dies wouldn't move. I cut out the bow, the ornament top and the word JOY from this first panel and then decided to cut the extra "O" image with the star centre out of a scrap of white cardstock and some of the elements out of silver sparkle paper as well. I thought I was being super smart and kept all the pieces from the die cutting.... I threw out two important pieces... can you tell what they were from this photo?

I used some Gina K ink and my Taylored Expressions blending brushes to create an ombre look to the letters... I started at the bottom of each letter so that area would be the darkest part of each letter.

Once I had all of my pieces ready, I took a piece of printer paper and covered it with Sookwang double sided adhesive. I love the sookwang because it is super sticky and I can tear it instead of cut it! I then laid my card panel face down on my workspace and put the printer paper on it, with the sticky side against the cardstock. This gives me an easy way to attach my inlaid elements without making a mess with glue.

I put in each of the pieces... and this is when I realized I threw out the insides of the bow cut from the white cardstock, so I had to cut that part of the die again.

Once I had all of the pieces attached, I flipped the piece over and burnished it all down from the back, making sure all of my elements were well adhered. I then used my We R Memory Keepers Layers Guide to create a perfect 1/16" mat around my card front and added it all to a white card base.