A Blue Bird

Good Morning, Jenny here :0)

First of all I hope you've had chance to check out the new look store and treated yourself

to some 'much needed' stamps to celebrate it's re-opening *wink* 

 Onto my card today and it's a little different from my usual 

Paper Smooches/Lawn Fawn frolics .....

I've used a Wplus9 stamp set called Love Birds and the matching dies for a clean and simple

card. I'm slowly getting used the white border the dies give you round the stamped image....

when using them on the same colour card it actually looks quite pretty :0)

The texture on the raised panel comes from running the card through my Bigshot 

against a piece of hessian, love the subtle pattern.

I have a tip that I have picked up from my travels round blogland  to share 

with you for using stamps and dies together, forgive me if you 

do this already, I thought I'd share it for those who don't.

I have started to stamp the image first and then die cut a 

template on thick paper....

 Place the template over the stamped image, this allows you to centralise the image 

in the die cut space before sliding the die into place.... if the paper is thick 

enough you will fill it fit in the hole like a puzzle piece.....

Use some washi tape to hold it all together whilst you pass it through 

your die-cutting machine, template still in place... this is why the paper need to 

be thick enough for the die to find the space but not too 

thick to stop the die cutting the image.

You should, if it hasn't moved , end up with a perfectly stamped die-cut :0)

The clear stamps are supposed to make it easier to do it the other way around 

but I still find it tricky to line them up so this technique was 

a "I can't believe I didn't think of it" moment for me !!

Thanks for stopping by today hope you have some crafting time this weekend :0)

Jenny x