Get two easy tips to make your die cut daffodils look fresh enough to pick!

We all know Kittie is the Queen of making realistic looking paper flowers using our dies and today she is sharing with us her two tips for making die cut daffodils look like they are just growing right on your card. And because our April theme is animals, we just had to share this card now because of her Momma duck and li’l ducklings.

As usual, Kittie is so generous and shares every little detail to make all her cards on her own blog. This card is no different – if you want to get ALL her tips, you need to pop on over and get all of Kittie’s cardmaking genius spelled out for all of us. Today we are going to focus on those two simple things you can do to your die cut daffodils to really bring them to life.

First, see the centers of the die cut daffodils? Now, you could cut those out of a different colored card stock but Kittie adds her color with an easy technique that adds shading at the same time.

Here’s Kittie’s tip in her own words: “PRO TIP 1: Shade the flowers and flower centers using orange ink and a mini applicator. Put plenty of color on the centers and then around the edges of the pointed petals. This creates the variegated shading that you see in real daffodils.”

Wow – such a small detail but you can see how it adds so much!

Her second tip – something Kittie is well known for – is to add shaping to the flat die cuts for texture, depth, dimension and that realistic look that takes die cut daffodils from pretty to gorgeous.

Again, in her words “PRO TIP 2: Place the pointed petal sections face up on the molding pad and gently form them using a round stylus. This creates the cup shape that is the classic characteristic of these springtime blossoms. The tighter you make your “cup”, the newer your daffodil will appear. For a truly realistic look when you use a group of the same of any die cut flower, you will want to make sure they are all “open” to the same degree. 

Wow – excellent tip about the degree of openness of the flowers!

Kittie has lots MORE tips for the other details on this card, like the coloring and placement of her little feathered family so make sure you pop on over there to get all the inside scoop!

Here are the things Kittie used from our store today:

5403D Half Tree Die [ RBB ] 5401-02D Large Garden Fence Die [ RBB ] 5505-01D Daffodils Die [ RBB ] 5422-03D Tinny Flowers #2 Die [ RBB ] 5334-02D Tiny Leaves #2 Die [ RBB ] Tabed Grass Set Die Cut 5152-03D [ RBB ] 5210-02D Grass #2 Die Cut [ RBB ] Ducks Die Cut 5142-02D [ RBB ]

Now that you know how to make your die cut daffodils look ready to pick and pop in a vase, think of your other flower dies you have and how you can use these tips to dress them up, too! Sometimes it’s just quick little extras that take things up to new levels and we are lucky to have Kittie showing us all the ways to do this with our dies.}!