Thursday 16 February 2012

Die cutting out of the box: clever "reinstrich"

Hello everyone, 
Neil's turn today with a very clever project we all loved. I would never have thought of this, and can't wait to read your comments. 

Sometimes you buy a die which is wonderful but it's designed really for Christmas; so for 11 months of the year it never sees the light of day. Like Reindeer flight and the small movers and shapers reindeer die.
Well, how about using them for this?


 Or perhaps you are feeling arty? So how about this?

So, let's begin by cutting out some reindeer (the large standing one from reindeer flight and one small one from the movers and shapers die.

You can see by this picture what to do next. In the middle I've shaded in black the areas you need to cut away from the original shape on the left to leave you with the shape on the right. Easy peasy isn't it? (Tip, once you've cut the one out; use it as a template to quickly cut more when you want to, saves time having to draw the shape of the body.)
For the first tag I kept it more realistic by using natural colours and a feather before mounting it onto a tag which I'd stamped onto with Katzelkraft stamps and then mounting that onto a second tag cut out of corrugated card.



For the second, smaller one I had much more fun, using brighter colours and playing around with pens I created my "zebritch" which worked together nicely with the sentiment for a fun and quirky tag which I popped into my journal because I liked it so much!
He (or She ) is standing on a shape cut from the Artful dwellings die and the tag has been inked and stamped with distress inks and a bit of masking onto the shape too. 

Materials list.
Top tag
Distress inks - antique linen, walnut stain, fired brick, wild honey (for the beak) and black soot
Ranger enamel accents for the eye
Glue dots and feathers

Tag 2
Distress inks  - fired brick, stormy sky and shabby shutters
White and black pens

hope you enjoyed this
See you tomorrow


14 comments:

  1. What a totally brilliant idea!

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  2. What a great idea, I'm going to have a look at some of my other dies to see what else I can do with them.

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  3. That is brilliant - I'll definitely be "borrowing" this idea!! Thank you for sharing. Who would have thought you could make an ostrich from a reindeer :-) Maddy x

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  4. How very inventive! So true that seasonal supplies get ignored for the rest of the year - great idea on how to use it more.

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  5. OMGoodnes Neil brilliant creativity, why didn't I see that rofl; off to make one!!

    Maggie :)

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  6. Wow, this is really clever. The ostrich is fab. xx

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  7. Lol well who'd have thought it that's really thinking out of the box :)
    Von

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  8. so clever...love the idea, great tag

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  9. Fantastic Neil ! Now that is thinking outside the box !
    Sue C
    x

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  10. I would never in a million years see an ostrich in the reindeer diecut! This is pure genius and an amazing way to get extra use from that die!

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  11. Great ideas Neil. Thanks for sharing.

    Hugs
    Lesley Xx

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  12. OK...This wins top marks, hands down, for creativity!

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  13. Super idea, really !!! I will try to keep it in mind and apply with other dies too. Thanks a lot!..

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  14. What a GREAT idea! *lol*
    Seriosly you should contact Tim Holtz and show him, this is so cool (and I beet he hasn't thought of this one!)...

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