Love This: Die-Cut Heart Cluster Tutorial - Melissa Stinson

Valentine's Day has never been a major "photo" holiday for me, but I always seem to fall madly in love with one or more Valentine's themed collections each year. Crate Paper's lines are almost always at the top of that list, and I love finding ways of using those papers and embellishments on non-themed layouts. 

Valentine's Day collections usual include lots of soft colors that are just perfect for baby layouts, so I pulled in some of the pinks and aquas from Love Notes to scrap this photo of my new nephew, Finnegan, taken when he was just a week or two old. Just because I used soft colors doesn't mean that the layout has to have a washed out look, though! Love Notes includes black chalkboard papers and some prints in bolder shades of pink and aqua that provide a great contrast to give the page just a little bit of punch.

Perhaps my favorite part of this page (aside from the photo) is the die-cut heart cluster filled with little pops of pattern. The cut is from the Silhouette store, and the gold glitter paper is POW! by American Crafts, which cuts beautifully in the Silhouette.

I could have also used the Silhouette to cut the smaller hearts, but rather than have to ungroup the shape and run each piece of patterned paper through individually to cut all of the different patterns, I decided to take the faster route and do it by hand.

Filling a cut shape like this is so easy! Start by flipping both the cut shape that you want to fill and the paper that you want to use to fill it upside down, an then trace the inside of the cut shape onto the back of the patterned paper. Next, trim the traced outline by hand, leaving an edge around it. You don't have to be neat at all, and the outline edge doesn't have to be even - just enough to overlap will do.

After you've cut out the traced shape, lay it face-down on the back of the cut shape and tape the edges to hold it in place.

I also used one of the little gold hearts left after cutting the heart cluster to add a little sparkle to one of the pre-made Love Notes embellishments - it really help to tie it to the page!

Comments

[jò]

beautiful layout

[Jessica Yoder-Jones]

Love the layout. What cut file did you use? (name)

[wida]

I love the cut file too!!