Susan - Level 2 - Beyond Basic Backgrounds

I'm pretty excited to have jumped the hurdle into Level 2 and I'm already very impressed with the new ideas and techniques I'm learning in this more advanced series. I really loved the "Beyond Basic Backgrounds" videos (and of course, the British accent helps!). Every technique shown there was great, but I am a real fan of inlaid die cuts and having just gotten a new shipment of fun items, including the Rippling Rings border die, I just had to try it out. Doing the inlays for this one is a bit of a challenge, and the nature of the die is a bit different so keeping track of all those little bits and pieces was - well, I'll just say - interesting.

I'm really enjoying using holographic and iridescent materials lately so I decided that cutting the dies from these types of cardstock and using a black panel would be dramatic and interesting.

In order to accommodate multiple die cuts, I needed to go a bit bigger with the card, so I selected a 5 by 6 1/2 inch card base and cut a black panel to 4 1/2 by 6. I then used the die to cut the pattern is 3 places as shown in the panel on the right. I also heat embossed my sentiment using silver embossing powder (and this is my all time favorite Altenew sentiment!)

I then carefully mounted the black panel onto a piece of white cardstock that I covered with StickIt adhesive (a double sided adhesive sheet) which left the die cut areas open for the dies and inlay. Having the stickiness underneath so that I didn't need to use glue for each tiny piece was a BIG advantage here.

I cut 3 images with the Rippling Rings die from 3 different specialty card stocks (all are from Brutus Monroe) in a color family of red and light pink holographic cardstock and a pink/green iridescent cardstock and arranged them on the card. I then inlaid all the black pieces, and finished it off with a few iridescent confetti sequins.

Here you will see a closer view of the sentiment. This also shows the details of the inlaid pieces.

I think the "mod" look of this die, the eye-catching cardstock for the inlays and the fun sentiment come together to make this a fun card that I hope anyone would like to receive!