Techniques and Tricks #5 - Die Cut backgrounds

Hey everyone! Its my turn on the CP blog. Here is the full link. For the longest time, I hesitated in buying a die-cutting machine, even after seeing the immense variety of background patterns that could be created. It's expensive and I wanted time to think deeper as to whether or not one was necessary. This resulted in me telling myself that I could replicate the "look" on my own. So today, I will share some tips as to how to create your own die-cut backgrounds with just your everyday supplies and tools.

1.Masking & Misting Technique

 

If we look through our scrapbook supplies, I'm sure that everyone owns a variety of mask templates. More intricate and rounded mask designs are harder to cut with your craft knife, so to save time and effort, I recommend locating mask designs that have straighter lines and larger surface areas.

When getting started, a good trick that I found is to first spray a layer of fine mist over the intended area for creating your die-cut background. This is the area in which you'll be cutting your design from. Now, select shapes to remove with your craft knife. Leave some of the misted areas untouched so that they shine through, creating a customized background pattern - something a machine can't do!

Using the same masking and misting technique, here is another layout created using the older Maggie Holmes collection. It's the same mask, but look how different the background looks on this page compared the earlier one.

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2. Creative Templates On-Hand

For this next do-it-yourself die-cut session, you'll want to find a few punch outs, a 3 x 4 heart journaling card (Close Knit), some wooden veneers and a large chipboard heart. All are potential templates that may be used to create your own die-cut background.

Placing the chipboard heart on your sheet of paper, trace around it with a pencil and use a craft knife to remove it. Thereafter, position patterned paper behind the cut-out  and adorn it with embellishments.

Using the same steps as above, cut out the heart shape from this 3 x 4 journaling card. There are dotted lines, which makes it all that' much easier to go around with a craft knife.

Finally, to tie together all the elements on this layout, I created straight lines between each section. A simple needle and thread could enhance these lines and that's exactly what I did. Simply draw straight lines with a pencil, poke holes and sew away!

I hope this inspires you to get started on your own background die-cut patterns. There are endless possibilities. Explore them, come up with what works best for you and I'm sure the end result will be equally as good, even without a die-cutting machine. After all, a machine can only help quicken your scrapbooking process, but it's truly YOU that makes a page worthwhile as it embraces your creativity and effort. 

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Happy Monday!