Showing posts with label Techniques. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Techniques. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Watch for it Wednesday #59 - Scrappin' on the Edge

Have you had an opportunity to try out any of the new Cottage Cutz Edgers yet?? There are so many different designs that there is definitely something for everyone!! But don't be fooled - these edgers are not just for cards and other smaller projects. For my tip today, I am going to show you how to take any of the new Cottage Cutz 7" Edgers and create a full 12" border.

First, choose your cardstock color and edger that you plan on using. For this demonstration, I have chosen to use the Cottage Cutz Daisy Edger, but you can use which ever you want. I trimmed my cardstock down to about 1" which gave me enough to fully cover the edger die.



Now, you are ready to start cutting. Line up the top of your piece of 12" cardstock with the top of the Edger and place it onto your die-cutting machine.


When are are ready to place your cutting mat down, be sure that the end of the cutting mat does NOT go all the way to the end of the edger die. This placement will prevent the very end of the edger die from cutting the design into the cardstock.


After your first roll through your die-cutting machine, you should have a cut piece that looks something like this picture. You can see that the end of the design just stops because by not having the cutting on top of the end of the edger die, you did not cut the end of the die.

Peel away the scrap paper from either side of the cut portion of your cardstock to reveal the design.

Here is a close up of what the middle of your cardstock piece should look like at this point:

Now, you want to carefully place the cut portion of the cardstock paper directly on top of the design parts of the edger die so that you have lined up the the die cut portion right on top of the actual die.

Lay these two pieces onto your die-cutting machine.

This time, when you are placing your cutting mat onto the die, you want to make sure not to cover the end where you have already cut the design out of the cardstock.

Once you have your cutting placed correctly, roll it all through your cutting machine. You will now end up with a complete 12" long piece of Daisy edge to use on your project.

Depending upon how you place your cardstock the second time through or the length of paper you are cutting, you may need to do to a little trimming to the second end to finish it off, but not necessarily.

I hope this tutorial will inspire to get out your edgers and start playing! And if you have been holding off getting them because you think they are just for cards, think again!! Now you have the skills to make any edge length you need!!
Come back on Friday and see the layout that I used this Daisy border!!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Watch for it Wednesday #55

Today's tip is designed to help when you are piecing together some of the smaller more detailed pieces on your Cottage Cutz dies.

One of my favorite things about the Cottage Cutz shapes is the phenomenal details found in these dies. I feel like this attention to design is one of the biggest things that sets the Cottage Cutz dies apart from all other metal dies on the market today.

Now, that being said, sometimes the intricacies of some of the shapes may be intimidating when you first sit down to begin piecing the smaller accent pieces onto your shape. My tip for today is a technique I have started using that saves me time and headaches!

Let's take for instance the adorable new Ladybug Cottage Cutz shape from the Spring Release. This die really pieces together pretty easily and quickly. However, you do have the small block spots to contend with before your die cut is complete. Rather than try to apply adhesive to the backs of some of these smaller pieces, instead place small dots of adhesive where you want your spots to be placed onto the larger shape.

So you simply need to pick up your glue of choice (I like Zip Dry) and then dot several little dots of glue right where you plan to place the spots. Once you are finished applying glue, just pick up your sticky stick (or whatever you like to use to pick up your smaller pieces of paper) and quickly and easily, place the black spots right onto the dots of glue.

Using this method cuts down the time and energy that would otherwise be spent painstakingly applying adhesive to the backs of each tiny little black spot one at a time and then placing the spots down onto the shape.

I hope this little tip has given you some motivation to get out some of your dies that maybe you haven't tried yet and see what you can come up with yourself!!

Have a great day and be sure to come back tomorrow for another fabulous creation from the very talented Karen!!! And then on Friday, I'll post my layout using an adorable little Ladybug I created using today's tip!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Watch for it Wednesday #36

My tip today is a fun way to use Perfect Pearls and a Mini Mister. You will need Perfect Pearls, a Mini Mister (they normally come in sets of 3), and some Ranger Re-inker (I used Peeled Paint - great neutral base with just enough die to make the Pearls show up). Now, you want to pick a couple colors of Perfect Pearls that you want to use. I chose Perfect Bronze and Sunflower Sparkle because they both said Autumn to me. Put a tiny scoop of each color into your Mini Mister. Then drop 3 drops from the Re-Inker bottle into the Mini Mister (FYI - You MUST use a re-inker and not regular alcohol inks. Alcohol inks are not designed to be aerosolized and are TOXIC if used in this manner!!) Now, just fill the Mini Mister up the rest of the way with water and mix it all together.

You are now ready to start spraying!!

Here is a before picture of a whole bunch of leaves that I have cut out to be sprayed with my Perfect Pearls solution. I have gone ahead and inked the edges and also outlined the leaf veins with my Copic markers before I spray them with my solution.

When you are ready to spray, make sure you have the area surrounding your pieces covered unless you want your work surface to have a new Bronze coating ;)

Hold the Mini Mister about 12" or 14" above your pieces and give it a couple of sprays. When you are first starting out, you are going to be tempted to over-spray. It will take a few minutes for the spray to dry so that the color will show up. Spray it a couple of times and then let it dry before you spray again. You can always add more color - you can't take it away once it is there! You may even want to practice on some spare sheets just to get a feel for it and to see if you like more or less color.

I gave this leaf a heavier coating than my others so you would really be able to see the change. The spray really gives the leaf such a wonderful sheen.

Here are the rest of my leaves. I know it is hard to see the bronze flecks on the leaves but hopefully you get the idea. Once all of my Perfect Pearl leaves were dried, I added them to my layout. I used the Cottage Cutz mini maple leaf die from the August Cottage Cutz Release to cut out all of the leaves. Then before I sprayed them with my Mini Mister, I inked the edges and then outlined the inside veins of each of the leaves with my Copic Markers. I also used the Cottage Cutz Raking the Leaves Die as another Fall accent to my page. And once again, the November Pagemaps were my inspiration for my page design.

Another really cool effect of spraying the leaves with the Perfect Pearls mixture is that as the leaves dry, they tend to curl up just a little. This curling makes for much more realistic leaves. I mean, when have you ever seen perfectly flat leaves, right?!!
This technique would also be great to use on your Winter layouts to make snow glisten and shine! Just change your Pearl colors! Really, what projects couldn't use a little something extra ;)
Here are a couple of close-ups to give you a better view of some of the details :)



I hope you liked this tip. Now, run out to the store and stock up so you can start spraying your cards and layouts!!