Summer Daze Garden Party Die Cuts

My Summer Daze Garden Party class today at Your Maine Stamper features the following dies:

98123 Catalina Border

98115  Spring Border

98146 Snowflake Border/Frostyville Border

98164  Wrought Iron Fence

The folks who take my classes have been begging for time to use the Memory Box dies with their Cuttlebugs.  We'll look at the samples I made, use some die cuts to assemble cards, and then use the dies with our Cuttlebugs to make stacks of die cut images to take home for more card-making.  These gals love it when I assign homework!

Below are some sample cards I made using these dies and papers from the Memory Box collection of 4X6 papers, some of the Key Lime distressed dots paper, and one green/green striped paper (source unknown).

98115 Spring Border; 98164 Wrought Iron Fence (cut out twice) and adhered with a glue stick on top of the Spring Border

98115  Spring Border

These last two cards feature 98146 Snowflake Border/Frostyville Border re-imagined as flowers used with the floral and bird/swirly vine papers to make summery cards.  I think if I add some daffodil pearls to the centers of the four largest snowflakes they'll look even more like flowers!

For their card assembly project, I precut some of the Memory Box distressed dot papers and some scraps from a package of Hero Arts papers using dies 98115 Spring Border and 98123 Catalina Border.  I matched them up with the Memory Box collection of 4X6 papers and more of the unknown stripe, Sunflower notecards, and a selection of pretty ribbons.  

Assembling these cards will give them some experience in handling and using the die-cut images.  Even though these designs are intricate and look delicate, they are really quite sturdy when cut from cardstock.

The fun will begin as they select dies and papers and build the "sandwiches" needed for their Cuttlebugs. We found wide variations once before in using dies with the Cuttlebugs–some needed a lot more shimming than others in order to get the desired results. Once we figure out what each machine needs, there will be a lot of cutting and use of "pokey" tools to remove stubborn paper pieces from the dies and the die cuts. There is always laughter while we work!  And a yummy snack for after class!

Their homework for next Monday's class will be to make at least one card using a die cut made today. They always amaze me with the creativity they demonstrate in these assignments!

Happy Die-Cutting!!!