Mar 26, 2014

Die Cut Happy Birthday Cards


I had several birthdays to celebrate this month and wanted to make them with my Silhouette SD. I thought I would make one design and customize to match the recipient's favorite colors. This pink and purple one is for our niece who turned 13.


I have long admired paper cutters who cut by hand with a craft knife, but any time I think about trying it, I run the other way because I just don't have the patience for it. I finally drew a cake without measuring a single thing - no rulers or straight lines or grids or pre-thinking it. The fine lines are a delicate piece to remove from the adhesive mat and I manually thickened some areas to make gluing easier, but this is still not something I'd want to make many times over. My laziness is quite the task master!


I dabbed a glue stick like a bingo card - up and down, not rubbing across, or else the glue goes underneath the paper and would show in front. Again, the fineness is a hindrance.


As you can see, there is not much gluing surface here and a little too far on one side means you'll see it from the front so some fussing with the lines are needed.


In the end, I love how the thick black paper feels on top of the metallic colors below. It's a tactile thing that isn't quite the same if I put the colored piece on top, which would have been much easier.




Does anyone else come across this dilemma? Which do you prefer to do - difficult and tactile with challenging gluing OR larger, easier to glue pieces that go on top of the black?

12 comments:

  1. I like what you did...I prefer something more challenging to fuss with - LOL! TFS...these are really cute!
    Jan

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    1. Hey Jan, thanks! Isn't it funny how we like certain challenges but not others? LOL!
      Cecelia

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  2. You come up with the most sweetest ideas . I love your paper cut cake.

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  3. Can I order 100 please ♥ (tongue firmly planted in cheek) ..... I am amazed at what you can do with your Silhouette. I prefer the satisfaction of completing a project that is difficult and tactile with challenging gluing, but then not if I am selling it.

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    1. LOL you're absolutely right. I can't help but run my fingers over it at the end - it's almost like an embossed card. It's a completely different story being made in mass production.

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  4. For things like this I often use vinyl... stick is already there so I'm not fussing with glue, though I do love the paper on paper look. Beautiful!

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    1. Hi Candi, thanks for your kudos letting me know you use vinyl! I usually do use it for things needing that much adhesive, but I worried the fine lines would be hard to handle. Maybe I'll give it a try next time.

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  5. What an adorable design! I admire your talent at making the sketch in the first place, never mind turning it into the cutest card ever for a 13 year old.

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  6. Replies
    1. Hi Barbara, thanks so much for making my day! :D
      Cecelia

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