2 mens cards from 1 die cut

These card are really easy basic cards. I seem to have lost my mojo with card making at the moment! I think I have too much other stuff on, so don't have time to dream up ideas for cards to do videos. I had to make a couple of cards for my Nephew's birthdays coming up, so I thought this would be suitable as they are adults, and not really card guys, so I didn't want to put too much work into them.  

These cards, I was able to do one set of die cutting with an alphabet die and make two cards from them, using the negative and positive parts.

So I start off with two A6 size card bases and two card panels the same size.  I cut the bottom off one card panel and a narrow section just slightly narrower than the height of my letters out of the other one. 

I then stuck on the word happy with the letters from the alphabet die set onto the card panel I cut the bottom off, and spaced out the letters, I substituted the second 'P' with an 'R' seen it was the same size, just to get the spacing right, took the 'R' off and die cut the other letters, then put the 'P' back in the gap and cut that out too.  I now have 'HAPPY' cut out of my card panel, and I have saved all the other pieces, including the centre of the 'P's' and the 'A' to use. 

Next I did two narrow panels of distress ink blending using blues to black, which will go behind the negative die cut letters and behind the letters on the second card. 

I stamped the work 'birthday' underneath the negative die cut word, and also a second one onto a scrap of blue card, and then started putting the first card together.  I used a stamped piece of paper that I had stamped a diagonal stripe in black with a MFT background stamp, so I stuck that down on the bottom of my card, put some foam tape around the letters and the back of my card panel, stuck down the blended strip on the card base, where my letters will be, to be behind them, and then stuck down my negative card panel on top of that.  Lastly I put in the centres of the 'a' and 'P's' and that is the first card finished.

The second one is even more simple.  I worked out where the cut out piece is going to be on the card base, stuck the second distressed ink strip down, then mounted the two pieces of the front panel onto craft foam, and then onto my card front.  The next thing to do is put a tiny bit of glue at the top and bottom of each letter, and starting with the middle 'P' I worked either side of it, spacing each letter out glueing the letters onto the top and bottom panel pieces, but leaving the middle of the letters 'floating' over the inked strip.  Lastly I cut the second stamped sentiment on the blue card scrap out to be a banner, and that was stuck on the bottom piece of the panel, under the 'HAPPY'. and that is the second card finished.

If these instructions are a bit confusing, here is a video showing you how I did it.

The supplies I used are:

Alphabet die set

Card base and panels 6 1/4" by 4 5/8"

Scrap of blue card

Altenew birthday greetings sentiment stamp set
Ebosser

Misti

Versamark ink

Versafine onyx black ink

Clear embossing powder

White embossing powder

Distress inks: Blueprint sketch, Faded jeans, chipped sapphire, Black soot
Strathmore Bristol smooth watercolour paper

Ranger mini blending tool and sponges

MFT diagonal stripe background stamp

EK success tweezes

Quilled precision applicator bottle

Cosmic Shimmer dries clear glue

Scotch foam tape

Craft tape

double sided tape
T-ruler
pencil

I hope this card has inspired you to use alphabet dies that you might have differently. These cards could be used for any occasion, by changing what the letters say, such as 'MERRY' for a Christmas card or a child's name, and maybe changing the colours you have behind the letters.  The options are endless!