Technique Tutorial Day - March

Welcome March and special hello to all the Cricut FANatics !  Its time again for our new monthly feature, Technique Tutorial Day with Debbie O'Neal of Scrap Me Quick Designs, home of die cutting inspiration. Before we get started I wanted to share a fun March fun fact with you.

Did you know that March used to be the beginning of the calendar year? "The word 'March' comes from the Roman 'Martius'. This was originally the first month of the Roman calendar and was named after Mars, the god of war. March was the beginning of our calendar year. We changed to the 'New Style' or 'Gregorian calendar in 1752, and it is only since then when we the year began on 1st January."  I found this to be interesting and hope you do too.

Cricut FANatic Announcements 

1) We are looking for a few more designers to add to our monthly guest designers.  If you are interested in sharing a Cricut project with us on Cricut FANatics Blog, please contact us at CricutFanaticsOwner@gmail.com . Your term would be from March to July 2013 on your assigned day each month. 

 

2)  If you have not signed up using our new subscribe link, please do so because we want to increase our communication to you of challenges and other information.  Just for  taking a moment to do os, you get a FREE download of a 30 Ways to Embellish Die Cuts Checklist.  

Technique Tutorial - Using Glaze Pens on Die Cuts

This month.  I wanted to show you a way to embellish your die cut that you may not have thought to use before.   

1.  Lets talk about Sakura Glaze Pens.  These pens are great for adding some shiny pizzaz to

     your die cut images.  You may already have some of these in your stash or they are easily found

    in sets or separately at your local craft stores. They are easy to use and don't require any special

    skills. The Glaze pens give you a different look than the popular alchohol pens like Copics

    or Spectrum Noir. Note: If you want a softer look you can always use the Sakura Souffle pens

    which gives you a milky color instead. 

Sakura Gel Pens

 

2. Give it a try.  Cut any Cricut image of your choice

 

Cricut Image out of cardstock

 

3.  Using the Sakura Gel Pens, outline or draw patterns on your Cricut image. The pens dry in

     seconds and are easy to layer multiple colors with each other such as shown below with the

     pink and purple.

 

 

See how shiny and pretty the Sakura Pens look on your image

 

4.  Use the pens to color in some of the cut out shapes on your images. See how I used the pen

     to color in the nose, mouth, eye lashes and even outline the bow, ears and added finger marks.

     You can even use the pens to draw added pieces on your die cuts not foudn on the original image.

     I even added some shoes to the bear below so don't be afraid to do a little free-hand drawing on

     your images too.

See how the cut image is so much more defined and personalized now?

 

Your final project will be a real standout by taking the time to enhance your die cuts with the Sakura Gel Pens so give them a try some time.

 

Have you used the Gel Pens before? Did you like them?  Have any questions about them?  Leave a comment what you think about these for embellishing your die cut images.