Trends and Techniques: DIY cut out journalling cards

I love the look of the new journalling cards where the negative is used rather than the positive i.e. you cut out a shape and use the piece that is left rather than the cut out.
And I have some of these cards - which were not cheap and then I thought "I could make those myself"
Now the easiest way to do that is with an electronic die cutting machine but if you do not have one, that makes it even more expensive than buying the premade ones.
(Or you might have an old Craft Robo that you haven't plumbed into your computer since you moved, but that is another story)
Or you could use a die cutting machine and some alphabet dies.
Or if you don't have one of those you can print words onto cardstock and then cut it out by hand.

I'm going to show the middle way! Recently die manufacturers have been bringing out individual alphabet dies (rather than several letters on one die) and that is what I have used, along with my trusty Cuttlebug (other machines are available)

It is well worth pencilling a faint line where you want the letters to go (or use grid paper as in my sample) as it is also better to cut the letters one at a time as you have more control over them that way.

Et voila, a home made, saying what you want, note card

And some spare letters. The trend now is to leave the middles open but you do have the option of filling them in if you like.
Here is the idea used on a layout

 The layout came together pretty simply, just by picking out a few blocks of some of the kit papers; using a punch on one and cutting out elements from another paper.

 Some of these were mounted on foam pads for extra dimension
And I also backed the lovely polaroid frame from the kit with some of the tracing paper so that I could add journalling without totally obscuring the picture and papers behind it.

A few of the Prima stickers and some silver flat backed gems for emphasis (not in the kit) and I was done! I do love the way that the colours featured in the kit seem to work well for so many different kinds of layout