Die D-Lites Inspiration | Clean & Simple Cards with Daniel West

Hey there, this is Daniel from Del & Artie. I live in Providence, Rhode Island, USA, with my wife and three kids. Making cards brightens my day and teaches me patience and kindness. Every once in a while I slip a funny card into the mix, too, just for laughs. Today is my birthday, so I have the pleasure of making myself a birthday card with Spellbinders’ November Die D-Lites! These dies range from an Asian elephant to Celtic triangles and I had a blast playing with them. Clean and simple (CAS) cards with lots of white space are my jam! Die D-Lites really play well with this style so I decided to go nearly all CAS for today. To make things even simpler, all three projects feature the same color palette: pink, green and black.

Check out the Die D-Lites Kaleidoscope Triangles Etched Dies. They remind me of Celtic designs. These dies layer beautifully, each layer underscoring the one above it.

To make this card:

1. First, I die cut each triangle five times and stacked the colors—black on top, pink in the middle and green on the bottom.
2. Then, I arranged them horizontally across an A2-sized card base, adhering them with strong liquid adhesive.
3. To finish, I stamped a Happy Birthday sentiment from a favorite set in my stash using black ink.

For my second card, I used the Elephant Festival Etched Dies. Though I used the same card stock colors on the next two cards, added some shading and details with Copic markers. I also used the howdah (chair on the elephant) die cut as a stencil, repeating it across the bottom of the card as a walkway for our party animal.

To make this card:

1. First, I die cut the elephant three times and stacked the die cuts for dimension.
2. Then, I die cut the different elements of the scene out their respective colors.
3. For the saddle, I used two different colors. I cut out the center of the black saddle with a craft knife and replaced it with a green center.
4. Next, I adhered all the embellishment pieces on the elephant.
5. Then, I added shading to the image with markers.
6. I glued a howdah to a piece of scrap paper and with a blender brush, I added some coordinating pink ink to the bottom of the card front.
7. Next, I cut a strip of green cardstock as edging along the elephant’s path.
8. To finish off this card, I cut flowers out of some pink cardstock using the Die D-Lites Tallulah Etched Dies. I added some shading to them and adhered them along a flourish line “behind” the elephant.

For my third card, I used the Die D-Lites Floral Hi Etched Dies. This set has a fantastic sentiment cut right into it. It also includes the letters ‘H’ and ‘i’ so you can add them in as a separate color. To create this project:

1. First, I die cut the entire image three times. Once in green, then, pink and a darker green. Then, I die cut, just the letters in black.
2. Next, I trimmed off all the flowers and stems from the pink die cut and adhered it onto the front of the green.
3. Then, I added the pink flowers and some of the darker green stems to the front of the lighter green die cut and colored them in.
4. Next, I adhered the black ‘Hi’ to the center.
5. To finish off this card, I popped up the centerpiece onto a diagonally score card base using foam adhesive squares.

Spellbinders Supplies:

Other Supplies

Cardstock Warehouse Paper in Razzleberry, Gum Drop, Sour Apple and Ultra Black, Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive, Copic Markers. Thank you for spending some time with me today. I would love for you to visit my blog at Del & Artie. Let me know which of the three projects you liked the most in the comments section below!