Cindy Brown/Easy Die Cutting

This card is an assignment from the Altenew course Easy Die Cutting and is part of my participation in the Altenew Educator Certification Program (AECP). I learned new ways to use the dies I own. Each card in this course was beautiful, fun to make and made me happy. I really enjoyed this course and learned so much. I chose to highlight this project, negative die cutting because this technique has so many possibilities.The technique for this card involved die-cutting a top layer and then placing a contrasting paper underneath to accentuate the negative space created by the die-cut upper layer.

I selected the dies from Altenew Doodle Blooms. I used Altenew's mirror gold paper as the bottom paper layer. The two layers were then mounted onto a top-folding card stock upon which I had added a layer of striped black and white paper. To allow the striped paper to be seen, I cut the die cut layer smaller than the card base.

I couldn't resist making a Christmas card. Christmas is only 255 days away. I used a sentiment from Altenew Happy Holidays and the Altenew stamp and die set Holiday Bow. I stamped

and die cut bows and a poinsettia and foliage. I began to arrange these elements until I found a combination that made me happy.


The poinsettia was stamped in Altenew Coral Bliss and Heart Beat. The foliage was stamped with Altenew Sweet Leaf, Hunter Green and Just Green. I used foam to pop up these elements, with the foliage on a lower level of foam with the distant ends free floating and the poinsettia on a higher level of foam and fixed in all sections. To finish the card, I adhered a few gold spheres with liquid glue to match the gold mirrored paper.

This card is so elegant and full of the life and the joy of Christmas. This class has given me so many ways to use all of the dies that I have and to expand their use. This was another great Altenew class!