Inlaid die-cutting tutorial

Inlaid die-cutting can be done in different ways and the cards here show the technique with a clean and simple look, with the inlays becoming almost invisible as a separate die-cut on one-layer cards.

You can use any dies for this technique. To keep the cards simple, you can use nesting die shapes such as circles and hexagons, or create an inlaid picture by snipping into different coloured die-cuts and piecing them back together like a puzzle. If you use dies with a lot of detail such as the gift, it will take longer to inlay all of the pieces, but the finished effect is worth it.

Double-sided adhesive sheets such as Stick-it are really useful for adding the die-cuts to the negative spaces, it saves having to add adhesive to small pieces and makes the process much easier and quicker.

To start you need to cut a piece of card smaller than the card blank. Die-cut the embellishments and the sentiment from the card piece and make sure you carefully keep all of the ‘waste’ pieces from the die-cuts. You will need the ‘waste’ from these die-cuts to complete the inlaid look on the cards. If you add a piece of double-sided adhesive sheet to the back of the cardstock, the inlaid pieces are easy to apply. Use the same dies to cut the embellishments and sentiments again using coloured cardstock. Then inlay the coloured cardstock into the negative spaces, either as one colour or cut up into different colours. To finish the inlaid look, add the small pieces of waste cardstock from the first die-cut.

For these cards I wanted to achieve an almost invisible look to the inlays. I found that rubbing a bone folder over the finished inlaid pieces helped to flatten the die-cuts into the cardstock and almost have the look of one piece of card. This also helped to make sure the small die-cut pieces or waste were securely in place.

Cut a white 12cm-square panel and place the circle sentiment and inner circle dies across the bottom corner so that one ‘THANK YOU’ will be cut across the corner. Hold in place with low-tack tape and die-cut. Keep all pieces including the waste

Die-cut small circles across the cardstock, repeating and cutting some of the circles over the edges

Cut a 12cm-square piece of Stick-it adhesive sheet and carefully attach it to the die-cut panel

Die-cut the sentiment from dark blue cardstock and the centre circle from turquoise cardstock. Inlay into the negative space on the white square and trim off the excess. Add the waste pieces between the letters and circle from the white die-cut in Step 1 into the negative spaces

Die-cut the same size circles from different coloured card and place into the negative spaces on the panel, trimming off any excess on the edges. Rub over the inlaid die-cuts with a bone folder to make sure they are secure

Place the largest square die over the inlaid piece, tape in place and die-cut. Attach the inlaid panel to the card front to finish