making small die cuts "pop up"

Hi !!  Wondering if anyone else has ever had trouble "popping up" an intricate or small embellishment on a card or scrapbook?

I know that in the past I've been frustrated by the tiny pieces of foam adhesive sticking to my fingers or having the pop up foam showing after my project was complete!!  Argggg!!

The solution is so simple, but it took me a while to figure it out!  Here's what I did.  If you've found an easier way please be sure to share that in the comments.  We all appreciate that!!

#1  Place strips of foam mounting tape, (if it does not have the release paper on both sides of it)  sticky side down on WAXED PAPER 

#2 Using the same die as the item you want to "pop up" cut your foam mounting tape!   It's that easy !! !!

BE SURE YOU DO NOT PUT THE STICKY SIDE AGAINST YOUR DIE OR MACHINE!  It must be protected by release paper on both sides or you will have a time scraping the adhesive out of your die etc!! 

For me, the wax paper works great as a release paper, it easily peels it off when I needed to stick it to my project.  I also found that I did not need the entire shape to make my image pop, so don't worry about perfection.  The beauty of it is that your adhesive perfectly matches the shape of your die cut :)  I also took a Sharpie and ran along the edge of the die cut adhesive so that the white (even though it is not sticking out) is less conspicuous.

A close up of my completed project ~ The Stamp artist is Phyllis Harris for Unity Stamp Co and the leaf dies are a Tim Holtz design for Sizzix

I decided to have a little fun inside the card too!!

Have fun making your delicate or filigree die cuts "PoP"!

Reduce Reuse Recycle :)

Today I thought I would share with you how I build a simple card.  I like to reuse stuff that would other wise be thrown away, I find that to be a lot cheaper too!!  Here's what I did: 

Another quick & beautiful option!!

On this one I was excited to be using the wonderful white side of some MFT packaging.  The weight and texture of this paper is pretty close to the card stock I usually use for cards, it is definitely not cardboard. If it were I would've saved it for building a box, embellishment or something else :)

I'll use the pink
another time!

  I also decided that I liked the pink stripes at the top so since I have several of these MFT labels I decided to slice off that part and keep for another project!

You can see that I chose a simple color palette and stamped these pears from Unity Stamp Co. randomly on the white part of the card.  Using accent papers the same colors as  the ink makes it quick and easy. 

A slice from the pears
+ sentiment = beautiful
quick & easy!!

  For the background any of the ink colors used would've worked. Blue, light blue, lime green and soft yellow. 

I could've easily stopped there and added a sentiment but I decided I wanted to texture the background paper.  I also thought a monochromatic pop of color would be nice so I inked the de-bossed side of the embossing folder in the same green. 

Once again that would have been enough for a beautiful card, but I decided to set off the stamped image with a dark blue mat. 

  I wrapped a  double line of pale yellow bakers twine around the pears image, added a bow, and decided to use the lighter blue paper  with a heavier font for the sentiment -- {deciding that the dark thin sentiment got a little lost}.  I rubbed the "thanks" sentiment with a little ink a shade darker than the cardstock to make it stand out more and added dimensional tape before adhering it to the card.

          

Ta-Da!! As easy & simple as the card maker chooses!!           

Here are some additional picts with prompts. CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE THEM   If you've  been wanting to try card-making for yourself I hope this simple tutorial helps alleviate some of they fears you might have had!  Please let me know if this was helpful and what other information you would like to see here in the future. 

Thanks,