Want to get the most out of your Essentials by Ellen Hey You stamp, die and hot foil stamp trio? Angela’s here to show you 3 ways to use it, plus 2 handy alignment tricks.
Hi friends! It’s Angela here, coming at you from my craft room where I’ve been having a ton of fun playing with the latest Essentials by Ellen release. The video I’ve got for you today is all about the Hey You suite – the stamp and die bundle, and hot foil stamp. I love a big bold greeting that can be the star of the show on a card, especially when you’ve got solid stamp and hot foil accent options!
You can absolutely use each of these products independently, but I’m going to show you how I used them all together on 3 cards, plus 2 tricks that’ll ensure you get perfect alignment every time. Sometimes this can be a challenge with dies that you can’t see through, but once you watch this video, you’ll be able to apply these tricks to so many future cards.
Tip 1: Make a simple alignment guide
Rather than positioning the Hey You die over your stamping and/or foiling and hoping you’ve got it in the right place, make yourself an alignment guide by running the die and a piece of plain (or scrap) cardstock through your die cutting machine. You can keep the die cut letters for another purpose (like stacking them with others for dimension, but the negative piece is what you want most here!
After foiling or stamping the “Hey You HBD”, position the guide over top, ensuring the letters are lined up. Then, place the die over top until you feel the cutting grooves fall into the spaces in your alignment guide. Run it all through your die cutting machine again, and voila – once you lift the die and alignment guide away, you’ll have die cut lines perfectly positioned around the letters. Note that depending on your die cutting machine’s pressure, you may need to make one more pass with the alignment guide removed to get complete cuts. This is easy though, because the indentations made from the first pass will allow you to feel where the die should go.
Tip 2: Use your guide for letter placement, too
Don’t toss your alignment guide after die cutting, because you can also use it to ensure your die cut letters line up flawlessly! I cut mine down to the same size as my card panels on all 3 cards (3.5 x 4.75″) and held it in place with magnets while I popped the die cut letters in the gaps.
Tip 3: Turn your alignment guide into a shaker card!
If your alignment guide is still in pristine condition after using it for 1 and 2 above, celebrate by slapping some acetate on the back and turning it into a shaker card! (Mine had a few markings so I didn’t do this, but it would have been a fun 4th project.)
Have I missed any great alignment tips that you’ve discovered while playing with these new products? Be sure to leave them in the comments below! And if you haven’t yet checked out the new release, you can do that right here.
Thanks for stopping by today, and until next time, happy crafting!
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1 Comment
Such an amazing trio!