So for many years, Dies have often brandished the word "stencil" on the packaging... Normally in the descriptive manor of - Cut - Emboss - Stencil - and the idea was that you would take your die... place on your card, cut the design and then run back through your machine with a rubber mat to "emboss" then while the cut was in the die... flip it over and colour the openings with ink etc. Now of course... this is still a great idea and one that if you haven't tried before i would encourage you to! (not all dies have the openings required to do this so you may have to search through your stash to find appropriate cuts to try this with. So in honesty I'm not trying to claim my top tip today is BRAND NEW or that I deserve a medal for passing this info on lol... but more of a reminder that this can be done and it can be super helpful.. So my Top Tip version of this.... How about just using your dies as stencils... forget the cutting, forget the embossing....
tape that die down and slap some ink over the top it...
So for my large circles I have used two Noble Double Pierced dies from the same set, I have used stencil tape to hold them in place (face down) so I am working on the non cut edge - I don't want my blending tool to get damaged on all the pierced dots that may like to eat away at my smoothie.
I've then coloured with Colour Cloud Chic Aubergine - like many inks this is a water based ink so it can be washed off my dies with no staining or marks left behind.
Check out our FREE ink chart here to find out more about inks and their properties - Craftmania Ink Guide - V1 | Craftmania (craftmaniacrafts.com)
Now obviously this isn't just a great idea with layering dies...
Couple of little tips - If you use smoothies & Colour Cloud inks as I have - the smoothies hold lots of ink and the colour cloud inks are soooo juicy! Try to stipple over the design instead of spreading your ink in a circular motion as you would normally. Don't forget to turn your die over so you are working on the smooth side, I don't want your blending tools getting damaged on the actual cut parts of the dies. Notes -
Feel free to mix colours! I have just shown you the effect in this post... it really is here to spark off your ideas - I hope it does!
One thing I will say that I found amazing - because the dies are made of metal, even thin lines like the tree and large shapes like the circles don't move much as you ink over them. I hope this idea gives you a little inspiration as we embark on living up to our new Craftmania promise....
Please do make sure you pop your creations using this technique on our Groups/Pages, we would LOVE to see them....
Facebook Group - Create With Craftmania & Jamie Rodgers www.facebook.com/groups/createwithcraftmaniaandjamierodgers
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