Tag Dies Beyond the Gift Tag | Three Ways to Create with CUTplorations Tag Dies

Tag dies may be designed to create tags, but that doesn't mean they're limited to gift tags. They can become focal points, card elements, layered backgrounds, or the foundation for an entire project.

Today we're revisiting three projects from the STAMPlorations archives by STAMPgirls Stephanie Severin, Sanna Lippert, and Vicki Dutcher to show just how much you can do with tag dies when you look beyond their most obvious use.

Turn a Tag into a Card Focal Point

Stephanie used the Luggage Tags Nesting Dies to create the foundation for this bold and playful project. She die cut the largest tag from a piece of lined designer paper, then used Candied Apple Distress Ink with the Doodled Heart stencil, spritzing the ink with water afterward for a softer, distressed effect. 

Because the designer paper was a little flimsy, Stephanie die cut a second tag from red cardstock and attached it to the back for additional stability. She then added the You & Me Phrase Die, taking advantage of the fact that the single die cuts the three words separately so they can be positioned independently. Paper flowers and heart embellishments completed the design. Stephanie found that the finished tag really popped when she attached it to a black card base.

Creative takeaway: A tag doesn't have to be something you tie onto a package. Treat it as a ready-made focal shape for a card and build your design around it.

Build a Layered Tag Design

Sanna took the tag in a completely different direction with the Stitched Tag Nesting Dies. Rather than keeping the tag design simple, she created a more elaborate layered project using stamped imagery from the Feathery and Bloomtangled ATC #1 stamp sets, along with a sentiment from Fond Expressions. The stitched edges give the tag a finished look while the stamped elements create layers of color and detail within the tag shape.

Creative takeaway: Nesting tag dies give you more than one size to work with, making it easy to layer shapes and create more dimension. Add stamped images, sentiments, or patterned papers to turn a simple tag shape into a complete focal design.

Mix Stamping and Stenciling

Vicki's project shows another way to build a tag by combining several different techniques. She used the Luggage Tags Nesting Dies as the foundation, then layered stamped and stenciled elements using Trendy Leaves, Bloom Sketches, and the Bubbles stencil. The combination of stamping, stenciling, layered paper, and ribbon gives the tag a collage-like look with plenty of texture and visual interest.

Creative takeaway: A tag die can provide the structure while your stamps, stencils, and other supplies determine the personality. Don't be afraid to layer different techniques within one small format.

Think Beyond the Gift Tag

These three projects show just a few ways tag dies can become part of your cardmaking and papercrafting. Use a large tag as a card focal point. Layer different tag sizes together. Fill the shape with stamped and stenciled details. Add ribbon, embellishments, or sentiments. Or simply use the tag shape as a starting point for a design that goes somewhere completely unexpected. That's what makes nesting tag dies so useful: the shape gives you a framework, but what you do with it is entirely up to you.

And if you've been thinking about adding some tag dies to your stash, all CUTplorations dies are 15% off during our August sale. It's a good opportunity to try a tag die and see how many different ways you can put it to work.

Until next time, keep looking at your supplies beyond their obvious purpose and see where they can take your creativity.

Perfect Pairs, Expanded | Blooms & Sunshine with Maria

A coordinated collection can make cardmaking easier, but that doesn't mean you have to stop there.

STAMPgirl Maria takes Perfect Pairs: Blooms & Sunshine beyond the basic pairing by combining its stamps and ephemera cuts with other supplies from her stash. 

The result is a collection of projects that show how a Perfect Pair can become the starting point for a much bigger creative idea.

Take the Pair and Build on It

For her first card, Maria started with the “Sending You Sunshine” sentiment and let the word sunshine spark the direction of the design. Her thoughts moved from sunshine to rain, clouds, and sun rays, and although she initially planned a very clean-and-simple card, she decided to add a beautiful yellow flower and a wispy frame. She combined the Blooms & Sunshine with stencils (Almost Shattered and Make Marks), a cloud die, and the floral ephemera to create a cheerful card designed to brighten someone's day.

Creative takeaway: Let the words or imagery in your Perfect Pair inspire the direction of your card. You don't have to know the finished design when you start. Follow the idea wherever it takes you.

Build Around the Ephemera

Maria took a different approach with her second card, starting with the coffee-or-tea image from the Blooms & Sunshine ephemera. She paired it with the Dots and Beans stencil and the Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle die to create a layered background. The beverage in the ephemera piece even influenced one of her finishing details: when she realized it might actually be tea, she matched her splatters to the color of the drink. The result is a warm, playful thank-you card that would be perfect for a coffee or tea drinker.

Creative takeaway: Look closely at your ephemera for little details that can inspire the rest of your card. A color, image, or even a tiny element in the artwork can become the starting point for your background or embellishments.

Take It Beyond the Card

Maria didn't stop at cards. She also turned two pieces of Blooms & Sunshine ephemera into tags, using the coordinating stamps to create the backgrounds. On one tag she stamped the sentiment, while on the other she used the splatter stamp. It's another reminder that the pieces in a Perfect Pair don't have to stay confined to a traditional card design.

Creative takeaway: When you have beautiful ephemera and coordinating stamps, think beyond the card front. Tags, gift packaging, bookmarks, and other small projects can give those same pieces a whole new purpose.

One Perfect Pair, Plenty of Possibilities

Maria's projects show what happens when you treat a Perfect Pair as a starting point rather than a finished formula. The coordinating stamps and ephemera cuts give you a natural place to begin, but adding stencils, dies, and other supplies from your stash can take the design in an entirely different direction. You can follow an idea sparked by a sentiment, build a background around an image, or take the ephemera off the card altogether.

That's the beauty of the extended style: the pair gives you the foundation, and your stash gives you the opportunity to make it your own.

Discover What's Possible

Perfect Pairs: Blooms & Sunshine combines coordinating stamps and ephemera cuts to make it easy to create a cohesive design. But as Maria's projects show, you don't have to stop with the pair itself. Add a stencil. Bring in a die. Layer in other supplies from your stash. Or take the ephemera and create something other than a card. Take the pair and build on it. See where it takes you.

Explore Blooms & Sunshine and the other Perfect Pairs collections in the STAMPlorations store.

Until next time, keep creating, experimenting, and finding new ways to make your supplies work together.

Perfect Pairs in Action | Blooms & Sunshine with Vicki

Sometimes you don't need a long list of supplies to make a beautiful card. When the stamps and ephemera are designed to work together, you can keep things simple and let the coordinating artwork do most of the work.

Today, STAMPgirl Vicki is showcasing Perfect Pairs: Blooms & Sunshine with two cards created exclusively with the coordinating stamps and ephemera from the collection. One came together in less than five minutes, while the second took only about six minutes, including the extra step of creating a circular card base.

A Five-Minute Card

Vicki's first card came together in less than five minutes, using the floral imagery and coordinating elements from Blooms & Sunshine. The beautiful floral ephemera provides an instant focal point, while the coordinating sentiment completes the design without the need for additional stamps, dies, or embellishments. It's a great example of how much you can accomplish when your supplies are already designed to work together.

Creative takeaway: When working with coordinated products, don't feel like you need to add more. Start with your favorite focal piece, add the coordinating sentiment, and see whether the card is already saying everything you want it to say.

A Little More Shape and Color

For her second card, Vicki added a playful twist by creating a circular card base. She chose bright yellow cardstock to coordinate with the sentiment and floral imagery, giving the card a cheerful, sunny feel. The coordinating Blooms & Sunshine stamps and ephemera provide everything else she needed to complete the design. Even with the extra step of cutting the circular card base, the card took only about six minutes to make.

Creative takeaway: Don't overlook the impact of your card base. A simple change in shape or a bold coordinating color can give an otherwise straightforward design an entirely different personality.

One Pair, Two Quick Cards

Vicki's two cards are a great demonstration of the core style of Perfect Pairs: use the coordinating stamps and ephemera cuts together and let the collection do the coordinating for you. No need to spend time searching for elements that work together. The artwork, colors, and sentiments have already been designed as a pair, leaving you free to decide how simple or playful you want your cards to be. And as Vicki shows, quick doesn't have to mean boring. One card took less than five minutes and the other about six, yet both have plenty of personality.

Discover What's Possible

Perfect Pairs: Blooms & Sunshine combines coordinating stamps and ephemera cuts to give you an easy starting point for cardmaking. Use the pieces exactly as they are, change the card shape, play with your card base colors, or experiment with different arrangements. The collection is designed to make the process easier without limiting what you can create.

Blooms & Sunshine is available in the store, along with our other Perfect Pairs collections: Party & Wishes, Classic Christmas, and Serene Winter.

Until next time, keep creating with confidence -- and let Perfect Pairs do the coordinating.

Perfect Pairs in Action | Serene Winter with Walter

A beautiful winter card doesn't have to be complicated. Sometimes, the right combination of images is enough to create an entire scene.

Today, STAMPfella Walter Zemrock is showcasing Perfect Pairs: Serene Winter with two core-style cards that let the ephemera cuts take center stage. 

One creates a peaceful snowy scene against a soft blue background, while the other keeps things intentionally simple so the detailed ephemera can shine.

Let the Ephemera Create the Scene

For his first card, Walter let the Serene Winter ephemera cuts do most of the storytelling. The pinecones, winter bird, and birdhouse come together to create a cozy outdoor winter scene. To give the card a snowy-sky feel, he applied three shades of blue ink to the background using a baby wipe, then used a pouncer brush and white pigment ink to help blend the colors together. He finished with the coordinating sentiment stamped in silver metallic pigment ink. The result is a soft winter background that supports the detailed ephemera without competing with it.

Creative takeaway: When your focal pieces already tell a story, you don't need to build a complicated background. Create just enough atmosphere to support the scene, then let the ephemera do the rest.

Keep It Simple and Let the Details Shine

Walter took an even simpler approach with his second card, intentionally keeping the design clean to highlight the beautiful ephemera cuts. A white glitter cardstock background provides a subtle touch of sparkle, while a blue border frames the design. The snow globe and winter skates become the stars of the card, with the coordinating Winter Wishes sentiment completing the scene. There's something especially effective about giving detailed pieces plenty of breathing room. The simplicity of the card allows us to appreciate all the little details in the artwork.

Creative takeaway: Don't assume you need to fill every bit of your card. Sometimes a simple background and a few carefully chosen focal pieces are all you need to make the artwork stand out.

Let the Artwork Do the Work

Walter's two Serene Winter cards show how versatile a core-style Perfect Pairs collection can be. In the first card, he created an atmospheric background to set the scene for the ephemera. In the second, he went in the opposite direction and kept the background simple, allowing the detailed images to take all the attention. Both approaches work because the coordinating Serene Winter stamps and ephemera cuts already provide the ingredients for a cohesive winter design.

Perfect Pairs gives you that starting point without dictating what the finished card has to look like. You can create a scene, keep things clean and simple, add your own layers, or let the artwork speak for itself.

Discover What's Possible

Perfect Pairs: Serene Winter combines coordinating stamps and ephemera cuts inspired by the quiet beauty of the winter season. The collection is designed to make creating cohesive cards easier while leaving plenty of room for your own style.

Serene Winter is one of four Perfect Pairs collections available in the store, alongside Blooms & Sunshine, Party & Wishes, and Classic Christmas.

Whether you want to create a detailed scene or let a few beautiful pieces take center stage, there's no wrong way to pair them.

Until next time, keep creating with confidence -- and let Perfect Pairs do the coordinating.

Perfect Pairs | Blooms & Sunshine with Maria

Sometimes the hardest part of making a card isn't the actual making. It's figuring out what goes with what.

That's one of the ideas behind Perfect Pairs: coordinating stamps and ephemera cuts designed to work together, so you can spend less time sorting through supplies and more time creating.

Today, STAMPgirl Maria is showcasing Perfect Pairs: Blooms & Sunshine with two cards that show just how differently you can approach the same collection. Her first card came together almost immediately, while the second took a little more playing around to find the right arrangement.

Start with What Catches Your Eye

For her first card, Maria simply chose the two pieces of ephemera that caught her eye first and built the design around them. She tucked the coordinating sentiment between the two pieces and added a strip of washi tape along the right edge. That's it.

The result is a clean, balanced card that lets the beautiful ephemera take center stage. The coordinating pieces make it easy to create a cohesive design without needing to bring in a lot of additional supplies.

Creative takeaway: Sometimes the best place to start is simply with the piece you love most. Choose one or two elements that catch your eye, place them on your card, and let the rest of the design develop from there.

Give Yourself Room to Play

For her second card, Maria started with a single piece of Blooms & Sunshine ephemera and a sheet of lilac cardstock. She knew the elements she wanted to use, but it took some experimenting to figure out exactly how she wanted them to come together. She added a Double Running Stitch Rectangle die, an oval die, and a frame die to build the layered arrangement, creating a more structured design around the floral ephemera.

Unlike her first card, this one didn't come together immediately -- and that's perfectly okay. Sometimes finding the right composition means moving pieces around, trying different layers, and giving yourself permission to experiment before committing.

Creative takeaway: Not every card has to come together instantly. If you know the pieces you want to use but aren't sure how to arrange them, play with different combinations before gluing anything down. You may discover a layout you wouldn't have considered otherwise.

One Collection, Different Creative Paths

Maria's two Blooms & Sunshine cards show two sides of the Perfect Pairs experience. One came together almost instinctively: choose a couple of beautiful pieces, add the coordinating sentiment, and you're done. The other took more exploration and additional die-cut layers to arrive at the finished design.

And that's exactly what makes a coordinated collection so useful. The products take care of the coordination; you get to decide how simple or elaborate you want to make the card.

You can keep things clean and minimal, add your own dies and embellishments, or simply experiment with the pieces until something clicks.

Discover What's Possible

Perfect Pairs combines coordinating stamps and ephemera cuts into ready-to-use cardmaking combinations. The pieces are designed to work together from the start, making it easy to create cohesive cards while still leaving plenty of room for your own creativity.

Blooms & Sunshine is one of four Perfect Pairs collections currently available, along with Party & Wishes, Classic Christmas, and Serene Winter.

Whether you want to make a quick card or spend some time playing with layers and composition, Perfect Pairs gives you a beautiful place to begin.

Until next time, keep creating with confidence -- and let Perfect Pairs do the coordinating.

Perfect Pairs + Paper Goods | Classic Christmas with Stephanie

When you have a coordinated collection and a few beautiful paper goods on hand, creating a card can become a matter of choosing the combination that feels right.

STAMPgirl Stephanie shows how easily Perfect Pairs: Classic Christmas can be combined with different Paper Goods to create two completely different holiday cards. One uses a Christmas Slimline Card Front as the foundation for a tall, elegant design, while the other takes a more layered, vintage approach with Analog Grunge Collage Sheets and a stamped background.

Let the Card Front Set the Scene

For her first card, Stephanie used a Christmas Slimline Card Front as the base, allowing the beautifully illustrated holiday scene to do most of the work. The tall format gives the card a different feel from a traditional A2 design, while the Christmas imagery creates an instant seasonal focal point. She layered the coordinating Perfect Pairs: Classic Christmas elements over the card front, including the ornaments and the sentiment. A few carefully placed embellishments add just the right amount of sparkle without competing with the detailed artwork.

Creative takeaway: A card front can do more than simply fill the background. Let it establish the entire mood of your card, then use your Perfect Pairs elements to add dimension and a focal point.

Build a Vintage Background

For her second card, Stephanie took a different approach. This time, she started with an Analog Grunge Collage Sheet as the foundation and randomly stamped the Christmas definition background stamp over it. The combination of vintage collage imagery, typography, and stamped texture creates a rich, layered backdrop with plenty of visual interest. She then built her holiday scene on top with the coordinating Classic Christmas ephemera and sentiment. The bells, lantern, tied bundle, and star anise create a cozy vintage Christmas arrangement, while the layered elements give the card plenty of dimension.

Creative takeaway: Don't be afraid to combine different types of paper goods with your stamps and ephemera cuts. A collage sheet can become the foundation for an entirely new background when you add stamping, layering, and your own arrangement of elements.

Two Different Takes on Classic Christmas

Stephanie's two cards show just how much room there is to make Perfect Pairs your own. With the first card, Stephanie lets a slimline card front establish the scene and keeps the focus on the large holiday imagery. With the second, she creates her own background by combining a collage sheet with stamped texture before building a layered focal point on top.

The common thread is Perfect Pairs: Classic Christmas -- coordinated stamps and ephemera cuts that give you a ready-made starting point while still leaving plenty of room for your own style.

And that's where our Paper Goods really shine. Card fronts and collage sheets can give you a finished-looking foundation in moments, but they can also become just one layer in a much more elaborate design.

Create More with Paper Goods

If you love having beautiful backgrounds and ready-to-use artwork at your fingertips, our Paper Goods collection gives you plenty of options -- including Card Fronts, Collage Paper, Pocket Backdrops, ATC sheets, and Ephemera Cut-Out Sheets.

And if you'd like the flexibility to choose your Paper Goods each month, check out our Paper Goods VIP Subscription. You choose the paper goods you want rather than receiving a mystery assortment.

Pair them with Perfect Pairs, stamps, dies, or supplies from your own stash and see where your creativity takes you.

Until next time, keep creating, layering, and finding new ways to make your paper goods work for you.

Perfect Pairs | Party & Wishes with Monika

Celebrations don't always need a complicated card. Sometimes a few colorful pieces, a little stamping, and the right arrangement are all it takes to create something that feels festive and full of personality.

Today, STAMPgirl Monika is showcasing Perfect Pairs: Party & Wishes, pairing the coordinating stamps and ephemera cuts in two very different ways. One card turns the balloon bunch ephemera into an unexpected focal point with a clever twist, while the other uses the party-hats ephemera to create a playful, layered celebration card.

The beauty of Perfect Pairs is that the coordinating pieces give you a ready-made starting point while leaving plenty of room to make the designs your own.

Celebrate Big

For her first card, Monika used the colorful balloons ephemera and immediately saw something unexpected in their shape: a hot-air balloon. She made the balloons her focal point and used the Celebrate Big sentiment from the coordinating stamp set as the basket, white embossing it onto kraft cardstock. A hand-doodled line connects the sentiment to the balloons, while gold splatters and sequins add just the right amount of celebratory sparkle.

It's a clever example of looking at an embellishment for what it could become rather than what it was originally intended to be.

Creative takeaway: Look beyond the obvious when working with ephemera. Turn a shape, image, or small element in a different direction and see whether it suddenly suggests something else.

Party Hats and Confetti

For her second card, Monika wanted to capture a completely different celebration vibe: party hats, confetti, and streamers.

She randomly stamped the texture stamp from the Party & Wishes set across the card, masking areas as she went to create an energetic, layered background. Gold splatters and sequins become confetti, while the colorful party-hat Ephemera Cuts are arranged across the card to create movement.

The result feels joyful and spontaneous, with the elements scattered in a way that makes your eye move around the card rather than settling in just one place.

Creative takeaway: When you want to create a sense of movement, don't line everything up. Try varying the angle and placement of your focal elements, then use smaller details such as splatters or sequins to carry that movement throughout the design.

One Pair, Two Personalities

Monika's two cards are a great demonstration of what makes Perfect Pairs so versatile. The coordinating stamps and ephemera cuts give you the basic ingredients, but the finished cards can look completely different depending on how you arrange and combine them.

One card turns the ephemera into an unexpected focal image. The other builds an entire celebratory scene around it. And both came together quickly, proving that you don't need a huge supply list to create cards with plenty of personality.

If you haven't played with Perfect Pairs: Party & Wishes yet, this is a great set to experiment with. Start with the coordinating pieces, then see where your imagination takes them.

Until next time, keep creating and finding new possibilities in the supplies you already have.

Mix, Match, and Layer: Paper Goods with Angy Hughes

Paper goods give you a beautiful starting point, and when you start mixing, matching, and layering them, the possibilities really open up.

Today, STAMPgirl Angy shows us two wonderfully colorful ways to combine different paper goods to create cards with lots of personality. From bold Alpha-Chroma Collage Sheets to delicate Lavender Pocket Backdrops, stenciling, and clear stickers, these projects are a great reminder that you don't have to stick to just one type of paper good on a card.

Sometimes the magic happens when you put several different pieces together and let them play off one another.

Start with a Bold Collage

For her first card, Angy creates a vibrant, graphic background using our Alpha-Chroma Collage Sheets. The colorful letterforms and hand-painted details fill the card with energy, while a large circular focal area gives the eye a place to rest.

She added sentiments from the Hey, Sunshine Clear Stickers pack to reinforce the cheerful feel of the design. The stickers become part of the collage rather than simply sitting on top of it, making them an easy way to add words without interrupting the artwork.

Creative lesson: When your background is already full of color and pattern, think of your sentiments as another design element. Clear stickers are especially useful because you can place them directly onto your composition without adding another bulky layer.

Layer Different Paper Goods

Angy's second card takes a completely different approach, combining several Paper Goods to create a softer, more layered composition. She started with a Lavender Pocket Backdrop as the base, then added texture and pattern with the Tapestry stencil and incorporated pieces from the Botanical Beats Paper Goods Pack. The result is a beautifully layered background with subtle patterns, botanical details, and plenty of visual interest. A sentiment from the Inspirational #2 Clear Stickers pack finishes the card without adding another heavy layer to the already detailed design.

I love how the different elements work together here. The Pocket Backdrop establishes the overall color and atmosphere, the stencil adds another layer of pattern, and the Botanical Beats pieces bring in the smaller details that make you want to look closer.

Creative lesson: Don't be afraid to combine different paper goods on the same project. Start with one piece that establishes your color palette or mood, then add smaller elements from other packs until you have the amount of layering and detail you want.

Mix and Match Your Paper Goods

Angy's two cards couldn't look more different, but they share the same basic idea: start with paper goods you love, then build from there.

A collage sheet can become an entire background. A pocket backdrop can establish the foundation for a layered design. A collage sheet can provide the little pieces that fill in the gaps. And clear stickers can add the perfect finishing words without requiring another stamping step.

That's what makes paper goods so much fun to work with. You can use one piece on its own, or combine several different products to create something that feels completely your own.

And if you like having a variety of designs to choose from, check out our Paper Goods VIP Subscription. You choose the paper goods you want each month, so you can mix and match from different collections and build your stash around your own style and projects.

Until next time, keep creating and discovering what's possible with STAMPlorations Paper Goods.

Paper Goods Showcase | Pop Art Unicorns Card Fronts with Stephanie

It can be freeing to start a card with artwork that’s already doing most of the work for you. Today, STAMPgirl Stephanie L. shows two very different ways to use our Pop Art Unicorns Card Fronts -- one as a layered background and the other as the star of a clean, simple design.

The bold colors, expressive unicorn artwork, and collage-style details give these card fronts plenty of personality right out of the pack. Stephanie's projects show that you can either build on that artwork with additional layers or simply add a sentiment and let the Card Front shine.

Add Layers for More Dimension

For her first card, Stephanie adhered a card front directly to the card base before adding a slightly smaller piece of vellum over the artwork. She fussy cut the unicorn and flowers from the card front and layered them back over the vellum, creating a dimensional effect while allowing the artwork underneath to remain visible. She finished the card with a sentiment from the Bloomdala Bliss stamp set.

I love how this approach turns a ready-made card front into something that feels much more involved. The vellum creates a subtle separation between the background and the fussy-cut elements, while the repeated artwork gives the card extra depth.

Creative lesson: Don't think of a card front as something you have to use only once or in one piece. Try fussy cutting elements from it, layering them over vellum or another surface, and creating dimension with artwork that's already beautifully coordinated.

Keep It Simple and Let the Artwork Shine

For her second card, Stephanie took the opposite approach and let the card front do almost all the work. She simply mounted the card front onto a bright pink card base and added the Simple Expressions: LEAP sentiment. She stamped the sentiment in VersaFine Onyx Black ink, heat embossed it with clear embossing powder, and then colored the letters with a Copic marker. The result is bold, colorful, and wonderfully graphic without needing much else.

Sometimes a beautiful card front really doesn't need much embellishment. A strong sentiment and a little color coordination can be all it takes to turn it into a finished card.

Creative lesson: When your card front already has a strong focal point, resist the urge to add more. Choose a sentiment that complements the artwork, pull a color from the design, and let the paper goods do the heavy lifting.

Discover What's Possible

These two cards show just how flexible card fronts can be. Use one as a ready-made background for a quick card, or look more closely at the artwork and start cutting, layering, and rearranging the elements to create something completely your own.

That's one of the things I love about our paper goods: they give you a beautiful starting point without dictating where you have to take the design. Use the whole piece, cut it apart, layer it, or simply add a sentiment and call it done.

The Pop Art Unicorns Card Fronts are available in the STAMPlorations store, along with a growing collection of card fronts and other paper goods designed to make creating easier and more fun.

You can also choose your favorite paper goods through our Paper Goods VIP Subscription, so you get fresh designs to create with without receiving a mystery assortment.

Until next time, keep creating and discovering what's possible with STAMPlorations paper goods.

Creative Tip of the Day: Three Ways to Use Cover Plates

Cover plates are incredibly versatile. You can use them to create texture, highlight just part of their design, or turn the entire die-cut panel into a bold background. These three projects from the STAMPlorations archives show just how different the results can be depending on how you use the same type of die.

Create Texture Instead of a Die-Cut Background

Deepti started with watercolor cardstock and used the Zen Doodled Birthday Cake Cover Plate Die to emboss the cardstock, creating a subtle textured pattern rather than cutting the panel apart. She then watercolored the embossed panel in bright, vibrant colors. To finish the card, she heat embossed a sentiment from the Birthday Bash stamp set and added white pigment splatters.

It's a great reminder that a cover plate doesn't always have to be used to create a separate die-cut layer. Try embossing with the die instead to add texture to your background while keeping the cardstock intact.

Use Only Part of the Design

This card uses the Bloomtangled #1 Cover Plate in a different way. Rather than using the entire die-cut panel, I kept the top portion of the design and left the bottom of the card base clean. That open space gave me a perfect place to stamp the sentiment from the Bold Sentiments: Fearless stamp set. Keeping the cover plate design confined to one area of the card gives the intricate die-cut plenty of room to shine without overwhelming the sentiment.

Don't be afraid to trim, cut, or use only part of a cover plate. You don't have to use the entire design just because that's the size of the die.

Make the Entire Die-Cut the Star

Chris took the opposite approach and let the entire Zen Doodled Birthday Gifts Cover Plate create a bold, colorful background. She die cut it from festive patterned paper and adhered it to a black card base, allowing the bright colors and intricate design to really pop. For the sentiment, she cut the Celebrate Big phrase die three times from purple cardstock, stacked the layers together for dimension, and added Stardust Stickles for sparkle. She then cut it again from white cardstock and adhered it offset underneath the stacked sentiment to create a contrasting shadow.

Here, the cover plate does become the full background, but the strong contrast and dimensional sentiment keep the card from feeling visually flat.

Think Beyond the Obvious

The next time you reach for a cover plate, think beyond simply running it through your die-cutting machine and adhering the resulting panel to your card. Try embossing with it for subtle texture. Use only a portion of the design to create an interesting border or focal area. Or embrace the entire die-cut and let it become the star of your background.

There isn't one “right” way to use a cover plate. The fun is in deciding how much of the design you want to see -- and how you want it to work with the rest of your card.

And if you've had your eye on a CUTplorations cover plate -- or another die you've been meaning to try -- all CUTplorations dies are 15% off during our August sale. It's a good time to experiment with a few new ways to use the dies already in your stash, too.

Until next time, keep creating and looking at your supplies in new ways.