Hello, hello and welcome!  I’ve had my eye on Altenew’s Hibiscus Garden 3D Die  for sometime and finally bought it.  I thought it would be helpful to take Therese Calvird’s 3D Floral Focus Class while I was playing with my new dies.  Therese has six wonderful lessons and I would like to share my 3D creations in this blog post.  I found this class very relaxing and therapeutic and I enjoyed thinking about  my color combinations and doing loads of die-cutting. 

This first thing I did was put the dies for each flower in individual numbered pouches so that I can just grab a pouch and start die-cutting.  This will make future card making so much more streamlined since I won’t have to sort through all the dies to find the pieces for each layer.  Next, I made a sample of each flower and leaf to use as a guide when assembling my die-cuts and I labeled the back.  Again, this makes the die-cutting and assembly go so much more quickly.

I have orange and pink potted Hibiscus plants around my pool and I used them as the inspiration for this card.  I started by ink blending all the colors I wanted on watercolor paper.  I like that watercolor paper is a bit thicker and has more texture and makes a rich substantial diecut. Next, I diecut the components of my card and the sentiment.

I then created my background.  I masked off a frame on a piece of watercolor paper and then watercolored my background with a diluted watery purple.  I dried the panel and added purple and black paint splatters.  Next I mixed gesso with Iridescent Shimmer Spray and added more splatters.  I put the panel aside to dry while I assembled my flowers.  When the panel was dry, I glued my die-cuts onto the background.  I really love the bold vibrant blooms with the softer greens and background.

For my second card, I used the inlaid diecutting technique with a color blocking twist.  Same die set but a very different vibe.  I die-cut all the pieces from scraps I had saved from Altenew\’s Jewel Tone Sampler.  The colors are bold and gorgeous!

The square panel is 2 3/4\” x 2 3/4\”.  Therese taught us to use the same color paper underneath the inlay in case there is a gap.  This worked really well for me.  To finish the card, I made a 4 1/4\” x 4 1/4\” square top folding card.