Unusual shaped frames by Natalie

 For this project, I used the Be at Peace stamp set alongside the worker stamp from Gerbera and Friends.

Stamping the images

Stamp your tree image using chocolate dye ink onto a DL size piece of buttery coloured cardstock; positioning your stamp towards the top. Then, we pull in the chocolate ink through the trunk and branches of the tree to give it form. As we are working onto coloured paper, use soft coloured pencils in two shades of green for the leaves to get a truer colour pop.

Onto a white piece of card (slightly larger than DL) use the dandelion worker image to create a patterned background. Stamp it in toffee coloured dye or permanent ink. You could wait to do this step until after you've cut the frame to save time and ink.

The sentiment is stamped in chocolate ink with the worker stamp in the same toffee ink as your background.

Creating the frame

You can use nesting dies to create your frame pieces; you will need four sizes of dies for this design. Use the largest and smallest dies centred to create the patterned layer featuring the worker stamp. The remaining two dies are cut from a piece of chocolate coloured cardstock. This should tone with the colouring of your main image.

Electronic cutter method: you can use your electronic cutter to cut your pieces. In your design software (or directly on the machine for ScanNCut users), create the centre aperture to fit your stamped design. The lozenge design works really well with this focal stamp. You can then use offset three times to create your shapes so they nest perfectly. Cut the largest and smallest shape from white card and the two other shapes from the chocolate card to create the pieces as shown above.

You can use a smaller version of the shape to cut out your stamped sentiment.

Assembling the card

Trim your panel to fit inside the fluted edge of a shaped DL card (or create your own patterned edge using dies, decorative border punches, etc. Adhere using tape to the card base.

Assemble your frame pieces flat, you can then overlay the frame onto the tree image; adding dimension using foam dots/tape if you wish.

Pop up the sentiment on foam to create a drop shadow. This is a useful technique to add contrast without having to cut a shadow layer or border.