Matting a Spellbinders Labels Die

I’ve been asked on several occasions how I make a narrow mat behind a Spellbinders die when the difference in sizes in the set are really much too wide for attractiveness. Some of the Spellbinders Labels sets do have “small” versions, Labels One and Labels Four, for example. But most of the Labels dies do not. So I have written this tutorial hopefully to make it easier for you do accomplish the look you want.



First of all, stamp your image, color it as usual and cut it out with your die. For my sample, I am using Labels Twenty-One – which has five dies. I am using the two largest dies in the set. I like the look of the white “border” around the edge of the diecut, so I sponged in the sky before removing the die.







I have found that the easiest way to make that narrow mat is to use the same die that I used to cut the focal image or background. Turn it over (blade side UP) and, using a pencil, draw around the outside of the die.





You can see the pencil line pretty well – even on dark cardstock. The cardstock I used for this card is Mark’s Finest Papers’ Dark Night Navy. But, as you can see, the pencil lines are still quite visible.



Then cut it out with your scissors. I usually turn the mat over so that there is no chance of seeing any of the pencil lines.



My card will have two different-sized layers, so I cut out a piece of designer paper with the largest die in the set – and then repeated the process of drawing around the die and cutting it out with scissors.





Here again is my finished card. You can see the difference in sizes of the two die cuts, but the narrow mat sets them both off nicely. I hope my tutorial was helpful.



Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

Stamps: Mark's Finest Papers - Country Christmas
Paper: MFP Dark Night Navy, Snow Storm Smooth; DP from a stack of holiday paper I bought several years ago
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; Tim Holtz Distressed Tumbled Glass, Chipped Sapphire
Accessories: Spellbinders Labels Twenty-One, Eclipse Masking Tape, Sponge Applicator