Die Cut & Doodle

By Judi Kauffman

Thank you for inviting me to be today’s guest designer. My projects illustrate a super simple approach to cardmaking: Die Cut & Doodle! There are only three steps:

1. Die cut any of Suzanne Cannon’s A Way with Words Collection words or greetings from solid color cardstock that you’ve backed with double-sided adhesive sheet.

2. Position the word or words on a contrasting color top-fold card base. The card base can be a solid color (Happy Birthday), a cardstock rectangle on top of a patterned card base (Believe), or a card base topped with a die cut oval (Season’s Greetings, Merry Christmas).

3. Doodle around the words with a white opaque pen as shown or in any light opaque color(s) you prefer. Doodle on the lettering, too, as shown on the Season’s Greetings card shown below.

Don’t worry if your doodling isn’t perfect. The point of making marks is to have a good time, to create something that is clearly hand-done, that is evidence of a human brain at work. (Practice on scraps of cardstock if you don’t want to doodle on the card until you feel confident.

Don’t stop at the four dies shown – there are eight other options in the collection from which to choose.

TIPS:

*Do all of the die cutting at one time so you can make a big batch of cards and spend a long afternoon or evening (or weekend…) doodling patterns and designs.

*Create your own patterns and designs or search for them in books or online.

*Develop your own pattern “vocabulary” using your favorite marks and shapes. I love using lots of dots and small circles, as well as scallops or sharp zig zags, leaves and flowers, and abstract shapes. The more you doodle the more patterns you’ll develop and the easier and faster it will become. Though speed is not a goal, it’s nice to develop a rhythm.

*Position words at an angle or parallel to the top and bottom of the card base. Words can be arranged on one or more lines. Some of the dies have words that are connected (Happy Birthday, Season’s Greetings, Merry Christmas) but the other nine consist of one or more words that can be arranged as you choose, and they can be mixed among the sets. For example: Best Friends; With Best Wishes.

*Use more than one color for the doodling.

*Add gems, peel-offs, or other small dimensional embellishments. (Keep the embellishments small so they enhance but don’t overwhelm the doodling.)

Supplies:

Elizabeth Craft Designs –

1054 Happy Birthday
1049 Believe
1057 Season’s Greetings
1056 Merry Christmas
772 Accordion Oval Card (for white ovals)
503 Transparent Double Sided Tape Sheets

Other –

Gelly Roll Medium opaque ink pen in White (Sakura of America)
Popcorn pattern carcstock (Anna Griffin)
Solid color cardstock in White, Chocolate Brown, Red, Cordovan, and Chamois