Brayered Glue Technique For Mass Producing Cards With Detailed Die Cuts

Have you ever wanted to mass produce a card design that used a detailed die cut? Did you stop short of doing so because of the work involved in adhering the die cuts to the card front? I believe I have found a workable solution!

I am loving the new Flourish Thinlits because they are so lacy looking! However, sometimes all that laciness is hard to work with because if you overlap one die cut with another, it looks a little odd.

To combat this odd look, you can adhere a die cut to a card stock backing and then overlap it with another die cut. Because I needed multiple cards that used the Flourish Thinlits adhered to a background, I tried a gluing technique that worked remarkably well.

I used the Flourish Thinlits to die cut flowers from Melon Mambo card stock and leaves from Cucumber Crush. The bottom two leaves were removed from each leaf die cut. A standard card base was cut from Thick Whisper White card stock, a 5 1/8 x 3 7/8" matte from Whisper White and a 5 1/4 x 4" matte from Basic Black.

I played with the layout of the flower and leaves on the white matte, being sure to leave room for the sentiment. Once I was satisfied with my design, it was time to adhere the Melon Mambo flowers to a Whisper White backing.

For my Brayered Glue Technique, I placed some liquid glue on one side of my craft mat and rolled my brayer through it to completely coat it. I made sure to roll the brayer back and forth a few times to even out the glue and get rid of any blobs.

On the opposite side of my craft mat I flipped two flowers upside down. I held them in place just until the brayer had rolled over the edge of them. Once the glue was applied, I carefully placed the flowers on the Whisper White card stock background and smoothed them down with my hand.

I repeated this gluing process until all the flowers were glued. Immediately after smoothing down the last flower, I rinsed my mat and my brayer thoroughly under the tap. Unfortunately, because some of the glue dried on the mat while I was gluing additional flowers, I ended up with some sticky residue that would not come totally come off the mat. (I may still be able to scrub the glue off my matte but just in case I can't remove it, I recommend that you use a sheet of wax paper as your working surface.)

While my flowers were drying, I prepared my white matte by adding black splatters to it. I did this by dipping an Aqua Pen, filled with rubbing alcohol, into Basic Black Archival reinker and flicking the pen with my finger. Alcohol was used instead of water so that the drops would dry quicker.

To produce the largest drops, I made sure to squeeze my Aqua Pen until I had a large drop forming at the end and then flicked it. The finest splatter marks were made by using the Tim Holtz Splatter Brush.

To ensure that my matte was dry, I zapped it with my Heat Tool. Choosing a sentiment from the now retired Love You Sew stamp set, I used pieces of washi tape to mask off all but the "thanks" in the sentiment. I inked up the stamp with Basic Black, removed the washi tape and stamped. This matte was then adhered to the black matte with Fast Fuse and then adhered to the card front using Dimensionals.

I fussy cut the flower and then used Dimensionals to attach it to the card front. I used liquid adhesive to adhere the leaves just under the edge of the flower to complete the card.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about my Brayered Glue Technique! If you use this technique, please let me know how it works for you!

Love You Sew

As a child growing up, I remember my mother often sitting at the sewing machine, putting the final touches on a skirt or blouse or Halloween costume for me.

In high school, when I took Home Ec and learned how to sew, I was quite proud of myself for being able to sew something that I could actually wear!

However, my love for sewing didn't last long. When I wanted to sew something new at home, my mother tried to teach me her method of laying out the pattern on the fabric.

In school, I had found it quite easy–follow the picture in the pattern directions! My mother did not take this easy route. Instead, she had to fold the fabric and lay out the pattern in countless configurations to gain about 12 more inches of leftover fabric to throw in the leftover fabric bin!

I just couldn't wrap my head around how to do it her way and of course it had to be done her way. So, I said so long to sewing until I was out of the house and could lay out the pattern according to the directions but my love for sewing just wasn't there anymore!

Despite my history with sewing, I decided that my card design for today required me to do some stitching on the card itself!

To begin, I cut a standard Basic Black card base and a Hello Honey matte. I cut another matte from a piece of the Botanical Gardens DSP. I then cut a square of Cajun Craze and proceeded to create zig zag edges (like those done by pinking shears) by using the Finishing Touches Edgelits.

I used a template from the Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack to pierce holes in the zig zag matte. I used two strands of Gold Metallic Thread to cross stitch across the top of the matte, leaving a long tail of thread.

On a scrap of Very Vanilla card stock I stamped the spool of thread from the Love You Sew Stamp Set (this is a hostess set you can only order as a hostess!) using Basic Black Archival ink. I fussy cut this and then wound a length of the Gold Metallic Thread around it, securing it with Fast Fuse Adhesive. I then wound a little from the end of the stitching thread around the spool and placed a Dimensional on the back.

I used Versamark to stamp the sentiment on the Cajun Craze matte and then heat embossed it using Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder.

I adhered the Botanicals matte to the Hello Honey with Fast Fuse and then those mattes to the card front using Dimensionals. I angled the Cajun Craze matte and adhered it to the card front using both Fast Fuse and Dimensionals.

I wound the leftover thread from the stitching in a circle around the sentiment and secured one edge with the Fine Tip Glue Pen while attaching the other end to the spool. I adhered the spool on the matte using the Dimensional. I added a lick of Wink of Stella to top and bottom of the spool.

To cover the glue spot by the thread and to add further embellishment, I used to Hello Honey Botanical flowers and one Mint Macaron Flower cut with one of the Itty Bitty Accents Punches. Each flower was adhered with a Glue Dot and given a generous coat of Wink of Stella. Rhinestones were added to the centres. A scattering of crystal sequins completed the front of the card.

For the inside, I used a matte from the now retired Naturals Ivory card stock. I adhered a strip of the Botanicals DSP to the bottom and then used Versamark to stamp the ferns from the Awesomely Artistic Stamp Set around the end. I heat embossed them using Gold Stampin Emboss Powder and adhered the matte to the inside of the card using Fast Fuse Adhesive.

I think that my stitching is presentable on this card. What do you think? What's your history with sewing? Drop me a comment below and let me know!