See-Through Die Cut Card | Autumn Inspirational Hop

This is one of two hops I’m participating in today. If you’re looking for the Power Of Practice hop, you can find that here. This card is for the Autumn Inspiration YouTube hop, the theme of which is Autumn and hope, and I chose to make an Autumnal encouragement card, taking inspiration from some previous projects by Jennifer McGuire.

I started with a panel of alcohol inked vellum (from a large snippet) that I had made some time ago and set aside as I felt the colours were too muddy. I decided it would work well for leaves though, which is why I pulled it out for this project. I wanted to make the vellum sturdier before die cutting so I coated the back of the entire panel with double sided tape and adhered it to some white card.

With the panel ready I started on my die cutting. I used two leaf dies which I got in an old Love From Lizi card kit – small leaf, and small maple leaf. I didn’t worry too much about which part of the panel I cut with which, just trying to get as many leaves as possible from the piece.

Having cut all my leaves I started arranging them on a panel of white card cut to the size of an A2 card base, so 4 1/4″ by 5 1/2″. I wanted them arranged such that there were gaps in between, creating the see-through card front, but also with some overlapping areas so that I would be able to adhere them together. In hindsight I should have actually overlapped them a little more than I did as my final arrangement ended up quite delicate.

Once I was pleased with the arrangement I used washi tape to hold the leaf panel together. Press n Seal would be a better option if you have it. I cut away the pieces of leaves which went beyond the bounds of my card panel, then used Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue to assemble my panel by adhering all the overlapping areas of leaves together.

When all the overlapping pieces were adhered, completing the panel, I placed it into my paper trimmer and scored the top of the panel. I then added Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue to the back of the scored area so that I could adhere the leaf panel to the white card panel, creating the card base.

The last element I needed for my card was a sentiment panel. I die cut a snippet of white card with a stitched circle die from Kat Scrappiness’ Crafters Essentials I die set, then stamped onto it with a sentiment from Unity’s Spring To Go stamp set using Hero Arts Just Rust ink. I adhered the circle over my leaves, then opened the card and attached a second circle directly behind it to hide the adhesive. I then took a third circle and lined it up to adhere to the inside of the card, directly behind the other circles, in order to make an area that the message to the recipient could be written on.

I really love how this card turned out, even if it’s a bit more delicate than I would prefer. The alcohol inked panel works so perfectly for these leaves. I did learn from the process (which is important!) and if I were to make this again one of the main things I would do differently is that I would build the leaf panel around the sentiment circle. That way I would have had a sturdy starting point to work out from, and I wouldn’t have ‘wasted’ leaves by having them hidden behind the circle.

Don’t forget that this is part of a hop. Head over to YouTube to continue hopping!

Love,

Lady Joyful

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Challenges:

Art Impressions – To Die For

Classic Design Challenge – Anything Goes

Crafter’s Castle – Anything Goes

Crafty Gals Corner – Fall Colours

Double D Challenges – Colourful

Meant To Be Sent – Just Because

Pixie’s Snippets Playground – Use Snippets

STAMPlorations Summer Challenge – Anything Goes

The Sisterhood of Crafters – Autumn

Try Stampin’ On Tuesday – Inspiration Image (edit: where it was picked as Top 3!)