Day 7 of my ’12 Dies of Clarity’ and I’m onto the July New Design Club die, which is the ‘overlay leafy aperture’.

I started the first card by cutting the die twice into a piece of green card, and then trimmed out all the leaves from the centre so I was left with a frame. Ii’s worth taking a bit of time when you do this, so you work out what leaves you want to keep and make sure you snip in the right places. My top border looked a bit rough when I’d finished, so I neatened it up with a craft knife and a ruler.

I then cut down a piece of the ‘Great Lakes’ designer paper to the same size as the green card, and stamped the bird table from the ‘birdhouse garden’ stamp set. I used Distress Oxide inks in ‘chipped sapphire’ and ‘bundled sage’, which I applied to the stamp using sponges so the colours blended and were a bit more muted

I then attached the green leafy frame onto the designer paper using glue, so I had a bit of wiggle room. I’d positioned the bird table so it sat nicely within the frame. I’d got a deep border at the bottom of the green frame so it was the right proportion for a landscape 5×7 card blank, so I added another strip of the designer paper across it for balance.

I finished the card by stamping the sentiment from the ‘Art Nouveau’ set in Distress Oxide ‘chipped sapphire’ on a small piece of white card, and attached it to the right hand side of the lower panel.

I do like the way you can use these aperture dies in different ways just by trimming away parts of the design. It makes them very versatile. For the second card though I left the die cut intact. I started by blending Distress Oxide inks (speckled egg, wilted violet & chipped sapphire) onto a small square of white card, using brushes.

I then cut the die into the front of a 5×5 card blank, and simply attached the coloured card behind it. The die cut is so intricate that it only needs a fairly plain but strong colour behind it. Final touch was to stamp the sentiment in ‘chipped sapphire’ along the lower edge of the die cut.