Bigz Pop Up die in action

Here are the details from when I used the Sizzix Bigz Pop Up die to make the card that I posted yesterday.


This is one of the XL dies and it requires the longer XL cutting plates--unless you've altered some, they're too wide to fit through the Cuttlebug. You can use a couple of the long decorative strip cutting plates with these dies instead, a work-around that I've described before. With this particular die you might be able to use the regular C'bug cutting plates since the cutting area is actually fairly small. I'll double check that. I use these XL Bigz dies with my Big Shot. I sandwich it between the two cutting plates with the cutting side up and the card stock on top of the cutting surface of the die.


This is how it looked after it was run through. It's not nearly as big as the die itself. I hope you can also make out the fold lines. I didn't use a crease pad. Turns out I didn't need one anyway.


The enclosed instructions said to fold along all of the creases, not worrying about which way to fold for now. Okay. I just folded any which way. Now it looks like it's writhing there.


The dot that you see on the inside of my card is a centering mark that I made. I also highlighted some of the folds with dotted lines so that you can see where the glue or tape needs to be placed. The two trangular areas with the check marks are where you place your glue. Also, take note of that cut out notch that's on the left hand side of the die cut. That's a good way to make sure that you have the die cut oriented properly.


Once the glue is in place, fold the die cut so that the glued areas are on the outside of the fold, as I did above.


In the above photo, I'm getting ready to line up the fold of the die cut with the fold of the card. I'll also line up the point of that triangle with the centering mark that I'd made earlier.


Place the die cut down and then burnish to affix the glue on one side. The arrows are indicating where the two folds are now overlapping.


Open it up and burnish the other side so that the glue will adhere nicely there as well.


Now it's time to make that pop up. Reaching underneath the die cut, press on the folds from the under side to make them into the mountain folds that I illustrated above. It helps to close the card a bit, too.


Here I've labeled the tab and the slot into which the tab will slide. There really is a slot there.


After folding the locking tabs back out of the way, pull those free ends toward each other.


Now slip the tab into the slot as I've indicated using the arrow.


This is the view from the other side. I'd unfolded the side tabs to lock the main tab in place. You can also reinforce this area with some tape so that nothing will come loose.


You now have a platform for whatever you'd like to have pop out of the inside of the card.


Place some glue on the platform, then place your object face down on the left hand side of your open card. My object was white, so I put some scrap card stock behind it to make it easier to see.


Close the card so that the object will be stuck to the platform.


And voila! There's a pop up flower when the card is opened.

The instructions for using this die and the die cut were included with the Sizzix die packaging. It takes much longer to describe and illustrate the steps than to actually do them, but I think you can see that it's not all that complicated. I think this die cut makes it very easy to make fun pop up cards. There are a number of steps involved, but overall it's a very straightforward and handy way of making a card with a little extra surprise inside it for the recipient.

Sizzix Bigz XL pop up die

I've had the Sizzix Bigz XL Pop Up die for a while. I hadn't had a chance until today to pull it out and use it. It was not difficult at all to use or to assemble. I snapped some photos while I was making the following card, but I've run out of time this afternoon to post the step-wise version. I'll save that for next time. I wanted to go ahead and post the card that I made though.


That's how it looks when it's closed. For reference, this is not my usual A2 size card. I made this one bigger, 5" x 6 1/2". The stamps are all by Stampers Anonymous and stamped using Memento inks.


And here is the card opened up. The die cuts are the new Spellbinders Blossom Nestabilities dies. The leafy embellishments are by Sizzix/Stampin' Up--the Little Leaves Sizzlit die.

The details will follow at a later date. :-)

scalloped frames with edge punches

A couple of posts ago, I showed the cards that I'd sent to Inkadinkado for their free stamp giveaway. MaggiLiz commented: Lovely cards. I have a question concerning the second card "Warm Wishes" I love the scalloped frame - but did you do that - was it a template or? It looks terrific.

It wasn't made with a template but with a border punch. Now I didn't come up with this idea. It's one that I'd seen while reading blogs, and I decided to see if I could do something similar. Naturally I hadn't taken note of any of the details, just the look. Oh well. More adventures. :-)

Here's what I started with....


That's a piece of scrap card stock, white card stock, and the Scalloped Scallops edge punch by EK Success.


I just wanted to show some of the measurements. When you punch, you're left with a 3/16" border.

The punched out area is 1 7/8" wide. I checked these to get an idea of what size to make my square because I don't remember how big I made the other one. Hey, it's been almost a month! LOL! But you need a square that's bigger than 2 1/4" on a side or you'll end up with a plain square frame because the inside scalloped part won't be connected at the corners.


This is a square that's 3" on each side. All I did was center the card stock in the punch using the silhouette on its base (I made the exposed design look symmetrical. That's what the arrows are pointing at.) and then I pressed the lever. I did that for each side.


This shows how squares of a couple of different sizes look. You can use any size that you want so long as you center your punch on the side that you're punching.


You can also use a corner puncher to add a little more interest to your frame as I did with the Fiskars scalloped corner punch up above.


You don't need to limit yourself to a square shape either. I made this rectangle frame by using a 3 1/4" by 5 1/4" piece of card stock. I punched the short sides as I described before. The long sides were punched twice.


And that's a quickie card that I made with a couple of the freebie Inkadinkado stamps and the rectangular scalloped frame. I stamped using Memento dye inks. The embellishments are Hero Arts bling and a Brides flower.

Don't forget--there's still time to get your cards in for the free stamp giveaway. They need to be postmarked with today's date, so just take 'em with you if you're procrastinating and mailing off your tax returns later tonight, too. :-)

Thanks for the comment and the question MaggiLiz! Hope that answers your question. :-)

Have an egg-stra special day!

These are the eggs that were hard-boiled by me. YES! Two years running and no egg cooking casualties! My two girls did all of the decorating. No egg decorating casualties either, and only one minor dye spill. Woo hoo! The eggs will be traveling with us to Grandma and Grandpa's, where we'll be enjoying our Easter dinner with family.

Best wishes for a Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate it! For those who don't, best wishes for an egg-stra special day. :-)

Inkadinkado stamp freebies

I'm late with this info, but there's still time for those of you who haven't heard about this yet. Inkadinkado is giving away free stamps if you submit a card, or three, for their INKAfriends Gallery. Click HERE to read the details on their site.

Okay, the details used to be on that page, but they aren't now. So, here's a cut and paste (how appropriate--you'll see LOL!) of the instructions that used to be there:

Share your latest Inkadinkado creation with your fellow crafters, and
we'll thank you with a FREE stamp from our grab bag! With your
project, please provide the stamp item number(s) you used, along
with your name, address, phone number, e-mail, and name of your
favorite stamping supply store. Limit 3 free stamps per household.

Send your project to:
Inkadinkado Gallery
1801 N. 12th Street
Reading, PA 19604-1527

These are the three cards that I submitted about three weeks ago. Yes, I'm sorry. I should have shared this with all of you sooner. *sigh*




All of the stamped images and sentiments are by Inkadinkado, but you probably already figured that out. :-)

And these are the free stamps that I received two days ago. Pretty cool, eh? Now I know that many folks received email confirmation and had a really fast turn-around. I didn't, but it worked out fine.


There's still time if you want to make a card and send it in to receive a free stamp. It just needs to be postmarked by April 15. Hey, that's a much more fun deadline to think about than getting taxes finished, eh?

simple Cuttlebug & Big Shot comparison

Just a quickie here. I know that there are lots of folks who have questions about the Cuttlebug vs the Big Shot and which one is better etc. I have both machines and have talked about my preferences here. Easy choice for me--the Big Shot, for lots of reasons.

What's interesting is that Cuttlebug users often talk about how light-weight that machine is. I'd noticed that it's heavier than it looks when picking it up, and in fact I'd thought it a bit heavier than the Big Shot. I'd never really compared though. So, I put my theory to the test today after reading yet another discussion about which one is preferred by crafters. I weighed each on my digital scale--the Big Shot weighed 7.4# and the Cuttlebug weighed 7.6#. Oooo, I kinda impressed myself being able to detect a 0.2# difference. LOL! But actually I think that difference is negligible, eh?

Okay, so weight aside, what about size? Now the Cuttlebug does fold up to make it easier to store and/or to transport. Those aren't issues for me, and I find the Big Shot very easy to carry because of the handle, and I like that I can just store my multipurpose platform and the cutting plates on the bed of the machine, but I was surprised a bit when I put the machines side by side.

Here are some photos. I don't recall seeing these machines pictured right next to each other, so this is my comparison.


I've seen the Cuttlebug described as being compact and taking up such little space. I do think it's great that it folds up, but I wouldn't call it tiny in comparison.


That's more of a bird's eye view--better because you can see all of both machines, particularly the back end of the Big Shot. I'm trying to be fair, eh? :-)


Above you can see that by the time you account for the C'bug's handle, its length when folded is just maybe an inch shy of the Big Shot's. The respective widths are 5 1/2" and 12 1/4", including feet, handles etc, so that's the big difference when you're needing to store these.


And I thought I should include a photo of the C'bug when it's open alongside the Big Shot. I should have added arrows, but the stability of the Big Shot comes from four of its feet being positioned at each of the far corners of the machine, as well as another pair located at the center. This gives a nice big surface area for the Big Shot to rest on and it's very stable. The Cuttlebug's feet are located more centrally, a pair at each end of the body of the machine with the large rubber suction grip located between, so the entire body of the folded machine rests on the work surface. But when open, pressure on the platforms can make the machine tip and rock if not fixed in place by suction. It becomes comparable to a seesaw. This can be important because with some sandwiches it's nice to use one hand to crank while the other feeds the sandwich through the opening. There's no hand left to hold the machine stable if it starts moving, particularly for those of us who work on weird surfaces and experiment with non-traditional sandwich stacks. ;-)

Hope the side by side comparison might help anyone who's trying to decide which machine better fits their needs. They're both good machines and which one is better is a matter of personal preference really. I just wanted to debunk a bit of the C'bug chatter that I'd been apparently taken in by after reading it so many times online--it's not really that much tinier than the Big Shot, and it's actually heavier, too, though not by much. :-)

a case of CASE-ing

Okay, I'm not gonna weigh in on what CASE-ing necessarily stands for, but for my purposes it means copy and share everything. My daughter recently received a thank you card for participating in a show. When I saw the design, I knew that I had to give it a try.

Here's my version....


That's how it looks straight out of the envelope. It's A2 size.


And here it is with the sentiment pulled out. The stamped images are all by Inkadinkado and stamped with Memento dye inks. The pull tab is a Sizzix Sizzlit die cut. The decorative borders were made using EK Success edger punches.