Die cutting

Busy Day at TCD

Erika L Hayes1 Comment

Summer is in full swing! This hand-crafted card was a great combo of whimsy and elegance. Much like a summer garden party. The project sheet is also available in the resources tab if you would like to share this card with another.

A tip I wanted to share with you about this card is to be sure to add a very fine mist of water to the lush lagoon paper before you run it through the die cut machine. A second thought is about what is called bleeding off the edge. When you see a card like this, and the flowers are cut off but not full images that is called bleeding. It is a graphic design term that simply means that the entire portion of an image “bleeds” off the page. It is really a fun and effective way to add visual interest to your cards. Go on give it a shot.

The Craft Dash has been busy interviewing and getting a few new artists on board. Heidi McKeever will soon be adding her beautiful oil paintings to our store and writing about her experiences with painting.

I am always interested in adding more content. If you are interested in having your products added to our store, shoot me an email and we can talk about it. (erikahayes@thecraftdash) I am currently looking for a hand lettering artist to share products and education.

We are also looking for projects and ideas for our coming soon newsletter where we will be discussing current trends and ideas for our art.

This card is available for sale on the shop tab on this website as well as on our Etsy Store.

Again, thank you for your support as we build this site to create and educate!

The Craft Dash, a place for creating and educating artist of all levels!

Erika Hayes

Crafter her entire life, Erika spends hours creating every day. She loves the crafting community and all the humans that are a part of expressing themselves in creative ways. She has been lucky enough to work in the industry as a concept designer and is a multiple-time published artist. Encouraging crafters to take part in education to better their craft is her life goal.

“Practice makes progress, perfection is unattainable.”

Happy to announce…

Erika L Hayes1 Comment

I have been a busy bee… YOU CAN ORDER your hand-crafted goodness right on this site (pop over to the shop tab and take a look at a few hand-crafted items as they are slightly cheaper here because I don’t have listing cost.) Additionally, The Etsy store is finally open with some inventory! I am working hard to add inventory every day. Currently, there are a lot of retired stamps on the Etsy shop I am trying to rehome and every day I hope to add more and more handmade cards and other items, including some crochet and some paintings by my sister. She is a wonderful artist.

This card was a perfect way to make that announcement! I was very lucky to be a member of the Concord & 9th class just prior to the release of the new color collection. (Color in the Classroom). The card above is a combo of both the class items and some of the product releases just prior to the class (Sweet Bee Bundle). I have a card sketch book that I keep lots of fun card ideas and this one has been waiting for the perfect moment to be created. While the dies were exclusive to the class and not available for sale, I tried to use a set that could be substituted with the Sweet Bee Bundle.

I will be offering most of the cards I add to the blog for sale here and over at the Etsy store, but I will continue to add project sheets as well. Because this card uses unavailable products, I won’t be able to make a project sheet using the exact products, but I will do my best to create both a card and a project sheet for you all.

NOTE: I have updated the site, you can find a link to the Etsy Shop under the new “SHOP” tab.

Chat on WhatsApp

Erika Hayes

Crafter her entire life, Erika spends hours creating every day. She loves the crafting community and all the humans that are a part of expressing themselves in creative ways. She has been lucky enough to work in the industry as a concept designer and is a multiple-time published artist. Encouraging crafters to take part in education to better their craft is her life goal.

“Practice makes progress, perfection is unattainable.”

FANGIRL LOVE AHEAD. Give props to your mentors!

Erika L Hayes2 Comments

Here I was with a brand-new kit from My Favorite Things, and it is so beautiful, I decided to take a page out of Jennifer McGuire’s playbook and die cut the heck out of it. I grabbed some color cardstock and got to it. I wasn’t sure what colors I would use for the card, and I remember seeing a video in which Jennifer had cut like all the rainbows. She then keeps them for when it hits her fancy to use those dies. I of course decided that I should do that too because the card had not yet revealed its design or colors to me. — yes, my cards speak to me kind of… LOL

Here you can see my cuts. I think Jennifer McGuire must get completely overwhelmed with fans of her work tagging her. I did, and she saw it — I must admit, my inner fangirl came out even more. I had to make her proud.

I discovered that (if you look to the side of the buckets of flowers and greenery (AGAIN MFT Stamps made me giddy with these dies BOLD BLOOMS and BOLD GREENERY ), you will see the sheets I cut from in the above photo next to the dies in the containers. At the same time, my daughter posted a reel about Ukeleles (hopping fleas) making me return to my island days. When I pulled a Poppy paper it landed on the warm yellow and made me think of Hawaiian Quilts, this, of course, took me to the Hero Arts ALOHA cover plate and Vintage Paradise sets. Which is where my INNER INNER McGuire took off.

I was able to use what most people would consider “scraps” into cards. Check them out

Oh yeah, I love both cards. I was feeling it so much I made two with the “scrap” background. I even managed to pop an adorable beachy dino on the mahalo (thank you) card.

All cred goes to Jennifer McGuire for always encouraging creators to use what they have, to stretch those supplies. She rocks. YES, I love her, and want to be a fly on the wall when she creates. She’s amazing. Trust me when I say, her blog, (jennifermcguireink) should be on your list of MUST if you are a card maker.

I did make a video for the making of these cards, but it is far from complete. I was also excited to share my Hero Arts for the blog challenge this month. I will add some project sheets soon. I am still learning and finding that I need to video much closer than I originally thought. The video for this project will most likely not make it to the blog because I have learned A LOT in the filming of this one and will move forward.

Thanks for looking today, here are the two bonus cards in close-up for you.

Erika Hayes

Crafter her entire life Erika spends hours creating every day. She loves the crafting community and all the humans that are a part of expressing themselves in creative ways. She has been lucky enough to work in the industry as a concept designer and is a multiple-time published artist. Encouraging crafters to take part in education to better their craft is her passion.

“Practice makes progress, perfection is unattainable.”

Be kind, send handmade!

Working hard

Erika L Hayes3 Comments

Hi ho everyone – I have been hard at work learning my new camera and some newer software to get my YouTube and other goodies at you. It just so happened I had a few hiccups. I actually think I may be getting closer and closer. I also got new software that allows me to add content for my blog and other social media on a better schedule. I am working on project sheets and hope to begin posting all this content soon. I want to be sure it’s perfect for you. I also just threw my iron in the fire for the Hero Arts Dream Team (well, they call it a design team.) As you know I am a hardcore Hero Arts lover! So many cute stamps. I want you to know all the work that content creators do is A LOT of work. I am shocked at how much I have had to learn. I am getting the camera out and the new video editing software I have is “professional” software and thus has some learning curve. However, never let it be said that I am not a curvy girl (haha). With all this fun news I am happy to now move on to the fun stuff….

Catching Up

Here are some of the recent cards from my Christmas Card Challenge… Don’t yo worry some of these will have project sheets. See one you want for sure, drop me a line I will make sure I get it moved up on the list. Here are a few. I will be working on getting the rest of the CCC 2023 photos done. Hope you enjoy. Let me know your favorite.

  • MFT
  • Concord& 9th
  • Hero Arts – Tri Level
  • Hero Arts Tri Level
  • Hero Arts Tri Level
  • Spellbinders
  • Hero Arts
  • Sunny Studio
  • MFT/Simon Says
  • MFT Interactive
  • MFT Interactive
  • Sunny Studio
  • MFT
  • Simon Says
  • Lawn Fawn
  • Simon Says
  • Simon Says
  • Simon Says
  • Stampin Up!
  • Simon Says
  • MFT with Pink & Main
  • Stampingbella
  • Ai

Erika Hayes

Crafter her entire life Erika spends hours creating every day. She loves the crafting community and all the humans that are a part of expressing themselves in creative ways. She has been lucky enough to work in the industry as a concept designer and is a multiple-time published artist. Encouraging crafters to take part in education to better their craft is her passion.

Practice Make PROGRESS! Never seek perfection

Erika Hayes

When your BFF is a cardist too!

Erika L Hayes1 Comment

It’s been a hot minute! I am working on some fun ideas but realized it’s been a while since I’ve posted to my blog.

My best friend is a cardist too! Which is amazing! We get to go to classes together and create together and that is really the best thing having that one person that GETS IT. We often text back and forth our completed or what I call mayday (those that are crashing and burning and need someone to help) cards because it’s nice to share with the person that gets it. She also gets all the other BFF stuff too! She is really one of my biggest supporters and encourager! I love her!

Anyway, when Christmas or Birthdays come around, it’s tough. I make her so many cards. However, once complete, I then decide they are not “Golda” worthy. I have stacks of cute cards, but I want them to be perfect for her. I also want them to be a “surprise”. I am so accustomed to sending a text with pictures of my card projects to her it kills me to make the one, then I can’t send it to her! UGH. This one was perfect for her. Simple but colorful. It fits her to a “T”. Well I waited to actually hand deliver her Christmas card this year because well, I had more fun with wax sealing my hand-delivered cards and was very happy when she finally got to see this project.

It is my Christmas blessing to be able to share my love of card making with her and know not only does she like getting my cards, but she really GETS them!

Here is a peek at the wax sealing of my hand-delivered cards. I got my monogram seal here and here is a great starter kit for wax sealing

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Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday to you all.

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