I was thrilled to be asked to join the Product Focus at SplitcoastStampers for the new My Sweet Petunia Cut-Align. And to celebrate, My Sweet Petunia is offering 15% off the entire store (full disclosure, I design for My Sweet Petunia, so if you click through to buy using one of my links, I will receive a small commission). The code is: SCSCUT19 - good through April 20th.
I will confess that in my many years of card-making, I have never effectively used a craft knife. I owned a few, but whenever I tried to use them, I could never cut straight. I always felt so out of control when I was cutting, that I was afraid I would slice my finger. The Cut-Align has changed that for me. I now confidently wield my craft knife to make precision 1/16" cuts.
For my first project, I started with these Sentiment Strips from Simon Says Stamp. I knew they would be the perfect test for my Cut-Align skills.
Using the Cut-Align makes it super-easy to cut these tiny sentiments.
And in just a few minutes, I was ready to create.
To create my card base, I stamped Joy Clair's Doodle Flower Background on a piece of patina designer paper.
I added some die cut branches from Simon Says Stamp Forget Me Not Flowers tucked under my sentiment, which I attached with a tiny strip of foam tape for dimension.
Next I thought, how could I create my own sheet of stamped sentiments to cut apart. I had the Simon Says Stamp Tiny Words Faith in my stash, so I used some temporary adhesive to attach the entire stamps set (left on the acrylic) to my MISTI. I inked it with Brown ink and stamped the entire set at once onto white cardstock.
Next I followed the same process with my Cut-Align and saved all of the sentiments in an envelope with the stamp set, so in the future I can just grab-and-go.
I decided to pair the stamps with some of the Gel Press Prints in my stash from Art Camp with Lauren.
I used the more solid portions of the Gel Press Prints for the back of my Tim Holtz Thinlets Detailed Butterflies and Black cardstock for the front. I'm linking up at the Blossoms, Butterflies & Bugs Allsorts Challenge.
I like how the first one turned out so much, that I made a second. You can never have too many sympathy / encouragement cards in your stash.
Next I used my Cut-Align to cut perfectly even strips of paper. When I first saw the Doodled Rainbow Sccops stamp from Ink Blot Shop, it reminded me of Mermaid Scales. I inked it in several shades of blue-greens for an ombre effect. I used my Cut-Align to evenly cut away the white borders.
I'm linking all three of these cards to the Simon Says Stamp Flickr Challenge Die-ing For Creativity.
Next I cut my image into even horizontal strips.
I attached the strips to a blue card base and added several Mermaids and a sentiment (punched out with a flower Petal Punch) all from Ellen Hutson's Essentials by Ellen Mermaid's Tail Set.
I finished with a sprinkling of oceany sequins.
Next I saw a quilting design that inspired my final card. Using the Cut-Align reminds me of using a Rotary Cutter on Fabric, so it lends itself to creating lots of quilt-like patterns and designs.
I started with cutting equal-width strip of a variety of orange papers from my scrap stash. I just lined-up the edge of my ruler with the edge of the paper and cut a 12" piece of designer paper like buttah.
Next I assembled my strips back into a solid striped background. Then I cut the strips diagonally using my Cut-Align and the 45 degree angle line on my cutting mat (sorry, the colors on this picture went a bit wonky on me).
Then I attached my striped strips to my card base.
I finished with a sentiment and image from Grouchy Grumplings from Taylored Expressions.
And of course I used my Cut-Align for my sentiment.
Click on over to SplitcoastStampers and click on the keyword CutAlignPF to see all of the great Product Focus Creations.
