Whilst the new Secret Garden Stacks Die has been designed to work with the Pop-Out Stacks Base Die, the many pieces (22 dies) in the set are brilliant for building your own gardens without the pop-out element, and as it was too wet to go out in my real garden this weekend, I made myself a couple of paper ones instead!
For the first I needed a new home card for friends who've moved to the Cumbrian countryside so I paired elements from the garden set with the new Cozy Houses die from Altenew - perfect for new home cards as you get 5 different shaped houses to choose from! Altenew have brilliantly labelled each die with a letter and number too so its SUPER EASY to work out which bits go together!
Once I'd built my house (and added their new house number to the door with a pen to personalise it) I die cut a circle of blue card and started to build a garden - I used the tree topper to suggest a forest behind the house and then die cut some of the plants that are designed to fit pots and beds and just snipped the bottom square off each with scissors. I used those along with pebbles to build up the front garden and added a few hints of flowers using the smaller holly hocks. Finishing with a tiny bit of fence at the bottom. At first glance you'd not guess this was the Secret Garden die at all which shows how versatile it can be!
The sentiment is simply cut with an alphabet die from the same blue card, with some green ink blending at the bottom of each letter and some dots of stickles so the letters look like a garden too. Mirroring the colours in your main image is a good way to add interest and cohesion to a CAS design - CAS doesn't mean no effort - just good clean design.
I really wanted to play with the hollyhocks so decided to make a second card with a closer up view of the garden. I ink blended the base card with green and blues and started with the large hedge die - this has a square end at one side as its designed to go up to the pop out base. I just cut the leafy end again, turned it upside down and stuck it over the straight edge. A carefully placed plantpot and some loose leafs cover the join!
I tucked the large tree behind and then added the hollyhocks in front using pinks and reds for some brightness and impact. To cover the base of those I built a stone wally with the stone bricks just added to a strip of darker grey and a pale grey strip as a topper.
I've not added a sentiment - I like to keep some "could be anything" designs in my stash for when I need an unexpected card and then I can just add a sentiment in a hurry and this fits that category perfectly.
I've got some fun ideas for using the pop-out dies with other products too so will be back another day with some ideas on how to use those without the add on dies too!
Happy Crafting.
Tara
