Inlaid Die-Cutting Technique

This months blog hop motto is "Inlaid Die-Cutting". Sounds complicated you think? Oh no, this is really easy and a lot of fun to try.

What do you need for this technique. Beside different colored cardstock and/or design papers and some dies or punches. 

If you are a beginner you might ask, what are dies? Dies are flat metal cutting forms which are used in conjunction with a die cutting machine such as a Cuttlebug, a BigShot etc. There are many die cutting machines on the market and it doesn't really matter which one you have since the result will be the same. (Comment down below if you are interested about a comparison between machines!)

If you don't own a die cutting machine yet, you can use different punches as well. You will be a little limited on the placement and the design, but it will work as well. 

So what is this technique all about? 
It simply means you ad a die cut/ punch within another die/ punch. For example this circle here: I first created my design paper (you can use cardstock or regular design paper, but it is a nice chance to put your stamping skills to a good us ;) ). Next I used my 2" circle punch and punched a circle in the lower bottom. The punch limits you on how fare you can punch, but this will due it. Keep the punched out piece for the next project. 
I then punched another 2" circle from colored cardstock and placed it inside the design paper...Voila... your first inlaid die cutting is done. To make sure the pieces are not falling apart I used some tape (washi or similar) on the backside to secure them.

I happen to have some word dies for "Happy Birthday" which I used for the second die cutting part. I laid them out on the design paper and the inlaid circle, fastened them lightly with some removable tape so they wouldn't move on me while I cranked them through my die cutting machine. I removed the dies and the cutouts. I used the same two dies to cut out another set of "Happy Birthday" from some glitter paper. 

Now comes the tricky part... place the glitter words back into the openings of the main design piece. I turned the design paper with the circle around and added a piece of cardstock covered in adhesive to the back. This will help me in two ways, first when I turn the piece around, I already have adhesive in the word openings and don't have to try to get it in from the front. Second it gives me a base to place my words on with out them falling through (Especially for the little filler pieces).

Well, now all that is left is to place the glitter words into the design paper and put the little cardstock fillers back between the letters. Since I placed the cardstock on the backside I don't have to worry of loosing parts while adding it to my card base. This way you can actually place the piece with foam dots onto your base as well.

Hope this gave you a little inside of the "Inlaid Die-Cutting" technique and you are going to try it on your own. Please check out the Saturday Blog Hop post and hop along to see more inspirations on this technique. I will have a few more cards too and each will be explained in detail following the hop date. One card will be made just with the punches!

If you have questions, please feel free to contact me and/ or leave a comment. I would love to hear from you!