my work experience with balsa wood

Have you ever worked with balsa wood? It comes in thin sheets and is lightweight enough to be used on cards and other paper crafted projects. Balsa wood may be an item that you've used on your projects before, but did you know that it can be die cut or embossed with Papertrey's dies and even stamped on? It's perfect for adding a masculine flair to cards, but it's gorgeous woodgrain pattern makes for really interesting detail even on the girliest of cards! I've got several examples of how to incorporate balsa wood onto your next project, to show you today!
I found balsa wood at my local Michael's store -- simply ask a sales associate if you can't find it, but I think mine was located near the dowel rods and cork. It is approximately 3/32" thick and comes in long sheets ta3zwdkv that are 4" x 36".
To start off, let's talk about die-cutting the balsa. I used the standard die-cutting sandwich with my Big Shot to die cut a mat stack 1 shape. Your sandwich may need to be adjusted slightly for your individual die-cutting machine. In my Big Shot, the sandwich was quite tight, so that when the balsa went thru the machine, it came out significantly compressed or flattened. You may also notice a little warping of the wood, but it will flatten back out easily. NOTE: Balsa wood is somewhat fragile, so you can't really man-handle it. Be gentle so as to not tear it! Don't ask me how I know this! ;)
After die cutting the mat stack shape, I pulled out the Through the Trees stamp set and stamped the tree trunk in dark chocolate ink followed by the leaves image in spring moss.
Once the stamping is complete, you can even distress the edges of the balsa wood, just as you would card stock, for a bit more dimension.
Now the balsa wood focal point is ready to be used on a card. Obviously I was going for a more masculine feel to this card, so I started out with a vintage cream card base and then added a panel of dark chocolate card stock that was impressed with the Woodgrain Impression Plate. I love how well the woodgrain background pairs with the balsa wood, for a bit more texture.
A strip of patterned paper from the Sugar Plum collection was roughed up along the top edge with an edge distressor and all four sides of the strip were inked with vintage touch tea dye ink. Three spring moss buttons were adhered to the tree with scor-tape.
For the sentiment, I die cut a bit of rustic cream card stock with the double-ended banner die and stamped a birthday sentiment from Mat Stack 1 Collection in dark chocolate ink.
Now, in case you thought balsa wood wouldn't work on girly-girl cards, think again!! Balsa wood looks gorgeous on any type of card because of the great texture it adds. In this case, I die cut an adorable balsa wood butterfly using the Signature Series: Butterfly Die!If you want to know more about balsa sheet , you can go to our wesite right now.