Creative Cuttling - thinking outside the folder

Okay, I've described partial Cuttling and diagonal Cuttling for some different looks when embossing cardfronts with Cuttlebug A2 embossing folders. Ready to take another step beyond using the whole folder? Sure you are. :-)

I was tidying up my junk drawer and rummaging through some of the things on my craft table earlier today. I came across some things that I thought might be interesting to use with my Big Shot and Cuttlebug folders.


So, up above you see my trusty Big Shot, a Cuttlebug folder, a blank card, a fridge magnet that's supposed to frame a photo, a plexiglass ornament that I hadn't gotten around to decorating, and some craft sticks.


I started with the craft sticks. They're easy, eh? I placed my cardfront inside the folder and tucked the back behind, as usual. I then positioned the craft sticks as you can see. This is where things get a little tricky. You have to play just a bit because of the thickness of whatever you use for pressing on the embossing folder. My multipurpose platform gives me leeway because of the tabbed layers. I also found that I could use either a clear plate or the plate from the Big Impressions kit which is a tad thicker if I found that I needed to apply just a bit more pressure. This gave me plenty of options. Mind you, I've played with my Big Shot for quite a while now, so I have a pretty good feel for when something will go through and when I shouldn't force it.

Here's how the craft stick embossing turned out.


Kind of a cool look, don't you think?

Next I tried my fridge magnet with the Swiss Dots folder.


After a bit of tinkering, this is what I got when I ran that through.


Now for that piece of plexiglass. I went back to the D'vine Swirls folder again. I wanted a fairly busy pattern.


And here is the result of running that particular item through my Big Shot.


There's one thing that I haven't mentioned yet. For all of these examples, I just placed my folder with the card directly on my platform. That was just the way it worked best for me. I mention this because you don't need similar shaped objects sandwiching your embossing folder. You just need the pressure applied to whatever you have positioned on top. You can see from my examples that it works.

Now here are some cards that I made from these experimental cardfronts.


The stamps are all Hero Arts, stamped with chalk inks and colored with Prismacolor pencils, then blended with my Goo Gone pen, which just happened to be handier than the Icky Sticky Stuff Remover and a stump. I'm still planning to use ISSR more often. I was coloring in the carpool line though, and this was super easy to transport. It was also a gorgeous day so I had the windows open--no problem with fumes. The score lines were made using my Scor-It.


The stamps in this one were also all Hero Arts and stamped with chalk inks. I used the Scor-It to make my score lines and used Fiskars corner edgers to embellish as well. The ribbon was from the Target $1 spot.


This time the stamps I used were from Inkadinkado--one of their new mini sets. I stamped with black Brilliance ink, colored the images with Prismacolor colored pencils, and used my Goo Gone pen to blend the colors. Again, I made the score lines using my Scor-It. The flowers are Primas and embellished with a Robin's Nest Dew Drop.

So, if you're ready, give some creative Cuttling a try! It's time to think outside the folder. :-)