3 D Chariot Making

3 D Chariot

       Those who follow my blog  will agree that my creations generally fit into the cute category and I hardly ever make elegant projects so I was quite at a loss when Shalini the owner of Crafter’s Corner sent me a beautiful Marianne designs die set to use in my DT projects. I had never mustered the courage to buy these type of dies before  as they looked so elegant but intimidating!

Princess Carriage

           But as many  of you know I have a little girl who is very much into princesses and fairy tales and so I used the Marianne Creatables Petra's Corners LR0281 Die set  to make this glittery pinkish 3 D chariot !

How to have Fun with your Dies

Fun with dies

I learnt a few lessons when I got to play with this intricate die set so let me share my experience on how to get the maximum potential from intricate stencil- emboss style dies such as the Marianne or Spellbinders dies!

Marianne Petra Die

The  set had 5 beautiful dies, but I was disappointed to see the die cut didnt actually wow! I knew I was missing something!

Marianne Die

Inking seemed to help beautify many a project ,so back went the die cut into the die, and sponged the diecut using the die like a stencil.

Inking Diecuts

Looks so much better doesnt it!! Ha Ha I did feel foolish and clever at the same time[LOL!!]. Many dies are actually meant to be inked-- so my adivse to newbies and not so newbies like me who are a tinge lazy , dont hesitate to bring out those inkpads to your dies!

Embossing with Dies as stencil

           I just recently got the Ranger heat gun and have been having so much fun heat embossing so of course I had to try heat embossing the intricate die cut. With the die cut still in the die ,run your watermark pen on the design[easier than freehand drawing on the die cut], pour clear embossing powder,remove the die  and heat with your heat gun.

Heat embossed Die cut

Dont you just love the shimmer and texture! You can directly use the watermark pen or even run the embossing ink pad on the die-cut while its in the die and omit the inking step but if you do that tiny errors will show up more! If you ink and emboss- most errors are hardly noticeable!

Die cut layering

To jazz it up a bit more- make your die cut literally pop by layering it! This set had 2 matching outline dies and I popped up the intricate die cut atop its matching outline using foam tape.

Now on how I made the 3 D Chariot

If you dont have this particular Marianne design--not to worry-- the purpose of the step by step photos in this post is just to show how you can play with your die cuts and  use them to their maximum potential!

Just play with your die cuts like you would do with a jigsaw puzzle- rotate and match and also cut a bit here and glue a bit there and you can make entirely new designs!

Die cutting tips

The pic above shows the die cuts from the Marianne Petra corner set I used to make the body of the chariot. As I said Rotate  a little,Cut a little, Glue a little, and you get new designs!

Fun with Dies

I used Spellbinders Asian accents die cuts [again inked and embossed] to make the wheels.You could of course use circles or whatever lovely die cut design you have to serve as wheels [See an easy Chariot Shaped Card made with Scallop Circles: Chariot Shaped Card tutorial ]

3 D chariot

Joined 2 of the above 2 dimensional chariots using a folded rectangular piece of card stock

Made a roof  using 4 of the 3rd die cut design inked and embossed in white this time

 I joined 2 Spellbinders Majestic labels 25 die-cuts to make the steps [seen in the earlier photo of the chariot] and the seat within the chariot

3 D diecut chariot

I rolled up some  paper rolls to  to connect the wheels of the 3 D chariot!

3D Chariot

         I hope you enjoyed the run through on how you can have so much fun with your dies. I know I have shared fairly simple ideas for the seasoned crafter but hoping it will help at least a teeny bit to many!

Currently the chariot has been hijacked by my daughter and her numerous princess dolls are enjoying  riding in it!!

Supplies

Embossing : Versamark Watermark ,WOW Clear Embossing Powders
Dies: 4 dies from the Marianne Creatables Petra's Corners LR0281,Spellbinders majestic Labels 25, Spellbinders Asian Accents

Edited : This project won 2nd Prize at Marianne Design Divas !

And was Top 3 at Melon Headz 2 or more dies Challenge

It also came top 3 at Divas by Design Anything goes Challenge

It was also top 3 at Imaginations Embossing theme Challenge