Border Gap Die Cutting

Hello friends! I'm taking the latest Clean & Simple card making class at onlinecardclasses.com this week and having some fun getting inky with the new techniques I'm learning. Kristina Werner, Jennifer McGuire & their special friends are making me bring out the big guns, the stuff that rarely sees the craft light in my room - distress inks, blending tools, stencils, and even the big Tim Holtz craft mat! Have to tell you that I'm in love with the look of ink blending...just need to practice a bit more so that I get a smooth and even finish and a better gradient look. 

On Day 2, Kristina shared the border gap die cutting technique. Here's my birthday card - 

I used a couple of bright distress inks to form the colored portion under my copic-colored cake. To give it a little more sparkle, I used my new gold wink of stella for the candles and heat embossed the brown cake topping in clear to give the chocolate ganache a more realistic look. 

But my favorite new trick I learned was to use big strips of foam tape (or even an entire layer of fun foam) to make the top card panel stand out. I would have used foam squares in the past and after a while the card panel would be uneven and when the card is flattened for an envelope the panel would be distorted. Now with the big strips of foam tape...looks nice and even for the long haul. 

And Post-It tape...LOVE it! Makes masking so much easier. Gonna have to get both foam tape and post-it tape in large quantities next time I'm shopping. 

ETA - Also entering this into the CASology Birthday challenge. That was the whole reason why I picked the cake in the first place. Meant to do that but got distracted getting the kids ready for school this morning! 

That's all for me now. Will have more to share from this class soon. Thanks for taking a peek!