April Guest Designer - Nina Marie Trapani

Hey everyone!  This month's guest designer is no stranger to Neat & Tangled. Nina-Marie was part of our Design Team last year and we're thrilled to have her back visiting with us this month.



Here's a little more about Nina-Marie:

I am a fun, quirky girl in my mid-twenties. I grew up my whole life by the ocean, along the coast of the Mid Atlantic and New England. I have been making cards since 2007, perfecting my skills and techniques every day. Whenever I’m asked to define my style, I simply say “eclectic”. I do not follow a set design style; rather, I simply design whatever my mind feels like creating at that time. My favorite types of cards to make though are critter cards… I cannot resist the cuteness! :)

You're going to love Nina-Marie's cards today, and she also created a video to share.  Take a look:




Hello friends! Background dies are becoming fairly popular of late, and I wanted to share a technique that you can do with certain background dies to create inked backgrounds!
Certain background dies are open in the areas between the cutting lines; other dies are solid-backed. Depending on the die, you can use this technique with background dies you already have. Or you can use the die I’ve used today, which is the Neat & Tangled PolygonCover Plate die.
With some Distress Inks, I was able to create ink blended backgrounds through the open areas of the die, which gave me the same effect as if I had used a true stencil! The result looks awesome and is a great example of how you can stretch the use of your supplies even further with a little out-of-the-box thinking!
I did not have any trouble using the die as a stencil and the die did not stain with the use of the Distress Ink. I cleaned up the die by using a damp baby wipe and all the ink was easily removed. I have not tried this technique with all inks, so keep in mind that using a different ink could lead to potential staining (particularly alcohol-based inks). However, most water-based dye inks should clean up just fine.


I hope you will be checking out the video below to see how these cards came together! I will be back again next week with another guest video for Neat & Tangled, so stay tuned for that!

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