Today we are celebrating another fun release from Altenew, with some great stand-alone dies. I’m really excited to have two of my own designs in this release and I’m hoping after this post, you are going to be excited about them as well.
Once again I went a bit overboard with the number of cards I created. That’s because I was really inspired by these products. Dies are really fun to work with cause you can die-cut a lot of pieces in bulk and them put together many cards really quickly.
Last year I designed the Leaf Mix Die Set and it got sold out in less than 24h! Since this set was so popular, I thought it’d be great to have some additional leaf designs with a summery twist, Tropical Leaf Mix Die Set. Both sets coordinate perfectly and between them, there are endless combinations you can create. The best part is, that if you are on a budget, you can get amazing results with either of these sets. Each set has a variety of thin detail images, solid designs that cover a lot of space, and a few options in between.
For the cards I created today I use primarily images from the new Tropical Leaf Mix Die Set with a few of my top favorite pieces from the original Leaf Mix Die Set. All the designs can be recreated with either set or any of your favorite stand-alone dies (especially leaves).
Leaf Clusters
One of the easiest and most fun ways to use the Leaf Mix Die sets is to layer a few of the pieces together in fun combinations. Depending on the number of layers and the color combinations you choose you can create different designs.
Here are a few of my favorite (from left to right):
- Fun & colorful approach: Put together layered leaves using bright colors mixed together (I suggest at least 3 layers each). In my card, I used Altenew Gradient Cardstock in three color families.
- Rainbow approach: Put together your layered leaves using colors from the same color family for each leaf. For this design I suggest 2-3 layers at most. Pick color families that are close together and can create a partial (or full) rainbow. In my card, I used purple, pink, coral, and orange/yellow.
- Monochromatic approach: For a simple and more elegant variation, limit yourself to a specific color family. To keep things even simpler, you can use the same image as the base of each leaf.
Sentiments used: Anywhere with You, Say Yes and Greatest Adventure
Scattered Pattern
Although Tropical Leaf Mix Die Set is great for layered leaves, you can use the images individually as well. A fun way to do that is to create fun patterns for your background. The easiest pattern design you can put together is scattered.
Start from one edge of your card and place each die-cut piece in different angles. Fill in the gaps as dense or airy as you like.
To take it up a notch, you can do the exact same thing as inlay die-cuts (left card). To do that, make sure you pick leaf designs without openings on the inside cause it will make the process much harder.
- Arrange the dies on a card panel building up your arrangement. Keep everything together with masking tape to make sure things won’t move around.
- Run it through your die-cutting machine to cut out the images.
- Adhere the cut-out panel on your card base.
- Die-cut the same images from colored cardstock and adhere them inside the openings.
Lazy Alternative:
- Arrange and adhere die-cut images on a card panel.
- Cover the back of the panel with double-sided adhesive.
- Place the dies right on top of the die-cut images (making sure the dies nest right in and they don’t wiggle a lot) and secure them in place with masking tape.
- Run everything through your die-cutting machine.
The pressure of the die-cutting machine flattens the die-cut pieces you adhered on top of the panel and creates cut lines around them. If you don’t mess up the alignment of the dies (like I did with the top pink leaf) everything will look just like you did a “traditional” die-cut inlay technique.
Sentiments used: All About You Word Die Set, and Mega Greetings 2 Stamp Set
Simple Linear Arrangements
Another easy way to put together a beautiful background is to arrange the leaves in a linear pattern. The shape of the leaves in the Tropical Leaf Mix Die Set makes it super easy to put together.
If you want your design to look very simple you can use the same image in various colors and cover half of the background (left card).
For a bolder result, cover the whole background with different images in bold colors (right card).
Sentiments used: Amazing Things Stamp Set, All About You Word Die Set, and Mega Greetings 2 Stamp Set
Eye-Catching Arrangements
If you want to take your background arrangements to the next level, there are a couple of ideas I have for you.
Right Card: Turn a simple linear arrangement into an eye-catching background by using layered images. For a fun and bold result use bright colors. In my card I used the same color family for the layers of each individual leaf but you can play around with different color combinations.
Left Card: Arrange the die-cut images in a radial design coming from the center of the card. Again the shape of the leaves in the Tropical Leaf Mix Die Set works perfectly as each piece nests around the others effortlessly. Stamo your sentiment on a circle to enchance the design even more.
Sentiments used: All About You Word Die Set, and Simply the Best Stamp Set
Backgrounds with Word Dies
For the last couple of cards I used the All About You Word Die Set but the same techniques can work with other dies that have two layers that nest together. I really love die sets that include both the word and the shadow around it cause you can use them in so many ways.
Here are a few simple ideas:
Ink Blended Outline (left card)
- Die-cut various words and their shadow from white cardstock.
- Color the shadow images with a soft gradient using an ink blending tool.
- Adhere the white words on top of the ink-blended die-cuts.
- Arrange them on your card base and add finishing touches depending on your composition.
Inlay Die-cutting (middle card)
- Cover your panel with double-sided adhesive. (In my card I wanted a white-on-white effect for those inlay die-cut pieces that’s why I used the adhesive. If you want to use colored cardstock or manually color the outline images, skip this step)
- Arrange the dies on your panel building up your arrangement. Keep everything together with masking tape to make sure things won’t move around.
- Run it through your die-cutting machine to cut out the images. The double-sided adhesive will keep everything together so you don’t need to do double work.
- Die-cut the coordinating words from colored cardstock and adhere them in place.
- To highlight my sentiment, I reversed the colors of the word “you” so that the outer piece is colored and the word is white.
3D Inlay (left card)
- Arrange the dies on a card panel building up your arrangement. Keep everything together with masking tape to make sure things won’t move around.
- Run it through your die-cutting machine to cut out the images.
- Adhere the cut-out panel on your card base using foam tape.
- Die-cut the same images from colored cardstock and adhere them inside the openings.
Products Used
[products ids=”10483, 10486, 10366, 10367, 10365″ orderby=”id” order=”DESC” columns=”5″]
Card Close-ups
I hope you are inspired and excited to create something fun. There are even more stunning projects created by the other designers participating in the release blog hop. You can start at the very beginning of the hop here or if you just came from Carol Hintermeier‘s blog you can continue to the next stop: Sandhya Iyer.
Giveaway Prizes
$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to 2 lucky winners and a $25 gift certificate to 8 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 06/23/2021 for a chance to win.
Altenew will draw 10 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 06/25/2021.
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