EVOLVING DIE STORAGE

In my ongoing attempt to re-organize my craft room, I have, hopefully and finally found a solution to storing the hundreds of dies that I own. When I first started buying dies I stored them in the plastic envelopes using Jennifer McGuires method. They were opted by theme and I could flip through them daily easily. As I acquired more and more, they were taking up so much space that I thought having more of them grouped together would work.  I have a large file-sized drawer in my work area and I discovered Crafter's Companion tabbed magnetic sheets that really were strong and held a lot of dies.  I have bee using this for a couple of years but there were a number of drawbacks. One was weight. The sheets are heavy to begin its, add the dies and they are heavier. Two, if there were small bits, they would sometimes fall off into the drawer. And thirdly, they were jut too unwieldy to flip through.  My latest and hopefully, final solution is to put the dies into 5 × 7 photo storage boxes from @scrapbook.com. I have a combo of the old magnetic sheets that I used in the very beginning and my newer, stronger ones using Marietta Magnetics 5 x 7 self adhesive magnetic sheets on medium weight chipboard. The boxes fit quite a lot of dies and they are all stored by theme. I can just grab the specific box and rummage easily through it.

1 BACKGROUND STAMP 4 CARDS

This card features SIMON SAYS STAMP GIFT BOXES background stamp.  I stamped it twice, one in white and embossed in white, and one with Versamark and embossed in gold. I then cut up

the stamped image so I could get two cards out of each image.

 I used distress inks to make a blended background and the embossed ink make a resist for the inks.  On two of the cards I dripped a bit of water and perfect pearls and on the other two I splattered some KREMER GOLD PAINT.  I mounted on black, then white and placed on Simon Says Stamp Fog cardstock.  I used the same die cut for all the cards (unfortunately I am writing this away from home and I can't remember who makes this but will add that info when I return in 2 weeks.) I used a gold glitter card stock from Simon and a black shiny cardstock from ERIN LEE CREATIVE.  I cut 3 layers of cardstock and glued them together for dimension.  I finished off with some sequins and some gold baubles from Trinity Stamps.  Hope this helps you to stretch your background stamps!  

 

BUTTERFLY BIRTHDAY CARD

Sometimes a card comes together really easily and sometimes it takes me forever to make my original idea work.  This card was one of the take forever kind.  I had the idea of butterflies on a slimline card so using the GINA K BEAUTIFUL BUTTERFLIES I stamped and colored 4 of the images that I thought would work on the card and die cut using the co-ordinating dies.  I first ink blended on Neenah solar white with distress inks and  then used a 3d EMBOSSING FOLDER FROM MEMORY BOX that I had to emboss twice to be able to cover the whole card.  And yes, one was upside down but since it was an overall pattern once the butterflies were on, you couldn't tell.  Once it was embossed I went over it with a slightly darker ink to bring out the highlights.  However, when I placed the butterflies on the card they didn't seem grounded so I used WAFFLE FLOWER SLIM LAYER DIES to cut a border die out of TONIC SILKY SKY  metallic paper.  That contained the butterflies but I felt the colored ones overpowered the card.  Using an older MFT beautiful butterfly stamp set and dies, I stamped on heavyweight vellum using a sparkle embossing powder and placed those in between the colored butterflies.  I added a few jewels in between the butterflies.  I used the CONCORD & 9TH PERFECT PAIRINGS BIRTHDAY DIE for the inside sentiment and one of the leftover colored butterflies.  For the envelope I used a 12 x 12 paper from my stash and the TIM HOLTZ PERSPECTIVE BUTTERFLY DIE and die cut the name with the same Tonic silky sky paper.   Probably the most elaborate card I have ever made, hope you like it.

 

SIMON SAYS STAMP FLORAL GARDEN BIRTHDAY CARD

I made three tags in December for Christmas cards that I never used.  I have a bunch of birthdays in May and June and decided to use them.  The tags were made out of Neenah solar white 110 lbs using Graphic45 tag die.  I then used distress oxide spray with metallic on all of the cards.

I then stamped with Simon Says Stamp Floral Garden stamp in black Versafine ink using the Misti.  When the stamp dried I used Polychromos pencils  to slightly color in some of the flowers and leaves.  I also used a white Gelly roll pen to add some white highlights to some of the flowers.  When I was done I decided the card needed a little sparkle so I sprayed with Perfect Pearls over the whole card.  I did have to blot the image as the distress inks are reactive with water but I love the way the Pearls just give a little something extra!  

When looking though my sequins and embellies I bound this little jewel with a tiny hummingbird.  I have had these for years (only a few have hummers and the rest have designs) and have NO idea where I got them or who made them but it was just perfect for this card.  I die cut Simon Says stamp Brush Script wafer die out of gold mirror cardstock and the backing in heavy duty vellum.

 

LEAFY GREEN BIRTHDAY CARD

I had a few gel prints on hand and I picked one that was very green.  I had used a very old background stamp from Impression Obsession called Boxwood that is one of my long time favorites.  On top of that I used the leaf layer from the Layered Leaves & Flowers stencil from Pretty Pink Posh.  I applied a coat of Nuvo Glimmer paste in Moonstone.  Because that had a goldish tint I used Tonic Gold metallic paper for the sentiment using Tim Holtz Stretch Upper dies.  For the leafy boughs, I used the scrap paper that I cleaned my brayer on for the outline and the same gold paper for the 1st layer.  

The Birthday I layered with foam tape as I did with the leaves.  The panel was then mounted on kraft and the finished size was 5 x 5".

A HEARTFELT BIRTHDAY CARD

A 101 BIRTHDAY CARD

We are up in Mammoth taking a short vaca away from Los Angeles chaos.  I have a small corner of our master bedroom that I use as my craft area and have very limited supplies.  One of the cards I needed to make this week is a birthday card for a dear dear 101 year old.  One of the dies I have up here is the BIRCH PRESS CAPRICE HEART LAYER SET and after watching JENNIFER MCGUIRES DIE CUT  layering video, I knew I wanted to make a card using some of her techniques.  I brought up some TONIC GOLD HEARTED PAPER PACK and cut multiple hearts of 3 different gold papers.  I also used Neenah white 80lb as the middle layer of the die. I cut a white panel and die cut 3 hearts from top to bottom from Neenah 110lb and then splattered that with Kuretake Gansai Tambi gold from the Gem color set.  Once I glued and stacked all the hearts (while watching TV) I set them aside and cut a smaller panel of pink card stock that exactly matched my pink envelope( I believe I got this from the Paper Source).  I layered that under the card front so that the pink would show through as the base layer.

The final step for the card was to add some TRINITY STAMPS GEORGEOUS GOLD BAUBLES .  I love these! For the Envelope I used SSS LAYERING HEARTS stencil from the SIMON SAYS STAMP LOVE YOU release.

METALLIC OMBRE LETTERS BIRTHDAY CARD

I was watching this video by Kristina Werner and just loved the idea of metallic paints on black watercolor paper and decided to adapt that for a birthday card.   I used ALTENEW METALLIC WATERCOLORS on STONEHENGE AQUA BLACK COLDPRESS paper, the  ALTENEW BOLD CAPS dies for this project and the the balloon stamp from the Ink Road stamps.

I first did a wash of color onto the black watercolor paper, overlapping the colors a bit to blend.  While that was drying I did a wash of light purple, using the KARIN DECO PRO METALLIC markers and put that aside to dry.  I die cut the letters out of the black watercolor paper, making sure I lined up the letters so that the ombre effect would be the same on all the letters.  I stamped the balloon stamp and embossed in a fine gold embossing powder and then painted it trying to mimic Kristina's use of gold and color together.  When that was dry I fussy cut the image.  I then die cut the light purple panel using TRINITY STAMPS SLIMLINE DIE.  I adhered the balloon stamp directly to the paper and applied foam ounting tape to the letters and using a T-square, I mounted the letters onto the paper.  The panel was then attached to a black card base cut (finished size is 8.5 x 4.75).