Woodsy Hugs
by Janet Katz

I just love this Luscious Script Hugs die set. “Hugs” is such a short but appropriate sentiment for birthdays, get well, cheer up, and sympathy. The set comes with both the word and the offset background die. I wanted to make a slimline card (3.5 x 8.5″) and decided on a tailored, masculine look using plaid, gold and navy blue cardstock.  I pieced them together to make long mats, hiding the seams behind the word.  More on how I did this below. I decided to soften up the sentiment by using a couple of my favorite dies — the Floral Cluster and the Orchard Leaves. Finally, I added some gold liquid pearls to parts of the flowers and the background. I adhered everything together and attached the panel to a folded piece of beige cardstock as the card base.

 

Here’s how I “stretched” my 6×6″ paper. I used a single sheet from the plaid paper pad and cut it in half. I had a little notch in one piece from where the hanger hole was.

 

I had my work cut out for me because I needed a piece that was exactly 3×8″ to mat onto the gold piece. I also needed to hide a seam on a diagonal and match the plaids up. First, I took my two 3×6″ pieces, overlapped them and taped them together with removable tape, making sure that the notch was going to get cut off or not show behind the die cut. Next, I figured out the angle I wanted the “hugs” at to fit across the card with little to nothing of the die cut hanging off the left and right edges. Then, I made a pencil line and made the cut.

 

The two pieces fit together and made a piece much longer than the 8″ I needed.  Finally, I decided I wanted my sentiment to sit about 1/3 of the way from the top, so I cut off a little from the top and bottom of my plaid piece so the seam would land just where I wanted the sentiment to land.

 

 

I used the same trick with my navy blue cardstock, but without needing to match a pattern or avoid a notch. However, I made a mistake. I neglected to place my navy blue seam at the same place as my plaid seam and cut all my extra length off of one end of my long navy piece. I was relieved when I was still able to make it work and cover the 2 seams.