Stretching Your Dies: Cut To Fit or Layer to Expand

Dies continue to be one of my favorite supplies, and I often say they are one of the most versatile in your craft stash. One of my favorite style of dies for creating quick and impactful designs are cover dies. You know, those that cover a full card front with a pattern or scene. However, they are a fixed size, with the most widely available styles designed for a standard A2 (4.25 x 5.5”) card front. This can be limiting if you want to branch out into some of the other card sizes. But, if you take a look at some of them, with a little creativity, they can be easily altered to fit other sizes.

Today, I’ve got a pair of mini slimline cards to share using our A2 Birds & Branches die. The finished cards measure in at 3.25 x 6.25”. So let’s take a look.

I started by die cutting the full Birds & Branches frame from Vicki Boutin Foundations paper. This is a nice and thick 140 lb mixed media cardstock that handles wet mediums beautifully. I watercolored the flowers and leaves using ZIG clean color markers and used Walnut Stain Distress Ink for the tree branches. While I was working with the wet media, I also prepped another small piece of Foundations paper with Black Soot Oxide Ink to cut the birds from. I smooshed the ink pad onto a craft mat, spritzed it with water using the Distress Sprayer and then smooshed the paper into the color to pick it up. I dried it and then dipped and smooshed it again. I did this several times to until I had the depth of color I wanted, drying between each pass.

I set the pieces aside and started on my background panel. I cut a piece of Neenah Solar White 80 lb super smooth cover stock to 3×6”. I inked blended the background using blending brushes with Wplus9 PURE Color Dye Ink in Lake House and Mojito. Mojito has retired, but Beanstalk would be be a great substitute.

As a whole, the Birds & Branches die is too wide and too short for the front of the card, so I simply trimmed off the edges and the top and bottom. I laid the portion that was left over the top 2/3 of my panel, adhered and then trimmed the edges flush with the panel. Perfect!

To finish off the card, I added some white splatters using gouache and adhered my birds using foam adhesive. For the sentiment, I used the Spring Blessings stamp set and die. I adhered the panel to the card base using fun foam for a bit of dimension.

For the next card, I decided to fill most of the card front. The background panel was blended again with Lake House. This time I cut and watercolored 2 of the Birds & Branches die cuts, following the same steps for coloring as I did for the first card. I cut off the excess from top, bottom, and sides of one and adhered it towards the top of my panel with foam adhesive.

From the second die cut, I trimmed out one of the branches and adhered it at the bottom. I still had a few little flower clusters left over, so I cut a few of those and adhered at the very top and bottom of the card. I then trimmed all of the edges flush with the panel. I decided to go with the same sentiments for this card. I love creating ”sister” or “cousins” cards using the same supplies. It’s great for when you can’t quite decided between two design decisions too…just create them both!

I finished off this card by adding a few single flowers popped up for dimension using the extra flower dies included in the set. And a little bit of Lawn Fawn Chunky Glitter around the edges adds a little touch of sparkle.

I just love how these turned out. Be sure to check your stash and see if you have some cover dies that you could trim or layer to use on different sized cards as well. As always, thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Featured Supplies

Some of the products used in this post were provided to me for free. I am not under any obligation to use or review these items unless otherwise noted. The following is a list of the featured supplies used in today’s project(s) along with links to purchase for convenience. Please note, this list contains affiliate links. Use of these links when shopping provides me with a small referral commission at no additional cost to you. Use is never expected, but always appreciated. Thank you for your support! ❤️

Wplus9 PURE COLOR Black Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	Wplus9 PURE COLOR Lake House Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	Precision Heat Embossing Tool Gun Hero Arts Shop at: SSS	EK Success CRAFT TWEEZERS Precision Tip Shop at: SSS
Scor-Pal MINI SCOR-BUDDY Scoring Board Tool Shop at: SSS	MINI MISTI PRECISION STAMPER Stamping Tool Kit Shop at: SSS	9 x 12 WHITE FUN FOAM 12 Pack Shop at: SSS	Beanstalk PURE COLOR Dye Ink Shop at: WP9
EK Success CUTTER BEE Scissors Shop at: SSS	Neenah Classic Crest 80 LB SMOOTH SOLAR WHITE Paper Pack 25 Sheets Shop at: SSS	Zig Clean Color Real Brush Marker LIGHT GREEN Shop at: SSS	Zig Clean Color Real Brush Marker OLIVE GREEN Shop at: SSS
Zig Clean Color Real Brush Marker YELLOW Shop at: SSS	Zig Clean Color Real Brush Marker BRIGHT YELLOW Shop at: SSS	Gemini Junior Shop at: SSS	Tim Holtz Distress Sprayer Shop at: SSS
Princeton Velvetouch Round Size 5 Shop at: Blick	Scrapbook Adhesives Foam Squares mix Shop at: SSS	Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb cardstock Shop at: SSS	Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink Pad Pumice Stone Shop at: SSS
Birds & Branches Die Shop at: WP9	Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad Walnut Stain Shop at: SSS	Simon Says Stamp Blending Brushes Shop at: SSS	Honey Bee Creative Precision Glue Shop at: SSS
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink Pad Black Soot Shop at: SSS	Tonic Easy Clean Mat Shop at: SSS	Lawn Fawn Chunky Glitter Shop at: SSS	Winsor Newton Permanent White Gouache Shop at: SSS