Hello crafters.
Dawny P here and I have a little project for you today which uses one of the beautiful Tonic Studios Triple Easel Creator sets. There are 2 dies sets in this release – the Heart Easel Die Set and the Enjoy Easel Die Set. If you are wanting to create a card that really has the WOW factor then these are the sets for you.
The Heart Easel set has 21 dies and is perfect for all sorts of occasions, from Valentine’s Day to birthday and weddings and anniversaries. They would make lovely wedding invites as well as ‘just for you’ cards. There’s even a gorgeous little verso flower die which you can get a lot of mileage out of. The Enjoy Easel set is circular and includes butterflies and lots of snippable flowers and leaves. There are 27 dies in this set, so collectively that’s 48 dies over both. So good value as well.
Both sets enable you to create stunning triple easel cards and as you might expect, all the work is done for you. So no measuring or scoring; you simply just cut, crease and go. There are sentiments that you can use for all sorts of occasions and being verso die sets, there are of course beautiful inside edge dies plus solid shape outside edges. You can make them quite simple because they look lovely just using plain cardstock, especially with the verso edges. You can use your patterned papers as well and or you can use those beautiful verso edges for a project that looks stunning.
But you don’t have to create a triple easel. You can use just one die size to make a single, or 2 to make a double easel. You don’t have to use them to make easel cards either – you can use the dies independently. There are some lovely shapes in the sets and they will work on their own or with other dies you may have.
So let’s put something pretty together.
Using the Heart Easel set, I’ve made a triple easel card and kept it quite simple so that the lovely verso pattern comes through and does all the work.
Firstly, let’s do our cutting.
Cut your outside edge dies in blue and pink.
For my card I used blue for the largest and smallest top pieces and pink for the middle, and pink for the bottom large and small and blue for the medium.
You might want to do them all the same colour.
Cut 1 each of the outside edge dies in white then run back through you machine with the verso edge.
Cut pieces as shown here ie one outside edge sentiment in white and the inside edge in blue. Then cut 2 outside edge flowers in white and one in pink. Leave one white flower complete but cut the inside edge die into one of the white flowers and also the pink.
Now it’s time to put it all together.
Take one each of the three sizes cut from the main dies in white and you can either cut off the back section (the one with the glue / tape tab) straight across the crease or you can create a curved top. I found that the easiest way to do this is to use the outside edge dies closest in size, line it up and draw across the curve, as shown, before cutting out.
Do this on all three sizes. You’ll end up with 3 heart shaped pieces.
Take the 3 uncut main pieces and add some red liner tape to the little tab. Mountain fold the tab and also the crease in the centre. Burnish with a bone folder.
Open up the tab and lay the piece so that it is completely flat. Remove the backing tape. Now take the heart shaped piece that you cut, line them up and press down over where the tape is.
This is what it looks like on the reverse.
Re-bend the glue tab and also at the centre crease and stand up
. This is what each one will look like from the back and the front.
Time to decorate.
Stick the corresponding inside and outside edges together as shown and glue each piece to the relevant main piece.
You can use wet glue or add dimension using dimensional pads.
Stick the outside edge die cuts to the bottom section, I used opposite colours but you could do them all the same.
NB I’ve used plain colours here so that it’s easier to see.
Take the middle sized piece and add glue on the reverse but only at the top half as shown.
Now stick this piece to the bottom half of the largest piece about half way down. The higher up you stick these pieces, the taller the completed project will stand.
Now bend at the glue tab crease on both pieces. It will look like this.
Now repeat the process, sticking down the smallest piece to the middle sized piece.
Finishing touches.
Layer up the 2 sentiment pieces and stick together.
Cut a slit between 2 sets of petals on the pink and white verso flowers. Overlap the petals and stick together. You now have an 8 petalled flower instead of 10 petals.
Layer up the flower starting with the solid shape first, then the pink verso flower and finally the white verso flower. Hot glue is best for this.
Stick the sentiment to the centre section and the flower on the bottom section. This acts as a ‘stop’ to keep everything in place.
I’ve also added a couple of leaf flourishes which were cut from a largest verso edge die cut and a little dot in the centre of the flower. This is the waste piece from the verso flower. You could add a tiny button or Nuvo drops instead.
Finish off by gluing a bow and button to the centre of the largest heart as shown.
All done.
Tips
Use a bone folder whenever you are creasing to really burnish the folds. This will make everything stand up much better. If you find that the finished piece is flopping, just run the bone folder back over the creases and it should fix it.
Red liner tape is probably the best thing to use on the glue tab.
Have a really good look at all the shapes in the verso pattern. There’s lots of scope there for snipping.
Don’t attach the pieces to each other too low down – it won’t stand nicely if you do.
When cutting the section off of the main pieces for your heart, if the cut edge isn’t quite perfect, just file gently with a nail file to help with the shape.
To make this extra special, why not make a simple box to put it in.
