Two Thank You Cards

Online Card Classes' "Stretch Your Dies" class ends tomorrow. I've really been enjoying this class, and will be sorry to see it end. Their classes are always chock full of content, and I like the camaraderie and interactivity with the instructors & other students. I would highly recommend any of their classes!

I created 2 thank you cards, both based on lessons in "Stretch Your Dies." My first card is based on Debby Hughes' lesson on Day 1, "Inlay Design." She took the process of die cut inlay one step further, and had her inlaid word die cut span the seam between 2 patterned papers.

I first chose 2 patterned papers from my scrap stash. I wanted this to be a more "gender-neutral" card, so I didn't pick anything too frilly or flowery. After trimming the striped patterned paper, I positioned the "Thanks" die from Simon Says Stamp so it hung over the top edge, and ran it through my die cutting machine. I made sure to keep all the little pieces that go inside the letters. I also die cut the word from a piece of dark brown cardstock. I cut another piece of brown, and ran it through my Xyron Sticker Maker, to apply adhesive to one side. Then I stuck that to the back of the patterned paper piece, and adhered my die cut word in the negative space.

Next I adhered the striped patterned paper to a piece of brown grid paper. I cut off the bottom of the left over piece from my die cut word, and lined up the remaining top section with my die cut word. Then I placed the die in that space, taped it to the grid paper, and ran that through my die cutting machine. I adhered another piece of adhesive-covered brown cardstock behind that, and stuck the die cut word to that, making sure to line up the "thanks" in the negative space in the grid paper. Finally, I replaced all of the inner pieces in the letters.

For the rest of the greeting, I stamped one from Simon Says Stamp's "Thanks" stamp set onto a strip of brown cardstock, using Versamark ink. I heat embossed that with Ranger Super Fine Detail White embossing powder, trimmed the right end at an angle, and glued that in place on the card. Finally, I matted the patterned papers with kraft cardstock, and adhered that to an A2-size card base.

My second card was quite a bit easier. I based it on a lesson by Jennifer McGuire on "Heat Shrink Craft Foam," also from Day 1 of class. I die cut the "thanks" from blue fun foam, using one of My Favorite Things' "Many Thanks" dies. I also die cut several stars from yellow & orange fun foam using a Lifestyle Crafts' "Nesting Stars" die. I heated all those with my heat tool, which shrank the foam and made it more dense, kind of like shrink plastic. Really pretty neat! I did learn, though (the hard way), not to hold the heat tool too close, or it will melt & burn the foam. You can also control how much the die cuts shrink, at least to some degree, just by how long you heat them.

For the background, I die cut the "thanks" several times from light blue cardstock, using the same die. I then used my glue pen to glue them in place on another piece of the same blue cardstock. This gives it a nice, tone-on-tone, "faux-embossed" look. Once I'd glued them all down, I trimmed off the excess hanging over the edges, and glued my foam die cuts in place.

I'm entering my second card in Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Anything Goes" challenge.