Desert Doubles - a Twofer Card Set + A Die Placement Trick

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Next time you're in New Mexico, stopped at a stoplight, take a gander at the little grassy island to your left, and you might just suddenly see that they are TEEMING with prairie dogs. It's so completely adorable. Somewhere, five phones ago, I have the cutest video of some on the busiest street in Santa Fe, popping up out of their little holes. 

When I just so happened to see the combo of these stencils and these adorable meerkats, that's right where my mind went, so I had to create a desert scene - well actually two - the joy of frame die cuts! 

First, I created the blue panel with the triangle negative and positive stencil/mask. I used Sea Glass, Blue Raspberry and Blue Lagoon inks, keeping it light. 

I set that aside and used the paper stencil to create my desert - overlapping Tangerine Twist, Honey Mustard and Faded Brick.

Then I die cut them both with a stitched square die - it double cuts so you get the square in the middle too. 

Now here's the trick. To place them in exactly the same spot on each card front, place the die cut panel over the uncut panel. Snap the frame portion of the die into the opening of the die cut one on top. Then put the center square into the opening - use a little temp adhesive if you need to. Remove the die and the die cut panel. On the uncut panel, snap the frame die into place around the center square, tape it, and remove the square and then off to your machine!

PS this is one of my very favorite die sets and it's discontinued, but here are some very similar dies in different shapes! 

I colored these with OLO Markers and added a teeny bit of white gel pen for their fur - look closely!

I swapped the centers of the frames for a window feel. She has LOTS of fun extras with this meerkatty release including free shaker mixes with purchase. I LOVE the MATTE enamel dots she has that I used here. You know what's cool about these? Since the surface is matte - YOU CAN INK BLEND THEM - so you can have dots that perfectly match your card! She shows examples here.

Brilliant.

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Hey - I found a new dairy free ranch recipe I'm going to try this week - I'll let you know!

Loveyameanitbye.

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