Happy Cacti Anniversary Card (and 2 products worth mentioning)

On our recent trip to Arizona this past winter, my husband and I visited the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson.  This is primarily an outdoor museum which includes walking trails, a zoo, an aquarium, a natural history museum, botanical gardens of desert plants… and this happy couple!

As soon as I saw these cacti which appeared to be standing arm in arm, I immediately thought they’d be perfect on an anniversary card for my husband.  I added a computer generated greeting, matted the photo, and called this done!  …a super quick card and a great memento of our trip!

Two products worth mentioning:

The photo and mat on this A2 sized card were cut with dies from the “Infinity Rectangle Dies” set from Hero Arts.  I am loving that these 16 dies are perfectly sized for A2 layering with 1/8 inch borders from one die to the next. If you struggle cutting panels and mats to size with a trimmer, these dies are just what the doctor ordered! And I prefer using a die to cut a photo (or stamped focal panel) instead of a trimmer because I can frame/position the image to my liking and see what my finished panel will look like before it is cut.

I also used a Sizzix crease pad to cut my photo and mat in place of one of the clear plates in the Big Kick cutting sandwich. The crease pad is intended to create subtle fold lines on die cuts meant to be folded, but it also happens to eliminate the indentations you often get around the edges of your photo or panel when die cutting. HERE is a video (1:53 mark) showing how to use the crease pad to die cut. (Important – do not cut into this pad. You position this pad against the flat side of the die and NOT on the cutting/blade side.) While the crease pad also works with other machines like the Spellbinders Platinum machine, it unfortunately is a little too wide (measuring 6 1/16″ across) for the Cuttlebug.

Thanks for checking out my card project!

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