JAI #660 - Just Add a Die Cut Inlay

That's right, this week at Just Add Ink the challenge is to add an inlay die cut on your project.

It's been an age since I last played with this technique so I was already tempted, then an idea came to mind ... and well, you know how that ends, don't you?

I not only inlaid the diamond pieces in the background but also the word 'friend' in the greeting. 

The steps involved were:

• I die cut three white diamond frames from thick basic white cardstock, discarding the inner pieces and gluing the frames together then attaching them to another piece of white card the same size.
• On another piece of white card, I did my ink blending. I used distress oxide inks - the colours are squeezed lemonade, wild honey, ripe persimmon and picked raspberry. I did some water splatters all over, then cut this with the diamond frame die, this time retaining the inner pieces.
• The ink-blended diamond centres (those inner pieces) were then glued in their corresponding places inside my white layered frame and once all were in place I also glued the ink-blended frame piece on top of my three white layers. This gives great depth and also a slight white shadow effect which helps highlight the dimension.
• I cut three 'hello' dies in black and one in white cardstock, gluing the black ones together. The white one I again ink blended and did some water splatters, then attached it slightly offset so the black shadow would show.
• For the 'friend' die I cut two of the shadow die from white card which had been coloured with picked raspberry ink to match. Then I took one of the shadow dies, lay the detail word die over the top and cut again - this gave me a thin frame in pink which I glued to the other pink shadow piece. Lastly I cut the detail word die in black card and inlaid it inside the frame of my shadow. 
• I also cut two wildflowers from black card, gluing them together.
• Then it was just a matter of assembly, the word dies and flower being attached with black mini  dimensionals, and lastly I decided to add some white paint splatters.

I checked out this video by Jennifer McGuire and followed her 'shadow inlay' technique at 21:57 for my 'friend' sentiment. Thanks for the inspiration Jennifer!

Materials used:

• card - basic black, basic white
• distress oxide inks - squeezed lemonade, wild honey, ripe persimmon, picked raspberry
• dies - Wildflower Stems #2 (Tim Holtz), Simply Diamonds (PinkFresh Studio), Hello and Friend dies (origins unknown)
• other - blending brushes, Big Shot, Dimensionals, water spritzer, picket fence distress paint, paintbrush

I do hope you'll head over to the JAI blog to see the projects my fellow designers made to inspire you. Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry