Water Lily Die Cuts

My last post was about a quick and simple card. Today, I'm doing a more involved card with layering die cuts, ink blending, and embossing. I love waterlilies, so I had to purchase this die set. I love the water and wanted to convey that in this card.

I started this project by taping down a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 piece of Neenah 80 lb cardstock onto a board. By taping into the panel's space, I will be left with a nice border.

I used four Distress inks for this background to resemble water. I picked Cracked Pistachio, Evergreen Bough, Mermaid Lagoon, and Tumbled Glass. Pro Tip: for best results in ink blending, use a smooth cardstock like this Neenah Classic Crest Cover Solar White 80 lb. Apply layers of colors. To blend, alternate back and forth between colors where they meet.

After ink blending, I spritzed the panel with a mixture of Perfect Pearls and water to give a beautiful shimmer. The border brings your eye to the soft colors.

I then used an Open Studio waves 3-D embossing folder to give dimension. Pro tip: ink blend before embossing since blending over an embossed image would result in uneven result. The ridges would catch the ink, causing areas of darker color.

I used one of Altenew's newer Craft-A-Flower layering die sets. These are ingenious! The keyholes allow you to line up the layers effortlessly. The final layer covers the keyholes, so it looks like it took much more time to line them up.

I cut the die cuts with Neenah white cardstock and used Altenew Crisp Dye Inks to color all of the layers. Like the background, you need to build up ink layers. I start with the lightest color and end with the darkest. I start by covering the piece with the light pink and gradually added the darker colors close to the center to give a more realistic look.

All flower parts after being colored with pink and yellow inks.

As you can see, the keyholes help significantly with lining up the layers. This takes out the guesswork and extra time that would otherwise be needed to achieve the same result.

This set includes a lilypad, lotus flower, and flower bud.

For the sentiment, I chose this Handwritten Hello die and shadow die from Simon Says Stamp. I felt the contrast of black shadow and white sentiment would catch the eye.

Final result. There are several steps to making this card. However, thanks to Altenew, it was much easier than it appears to pull together.

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Friday April 23, 2021

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