Three Ways to Use the Creative Edges: Evergreen Die

Hi, friends! Today I am sharing three ways to use the recently released Creative Edges: Evergreen Die and also have a few thoughts on finding joy in coloring.

When I first saw the Creative Edges: Evergreen Die, I got excited. I have enjoyed coloring die-cuts because it allows me to get more creative than I do with just stamps. In my personal time, I am practicing my watercolor techniques and have learned a few things I would love to share with you. Many readers and followers have told me that they feel discouraged when they watercolor because they are trying to get a certain look. The best advice I can give is to keep trying. Practice makes progress and, with each attempt, you learn something different. You either try different brushes, different strokes or pressures with your brush, different papers, and even water control.

Let's start with my first card today.

I wanted to create rows of dimension with green trees so I die cut the Creative Edges: Evergreen Die several times using 140# watercolor paper. For today's projects, I used the Watercolor 36 Pan Set along with a few other watercolor tubes I had. I love all shades of green so I mixed in different colors to get these shades of green. You can experiment with different color mixes to see what kinds of shades you can get. Altenew offers palettes for wet media. You really can't go wrong the colors you come up with and I believe that you'll find joy in uncovering varied hues. Coloring is therapeutic and shouldn't come with restrictions or rules. If you don't like the way something turns out, try again. There is no need for you to share it if you don't want to but you won't know how good you are until you try, so find joy in just coloring. Our inner child is in need of exploration and adventure.

Once the trees dried, I added white paint splatters and waited for that to dry as well. I stamped the sentiment from Build-A-Flower: Anemone Coronaria with clear embossing ink and heat-set it with white embossing powder. Then, I trimmed it down and set it aside. Afterward, I arranged all the evergreen trees over a white card base and mounted it with foam tape for dimension. Finally, I added the sentiment in the center with foam tape as well. I love how some sentiments go perfectly with the rest of the card and convey such a lovely message.

For my next card, I wanted to use just one row of trees and create my own sky.

I recommend that you try coloring night skies or galaxies. It is so fun to experiment. I found that people don't stick to any particular shade. I've seen rainbow galaxies, monochromatic, ombre, etc. I used one of the leftover die-cuts of the Creative Edges: Evergreen Die and colored it in a very dark green, almost black shade. Once that dried, I added in a “snow” effect with white paint just by pressing my brush down with the paint. This allows to leave some areas uncolored. Since this was my first time trying it, I didn't know how it would end up. So it was fun to attempt it and awesome that it came out just fine! I even added the “snow” on the “ground.” For the base, I used a 140# deckled watercolor sheet cut down to A2 size and watercolored a galaxy sky. I finished it off with some white paint splatters for stars. The sentiment is from Hello Sunshine, one of my favorite sets. This sentiment is perfect for many of the colored cards I create so you'll see me use it often.

For my last card, I die cut the Creative Edges: Evergreen Die out of white cardstock and used the negative piece as a stencil.

For my card base, I used a 3.5″ width to create a slimmer card since I had die cut a 4.25″ wide stencil. I used post-it tape to hold down the stencil in place over my card base and I used the same stencil for all my ink blended shades.

You can use different die-cuts if you don't want to risk any smudges. Me? I embrace my mistakes as an artist. I did a rainbow order of colors using ink pads and blending tools. You can use any inks and any looks. You can't go wrong with it. As you can see, I used the sentiment from Hello Sunshine, but this time, I stamped it right over the yellow trees. The other sentiment is actually from Best Dad, but I removed the “dad” part of the sentiment.

I hope these cards inspired you to color and create today! Stretch your stamps and dies with different looks. Be sure to tag us on social media (using the hashtag #Altenew) when you do. Thanks again for visiting and for leaving me some love!

Don't you just love how Rubeena creatively used the die-cuts in her projects? If you are looking for fresh ideas and awesome techniques on die-cutting, look no further. We've got you covered with our Easy Die Cutting Techniques Class with Yana Smakula. Register here.

SUPPLIES USED:

Creative Edges – Evergreen Die [ ALTN ] Watercolor 36 Pan Set [ ALTN ] Watercolor Palette Bundle [ ALTN ] Build-A-Flower: Anemone Coronaria [ ALTN ] Hello Sunshine Stamp Set [ ALTN ]