Hey, crafty friends! When you see inspiration online for a project, don’t you wish you had everything you needed right then to create it? I also sometimes wish that I had a personal shopper who could get that all arranged for me – and not just with crafting hobby! Today we have something for you that’s almost like a personal shopper, so read on to learn more!

Today, we are featuring the Southwest Cutting Plate die. The southwest pattern style keeps us in the desert where it’s warm (which I appreciate as I look out my window at the couple feet of snow on the ground here in Minnesota!) Cutting plates are great dies to have in your paper crafting arsenal. They are sized to fill your card front and are perfect for creating quick backgrounds and designs for your projects. I have several ideas to share on how to dress up the Southwest Cutting Plate die cut. These ideas will expand to other dies in your collection as well!

We are starting off the Southwest Cutting Plate die inspiration with a new project from Taylor. She used ink blending and layering to create the beautiful effect on her card. Watch the video below to learn more on how you can recreate this gorgeous effect:

I don’t know about you, but I am so inspired to try out this technique myself! I love the color combinations that Taylor used and her tips on using Stick It to make your die cut project go together easily and without a sticky glue mess.

To get you started on dressing up the Southwest Cutting Plate die, we put together an exclusive kit that you can order now to get the supplies you need to create the card that Taylor shared in the video:

This limited edition “I Want it All” Southwest Kit includes the following products:

• Southwest Cutting Plate Die
• Free Spirit Stamp Set
• Fine Feathers Die Collection
• 4 Taylored Expressions Premium Full Sized Ink Pads in Guava, Pumpkin, Plum Punch, and Candy Corn
• Taylored Expressions Premium Cardstock Pack (7 sheets shown above)
• Taylored Expressions Embossing Powder in White
• 1 yard of Burlap Twine
• 3 Copic Sketch Markers: E07, E57, V09
• Pale Gold Nuvo Crystal Drops

This kit is available at a special price in limited quantities. CLICK HERE to shop now!

We also put together an exclusive Basic Southwest Kit that includes just the stamp set and dies in limited quantities. This kit includes the following products:

• Southwest Cutting Plate Die
• Free Spirit Stamp Set
• Fine Feathers Die Collection

This kit is also available at a special price and quantities are limited. CLICK HERE to shop now!

Here’s some more Southwest Cutting Plate die inspiration from Kim Singdahlsen. She layered the Southwest Cutting Plate die cut from Toffee cardstock layered on another piece of Toffee cardstock to create a beautiful, textured tone on tone look. She added a sentiment from the Free Spirit stamp set embossed in white on a Banner Stacklets 1 die cut and layered it up with a few more banners cut from different colors of cardstock.

Jen Shults used the Southwest Cutting Plate die to create a stencil for her project. Die cut the cutting plate from cardstock to use as a stencil that will last for a couple of uses, or cut it from a piece of acetate or stencil plastic for more long term use. Jen added color though her stencil with different inks onto Sugar Cube cardstock to create the colorful background on her project. She added a sentiment from the Free Spirit stamp set and a few feathers die cut with the Fine Feathers die collection that she tied with a bit of burlap twine.

Today, we shared 6 new tips to dress up your die cuts: ink blending with multiple colors on your die cut, creating a layered effect with 2 of the same die cut, using Copic markers to add details to your die cuts, using your die cuts to make a stencil, tying twine round a bundle of die cuts, and using Stick It to adhere intricate die cuts to your projects. I also shared other examples of layering die cuts in the same colors for a tone on tone effect and clustering die cuts for a fun layered effect.

There has been a whole lot of great ideas for dressing up your die cuts this week! If you missed out on any of the inspiration that I shared this week, click on the links for the different posts below:

• Dressing Up Die Cuts & Lots of Llamas
• Dressing Up Die Cuts & Cute Cacti
• Dressing up Die Cuts & Sweet Succulents

Don’t forget to take advantage of the exclusive kits that we are offering in limited quantities: the “I Want it All” Southwest kit and the Basic Southwest kit. The special price lasts only as long as the limited quantities last!

Make sure you stop by again next week for more crafty inspiration and thank you so much for stopping by today!

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