Believe Double Page Layout by Jowilna Nolte

#couturecreationsaus
 
Welcome to today's post using.... die-cuts -you guessed it! 
i must say that the more and more i pull out the beautiful Couture Creations dies and use them on my layouts the more i am falling in love with them. They are so simple to use, cut beautifully and you can dress up anything with them! but how do you dress up your die-cuts themselves? mmm lets explore a bit.
For this layout i kept things really simple to focus totally on my beautiful photos of my niece. Using  a selection of patterned papers including the gorgeous turquoise paper from the Sew Jo paper pad was perfect for this layout - i used it to cut the scallop edge for the top and bottom of my layout with the Chandeliers Set | CO723247 
and i think this is my all time favourite border die... 
  

but how do i dress up my die-cuts
1. Paint
For this doily die-cut i simply used acrylic paint to paint the plain white cardstock. I left my foam brush heavy loaded with paint and the paint to be streaky. Once dry i inked the edges with a brown ink to show up some of the streaky texture.
 

2. Diamonds and Pearls
I used pearls to dress up my die-cut strip by adding pearls on all the valley points. I used a light coloured pearl for a subtle texture.
3. Sewing
something as simple as sewing can dress up your die-cuts quickly. It adds texture and pattern to something that can be otherwise very bland.
 

4. Stamping
i am a stamper at heart so unless something has a bit of ink and pattern on it, i rarely find it to be finished. For this die-cut i painted it in the same way as before with acrylic paint. I then added a stamped layer with a script stamp. But here's how i did it...
ink your stamp with black ink, then stamp onto a sheet of scrap paper and then stamp onto your die-cut. this way you remove quite a bit of the ink on the stamp and get a perfectly imperfect stamped image that is not solid, but rather a distressed and worn look. perfect to match my background script paper.

 
There are loads of other ways to dress up your die-cuts like...
  • blind embossing using Couture Creations embossing folders
  • glitter - cover your die-cuts with glitter or micro-beads
  • heat emboss them using coloured embossing powder, gold or silver
  • dip your die-cuts into UTEE in a melting pot
  • stain them with walnut ink crystals or home-made tea or coffee for a vintage look
  • scrunch them up and flatten them for a distressed look
    .... and so on and so on! The point is there are so many ways to dress up your die-cuts making them one of the most versatile products around these days. and remember always buy your favourite designs first and pick ones that can be used over and over again by dressing them up in different ways to get your moneys worth - then build your collection with the rest of those gorgeous designs from Couture Creations.

    happy die-cutting everyone!  here's a list of Couture Creations products used on this layout
12x12 Paper Pad, Sew Jo CO723545

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