Playing with Die Cuts

I love using die cuts on my projects.  They are so versatile. I can cut them out of paper or if I want something a little more robust I cut them of card (usually recycled cracker or cereal boxes) and layer them up to give me a stronger, thicker die cut to work with.  As I use a lot of paint and other materials on my projects I quite often need the dies to be thicker and I also tend to have the dies overhanging the project so I do not want them to get ripped or crumple.  I love texture on my projects and making the dies slightly thicker can give me a better contrast especially when I am using sprays and dry brushing.  So here are a few of my favourite projects using die cuts.

I am totally in love with the Cheery Lynn steampunk wings and have used them on several of my projects and I also adore the Cheery Lynn corset and gears.  I have just purchased some Memory Box gear dies so I am looking forward to playing with those soon.

This is a sweet little mixed media canvas I made using the corset, wings and gear dies from Cheery Lynn.

This is an altered coaster made using a plastic toy and again the Cheery Lynn wings, chicken wire .and gears dies.

 

And here are the wings again in a small mini album.

 

Having made one flying horse I then decided to make another in a small mini album that I made.

And again on the cover of a small altered book that I bound pages into to make a journal. I also used the Tim Holtz clock die on this journal cover.

I used most of the Cheery Lynn die cuts again on this altered Trading Block along with the Tim Holtz clock and tattered flowers die and the Spellbinders gears die. I also used the Bleeding butterfly from Cheery Lynn.

Here is another altered coaster. I was playing around with texture, mixing modge podge and white glue and the end result reminded me of a sticky web os I added the spider and a butterfly about to be caught.  The butterfly is a Cheery Lynn die.

This is a little journal cover I made out of a cereal box and decorated primarily with Cheery Lynn dies, and a doily cut from a doily die by Couture Creations.

My latest project using die cuts is a mixed media canvas.  I used the Cheery Lynn butterflies and web border to create the background.

 

 

For the rest of the canvas I used a Cheery Lynn sunflowers die, a Spellbinders butterfly, Impression Obsession leaves die and Die Namic leaves die, a Memory Box bee die and an

Elizabeth Craft Designs ladybird.

 

 

On my Baba Yaga houses I used a Memory box die for the trees and branches and the cats and birds are both IO dies.

 

 

 

On this altered mousetrap I have used a Spellbinders window die, a Memory Box tree die and a Cheery Lynn fence die.

 

 

 

These last two canvases are early examples of me using diecuts to embellish a canvas.  These are made using Cuttlebug dies.

 

 

 

There are so many things that die cuts can be used on and they are not limited to just cards and scrapbooking.  I hope this post helps people to look outside the square and find new and varied uses for their dies, after all most dies are not cheap and it is good to find other ways to maximise their value.