Two encouragement cards ft partial diecutting w/Video by Jeni

I love the Pop-Out Hexagon stamp by Pinkfresh Studios and have another two cards using this stamp. I’ve teamed up the Hexagon stamp with the Take Pride stamp set and ink colours from the Spa collection by Catherine Pooler Designs. The video tutorial showing the full process of both cards is up on YouTube here.

Pop-Out Background

First I pop out all the inside hexagon stamps to be able to use the frame. There are different patterns and sentiments on all these pop-outs. The size of this stamp is 4.25” x 5.5” and gives a stamped line around the edge of the hexagons to give you a small border, which I trim off to give a border on my finished card. I stamp onto Premium white card by Catherine Pooler with Green Tea ink and Lemongrass ink. (Since creating these ink blend swatches Lemongrass has moved up in my list of favourite ink colours).

On the Green Tea background, I use second generation stamping with the solid hexagon stamp using the same Green Tea ink. For the Lemongrass background, I use the stamp with the stripes with Lemongrass ink.

Colouring The Wreath

I love colouring with the Catherine Pooler inks and always work on Bristol card. I use the Smooth version of this card (we also have the Bristol Vellum version in the shop) and stamp with Midnight ink – which is archival and perfect to use with water.

The colours for the Green Tea card are Daydream, Green Tea, Sugared Lavender and Rose Petals.

The colours for the Lemongrass card are Skylight, Eucalyptus, Mandarin Spice and Sauna.

Partial Diecutting

The coordinating die for the Take Pride stamp set die cuts the outside and inside of the wreath. I want the wreath to be in one whole piece without the middle cut out. I place this on my cutting plate with the top cutting plate up to the centre of the die – but not touching or over it. Everything that is underneath the cutting plates will be cut. TIP: The cutting plates for the Big Shot have a curved/slanted edge and the cutting plates for the Gemini have a flat edge.

I had to rotate my card and run this through my die cutting machine multiple times to make sure the whole of the outer part of the die was cut. Before removing the die, look at the back to make sure that everything has been die cut.

Making The Cards

Because I trimmed the hexagon background smaller, I have a small border on the finished card. On the Green Tea card, I take my ink pad to another piece of white card to colour the edges of the card to give a green border.

For the Lemongrass card, I decided to leave the border white on the Lemongrass card as there is plenty of white space with the striped line stamping. The hexagon backgrounds are adhered flat to either a card base for the Lemongrass card or to the green coloured card, then a card base for the Green Tea card.

Both of the wreaths are popped up with foam tape to add some dimension, and I finish by adding an odd number of yellow iridescent sequins from the Phoenix mix and green iridescent sequins from the Boston mix to both cards.

What colours would you have used for the stamping and colouring? It is starting to get colder here which means I reach for the Spa collection more than the Party collection. Don’t forget to check out the video tutorial for these cards.