Spellbinders Die D-Lites Inspiration | Elephant Festival Cards with Jean Manis
Cardmaking,  Die Cutting,  Step by Step Tutorials

Die D-Lites Inspiration | Elephant Festival Cards with Jean Manis

Hello! I’m Jean Manis, a papercrafter blogging at Right as Rain. I am delighted to be on the blog today sharing projects created with supplies from the November Die D-Lites release. On all three cards, the focal point is the Elephant Festival set. One of my favorite things to do as a designer is to explore the different ways in which the same image can be portrayed. On the cards I’m showing today, I’ve varied the color schemes and added elements from other sets in the November Die D-Lites release; I’ve also introduced gold on two of the cards and added texture with a dry-embossed background on one.

Spellbinders Die D-Lites Inspiration | Elephant Festival Cards with Jean Manis

On the first card, I’ve used a variation of the primary color scheme combined with white and black.

Spellbinders Die D-Lites Inspiration | Elephant Festival Cards with Jean Manis

I heat-embossed the sentiment on to an oval cut with the largest die in the Fancy Edged Ovals set.

I cut the elephant from teal cardstock. Using the negative of the die-cut, I traced the shape on to Black Licorice cardstock and fussy-cut it.

Spellbinders Die D-Lites Inspiration | Elephant Festival Cards with Jean Manis Spellbinders Die D-Lites Inspiration | Elephant Festival Cards with Jean Manis

I adhered the fussy-cut piece to the back of the elephant. In a similar fashion, I traced the carriage piece for the saddle on to Whip Cream cardstock, fussy-cut it, and adhered it to the back of the carriage piece. I cut the remaining pieces in the set and assembled the elephant.

For embellishment, I added pieces of the Butterfly Frame-A-Long set cut from Whip Cream cardstock to the back of the oval.

Spellbinders Die D-Lites Inspiration | Elephant Festival Cards with Jean Manis

To add texture, the card base was dry-embossed with the Pretty Plaid embossing folder.

Spellbinders Supplies:

Other Supplies

Cardstock: Bazzill Candy Necklace, Taylored Expressions Pineapple, Stampin’ Up Poppy Parade; VersaFine black ink; Nuvo craft glue; foam adhesive; detail scissors; My Favorite Things Yay for You stamp set

On the second card, I cut the elephant and accessories from cardstock colored with Distress Oxide ink in shades of red and purple. I fussy-cut the shape of the elephant, as I did on the first card, from Brush Gold cardstock, adhering the piece to the back of the die-cut elephant (adding black cardstock for the eye). I backed the saddle carriage as I did on the first card. I cut the remaining pieces in the set and assembled the elephant.

Spellbinders Die D-Lites Inspiration | Elephant Festival Cards with Jean Manis

In order to keep the focus on the elephant’s bright colors, I used gold and black for the card background.
I cut pieces using a die in the Butterfly Frame-A-Long set from Brush Gold cardstock and adhered the pieces together at the corners to create a frame.

Spellbinders Die D-Lites Inspiration | Elephant Festival Cards with Jean Manis

The sentiment was heat-embossed on to a Black Licorice cardstock panel, which was cut with a die in the A-2 Matting Basics A die set. I wanted a thin reveal of the Brush Gold cardstock base.

Spellbinders Supplies:

Other Supplies

Distress Oxide inks: Candied Apple, Wilted Violet; Nuvo craft glue; foam adhesive; My Favorite Things Yay for You stamp set

On the third card, I began my design with the border created with the Kaleidoscope Triangles set.

Spellbinders Die D-Lites Inspiration | Elephant Festival Cards with Jean Manis

I often turn to a metallic for one of the die-cut pieces when I use the Spellbinders stacking die sets. I cut the top triangle from Black Licorice cardstock, the center triangle from red cardstock, and the bottom triangle from Brush Gold cardstock. After adhering the pieces together to form the triangles, I adhered five triangles to a Whip Cream cardstock strip, cut 4 ¼” wide by 2” tall. I trimmed the triangles on the left and right to fit the width.
Wanting the elephant to coordinate with the border, I die-cut the pieces from the same cardstock colors. I fussy-cut Black Licorice cardstock in the shape of the elephant, as on the other cards, and added the piece to the back of the elephant, which I had cut from Brush Gold cardstock. I backed the saddle carriage as well. I assembled the elephant.

Spellbinders Die D-Lites Inspiration | Elephant Festival Cards with Jean Manis

The card base was created by adhering gold-dot vellum paper to Whip Cream cardstock. I added the assembled Kaleidoscope Triangles strip, the heat-embossed sentiment (which was cut with the A-2 Matting Basics B die set), and the elephant.

Spellbinders Supplies:

Other Supplies

Bazzill Wax Lips cardstock; gold-dot vellum paper; sheet adhesive; Nuvo craft glue; foam adhesive; My Favorite Things Yay for You stamp set
There are many directions that your design can take with the products in the November Die D-Lites release. Thanks for stopping by!

2 Comments

  • slangnv

    I think Jean is amazing! The black card is stunning. Some great ideas for the backing paper on the elephant. It is interesting how all three cards look completely different.

  • stephanie clapper

    I finally ordered these beautiful Dies and can’t wait to work with them. They are wonderful quality. Gorgeous inspiration by Jean!

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