very disappointed in & unimpressed by Provo Craft

I'd read news about this a couple of days ago, but hadn't really seen a credible source until an email landed in my inbox today from an online vendor. To set the scene, earlier this summer Provo Craft had offered a deal for buying a bundle of their soon-to-be-released A2 embossing folders--purchase of this bundle would also make the purchaser eligible to buy the two exclusive folders that would not be available for individual purchase, the Celtic Knot and Harlequin folders. The Home Shopping Network got in on this and had these bundles on their site as a Special Value. They sold out quickly. I know because I managed to get my hands on one of them. Now other online vendors have been waiting for their turn. It looks like the folders for individual purchase have been shipping to vendors, but as far as the bundles go.... Well, here's what they said to their vendors....

Dear Provo Craft Customer,
We have made the decision to not release the Cuttlebug Embossing Folder Bundles. This also means that 37-1917 Harlequin and 37-1918 Celtic Knot that are exclusive to the bundle are not going to be released either. We apologize about any inconvenience that this may cause you or your customers. If you have any further questions please feel free to contact your sales representative.

Thank You,
Provo Craft

That is incredibly lame. What a horrible way to treat not only the crafters who were looking forward to getting their product, but their vendors as well! I'd hate to be a Provo Craft sales representative right now because I think a lot of people have a right to be angry and upset with them. I can't even imagine what a mess this must be now with preorders etc. This is a big black mark against Provo Craft in my book. I like their embossing folders, but I don't want to support a company that treats its customers in such cavalier fashion. I've been much more impressed by QuicKutz' customer service when I had issues with my embossing folders. Sizzix has always been a solid company. Sorry, Provo Craft, there are too many other choices out there now. You've made your choice, now I'm making mine. See ya!

Boy, I'd sure like to know who the brainiac was who came up with that public relations nightmare. Hm, or maybe they just don't care. Not sure right now which would be worse.

flip card template

In my previous post, I made a flip card and I've been asked by a couple of folks to elaborate a bit on how I made it. Here's a version of the template that I went by. When folded, it is an A2 size card.

Start with a 6 3/4" by 5 1/2" piece of card stock as I've illustrated above. The solid lines are cut edges. The dotted lines are the folds. Essentially, there's a 1 1/4" border most of the way around a smaller 4" by 3" panel which is the part that flips when you open the card. The left fold is a mountain fold at 2 3/4" from the left edge and the one on the right is a valley fold 4" from the left edge--sorry, I meant to mark that on the template but forgot. I found it easiest to make the cuts using a ruler and a craft knife. I decorated both sides of the inside panel using the Thanks edge punch when I made the card in the previous post.

Sorry to be a little slow getting this posted. We've been in back-to-school mode here and are getting used to the change of pace.

three more cards using Thanks edge punch

I made an informal challenge to myself this weekend to come up with more ways to use the Martha Stewart Thanks edge punch. I came up with a few more ideas.

Here are three more cards....


For this card I punched along the edges of a strip of card stock and embossed Cuttlebug images between. I mounted that strip on a card front that I embossed using the C'bug Stylized Flowers A2 embossing folder. I accented the card with a bit of bling and some colorful hemp fibers.


This card was made from a base of gray Bazzill card stock that I embossed using the C'bug Thanks embossing folder. This time I used the Thanks edge punch by punching two different colors of card stock and then offsetting them just a bit to get sort of a drop shadow effect. I then embossed those two layers using one of the Sizzix thank you textured impressions embossing folders.


The photo above just shows what I meant by the drop shadow effect.


And finally, this is a flip card that I made using the Thanks edge punch and Taj Mahal decorative card stock by DCWV. The lantern image is by Inkadinkado and stamped using Brilliance Graphite Black ink.


That's the view from the front as the card is opened.


This is a view of the back as the center panel begins to flip around.


And this is a closer view of the back panel. The sentiment says, "You brighten my day" and is by Hero Arts.

So there you have three more cards that illustrate how this new Thanks edge punch by Martha Stewart can be used. :-) Have I enabled you enough yet? ;-)

two more Thanks edge punch cards

I mentioned in a comment on a previous post that I really like these new Martha Stewart edge punches. Fun designs and I like the idea of having a sentiment punch. It also doesn't hurt that these new punches also have the fold-up "wings" so that they're easier to store.

But on to the cards....


For this card I used the Martha Stewart Thanks edge punch on a 2 3/4" square piece of ruche paper. This is a thicker paper with wonderful texture. The die cut accent is from the Tulip Pendant set by Spellbinders. The decorative scoring on the card front was made using my Scor-It and Scor-It ruler to make the embossed and debossed lines in a diamond pattern.


I used the same punch on double-sided decorative cardstock this time, scored and folded so that I would have two edges for my sentiment. I offset the layers a bit with dimensionals which also left room for some Prima flowers. The embossing on the card front was made using one of the newer releases by QuicKutz, the polka dots A2 embossing folder. This is the folder with the larger dots, by the way, since for whatever reason QuicKutz decided to give the two polka dot pattern folders the same name.

I'm really enjoying the versatility of this edge punch. I know that people have had trouble punching through thicker card stocks with some of the Martha edge punches in the past. I've used this one without any trouble on Georgia Pacific 110# card stock. I haven't used anything thicker. I'll just add a caveat that punching text weight paper can be difficult because the letters can easily become caught in the punch if the paper does not happen to be cut cleanly or if the paper is bent or creased. And here I'd thought it was such a good idea to use scrap paper for a test run. Wrong! Anyway, those are just two more ways of using these new edge punches that I thought I'd share.

two more quick cards, no stamping involved

We're getting ready for school to start and have been busy with preparations and getting in all of those last minute tasks that we suddenly have little time left to finish.

In that spirit, I have two cards that were very quick to make. They involve embossing, but no stamping, so these were very fast and easy.


I used the QuicKutz 12" retro diamonds embossing folder for the bottom of this card. The sentiment is a Martha Stewart punch and I accented that strip of kraft card stock with the Spellbinders Scalloped Edge Petite borderability die.


For this card I used the Stampin' Up/Sizzix Finial Press textured impressions folder. I love this one! It's so pretty. Again, the sentiment is a Martha Stewart edge punch and I accented that with the Rose Border Petite Borderability die by Spellbinders.

I really like the look of the edge punches combined with the borderabilities dies. I think I'll have to do more experimenting to come up with more looks.

just dropping you... a post and a card

This is a card that I made with one of the new 12" QuicKutz border embossing folders. It's called circles. I think it's a fun design. I added the scored lines along each edge with my Scor-It. The stamped sentiment and image are by Inkadinkado and stamped with Memento London Fog dye ink. I colored the fish with a couple of Copic markers and added the texture with the colorless blender.

some Scor-It decorative scoring samples

Life is getting in the way of crafting today, but I did find some time to cut some A2 size pieces of card stock and play a bit with some decorative scoring using my Scor-It and the Scor-It ruler. I mentioned in a comment to a recent post that I felt like I'd only barely started scratching the surface as far as coming up with fun decorative scores. I was trying to see if I could get some good scuff marks in. ;-)

Here's what I came up with....


The upper left is the diamond/grid pattern that I've described before. This time I used different intervals to get a slightly different look. At the center is some scoring that I thought resembled a plaid pattern. The upper right almost looks like weaving. The bottom left is the beams of light pattern--maybe I should have called it spotlight instead?--but with two sources of light coming from each of the upper corners. The bottom right is what you get when you use that same technique starting at each corner but not extending all the way across the card stock.


This is just a slightly angled view so that the light would catch the scores a little differently and make the pattern show up a bit more clearly in some cases.

Now I'm off to continue taping and painting a bedroom, then drive my girls to dance... and at some point perhaps make one or more of the above samples into actual cards! :-)

catching up

I wanted to make a separate post to address a few things that have come up over the course of the last couple of weeks or so.

First off, I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who participated in my blogaversary giveaways. I read and appreciated all of the comments, even if I didn't say anything at the time so that I wouldn't throw off the numbers for the random drawings. :-) You all made the celebration a lot of fun, so many thanks to you all.

Crystal Joy, you'd commented in one of the giveaway posts that it looked like I'd done something to alter my ATG. Yes, you're right. I did. I added a comment to that post earlier, but I thought I'd address it here, too. I use the Scotch 714 which is red. I have nothing against the color red. I just wanted my ATG to look a bit more unique, so I altered it. I painted it, added rub-ons and bling, and basically just changed its look. I can say, now that I've looked up the old post (HA!), that after two years of steady use it is holding up nicely.

I've also had a question come up a couple of times now with regard to the Scor-It ruler. It's one that hadn't crossed my mind, but apparently others had thought about it, so I thought I'd bump the discussion to a more prominent spot. The question is whether the Scor-It ruler could be used with the Scor-Pal. Well, the Scor-Pal is about 1/2" wider than the Scor-It board. The ruler is metal and does bend, and it's possible that it could be manipulated so that it could fit on the Scor-Pal, but I didn't try it. First of all, I don't want to mangle my ruler. I like it too much! But here's my other reason, 'cuz you all know that I'm willing to sacrifice stuff in the interest of "science" (LOL!)--I don't think that even if you could fit the ruler to the Scor-Pal that it would help all that much. The tools are too different. The Scor-It and Scor-It ruler have zero centering marks and very precise measurements that correspond quite nicely to each other. So moving an inch at the top and moving the card stock the same amount at the bottom of your score is easy. By the same token, you can move 1/8" without any trouble if you want to. Can't really do that with the Scor-Pal because it has set grooves at specific and irregular increments, so it's hard for me to see that this would be nearly as helpful for Scor-Pal users as it is for Scor-It users. That was my main reason for not trying to force the ruler onto the Scor-Pal. Plus, I like it too much! Yeah, I know. I'm repeating myself. But it's true! I didn't want to hurt it and to have to live without it.

A few folks have also written to ask where these Scor-It rulers can be purchased. The easy answer is at the Scor-It site at their online store. There are other online vendors though, some of whom I've done business with and been a satisfied customer. They include Ellen Hutson, Bonnie's Best, California Paper Goods, and Innovative Stamp Creations.

I think that covers the issues that have come up but that may have been buried amongst the giveaway comments. If there are more, I'll just edit to add or post again, eh?

Hope you've all enjoyed a great weekend!

Oh, QuicKutz, why?

QuicKutz has released new embossing folders--another new set of about a dozen A2 size as well as some 12" borders with fun designs. Here's a card that I made with the A2 folder called flowers....


First off, as I said, the embossed background was made using the new QuicKutz flowers A2 embossing folder. The other die cuts were also made with QuicKutz dies, nested labels, I think they're called. The stamped image and sentiment are by Hampton Arts.

Now for my gripe--crafters already dislike the fact that these folders (and by "these" I'm referring to the QuicKutz and the Cuttlebug embossing folders) don't emboss the full front of an A2 size card. So far Sizzix is the only company that is getting this right with their textured impressions folders. But now QuicKutz has made things even worse--these embossed designs didn't even come close to covering an A2 sized space. The pale yellow layer in my card is A2 size. The darker yellow is the embossed area created by the flowers folder--came out to 4 X 5 inches before I sliced it up and punched holes in it. That's why I had to be a little more creative about how I used the embossed design. I had some room to make up on my card front!

I haven't looked closely at my other folders yet. I will. Right now I'm a bit disappointed in that some of these folder manufacturers seem to be headed in the wrong direction. First ProvoCraft placed their designs closer to the fold in their latest release, making it tougher to center the design nicely on a card front. Now QuicKutz is making the embossed area within the folder even smaller and not in symmetric fashion. ARGH! I guess we'll just have to keep wishing for the best and having to be creative with how we use these, eh? I still love using embossing folders, despite their flaws. *insert dramatic sigh* :-)

double take time

So tonight I was catching up on reading my Google Reader subscriptions, Tweets, and emails. I happened to browse through the August Scor-It newsletter that had landed in my inbox today. Cool! A mention of the new sliding ruler caught my eye, so I quickly perused the rest of the news. After all, I've been enjoying the addition of that ruler to my board and if there were new tips or tricks, I wanted to know about them!

Well, there were no tips or tricks that were new to me at this time, but you know what? THIS blog was mentioned under the header of Press! Hey, I love the Scor-It board, its scores, and I think that the addition of the Scor-It ruler just made it even better, but I'd just been singing its praises here on my personal blog because I think it's a great tool that became more versatile, and I wanted others to be in on the fun. :-) I'd never thought of myself as the Press. Wow. Maybe I should get a Blackberry, eh? ;-) I did a double take when I saw that though.

Anyway, if you happen to have found your way here by way of that newsletter, I wanted to point out that in my sidebar I have menus to help navigate the posts of this blog. There are labels and a search engine. I also have a section in the sidebar specifically for the Scor-It. Since I've been gushing over the Scor-It ruler, I decided that it deserved its own link in that section. I think that'll make it easier to zero in on the newer posts where I've talked more specifically about the decorative scores that can be made using the ruler and how they can be achieved.

Last but not least, if you'd like to sign up to receive your own copy of the Scor-It monthly newsletter, go to the Scor-It site and then click on the link in the upper right hand corner of their home page to sign up for it. That's how I happened to find out about the new ruler, so I'm definitely keeping that one coming to my box.

another quickie card

This is another card that was quick to make. It's mostly monochromatic--I couldn't resist adding that layer of gray as an accent.


The die cut images are by Spellbinders. The die cut sentiment is by ProvoCraft. The decorative scoring in a beams of light pattern that I've described before was made using my Scor-It and Scor-It ruler.

Winner of my Day 3, three year anniversary giveaway

I won't keep you in suspense. The winner has been chosen by the random.org random number generator.


And the comment that corresponds to this selection is....


Congratulations, Sandi! It looks like crossing all of your fingers worked! LOL! I'll be in touch so that I can get your mailing information and get your prizes sent off to you.

Thanks so much, everyone! It's been fun to spend some time celebrating this milestone. Thank you for the lovely comments and thanks so much for coming by here, taking the time to read, ask questions, or leave feedback. I started this blog for myself, but it's turned into more as time has gone by, and I appreciate all of you who take the time to stop by here and visit or who read via subscription. It's been a fun three years and I'm looking forward to continuing the crafting and the blogging. :-)

some Scor-it ruler how-to's

I've been asked by some readers to give more details about using the Scor-It ruler. I love this accessory, so I'm happy to oblige.


That's my 12" Scor-It, the Scor-It ruler, and three pieces of 4 X 5" card stock since that's what I had handy.


The ruler is great for making diagonal scoring a lot easier, so let's start with diagonals and some designs that can be made with diagonal scores.

Up above I've lined up my card stock so that I can make my first score from corner to corner. Yes, you can make this first score easily without the ruler. It's the scores that follow that are made easier.


In this photo I've moved the corners (ends of my scored line) to the 1/4" marks--I moved the bottom to the right of the zero centering mark and the top to the left of the centering mark.


Now I've made my second score and am getting ready to make the third. I've rotated the card stock just a bit more so that the corners (ends of the scored lines) have moved to the next 1/4" mark on the rulers.


And here it is one more time, moving at 1/4" intervals. The ruler is great because you can quickly and easily see just how and where you need to position your card stock so that the score will be exactly where you want it to be. The fact that the ruler can slide up and down the board makes it easy to position it so that you don't have to guess or eyeball where the scored line may end up. You just slide it to where it needs to be.

That's a quickie demonstration of what Scor-It describes as the starburst pattern on their site.


Here's my twist on their pattern. Using the same card stock (no need to waste, eh?), I made my corner to corner diagonal score to start out.


My apologies for the funky lighting in this one. I was just trying to show that I scored at 1/2" intervals this time.


Now for my twist: I've flipped my card stock over and started scoring in between my 1/2" scores. That is, I'm scoring at the 1/4" marks.


Here I'm showing a few more of these scores, lining up the ends of the score lines with the appropriate marks on the rulers at the top and bottom.


One last score, just for effect.


And here's the end result when you alternate scoring from the front and from the back. Gives a fun twist on the original starburst look.


I also made some light beam scores on a card. Here's how I accomplished that. Again I started with the corner to corner score.


This time I kept the end of the score line at zero up top and moved the bottom to the 1/4" mark.


Keeping the top at zero, I continued scoring at 1/4" intervals along the bottom, moving my card stock and ruler as needed.


I made all of these scores from the front, but you could alternate these, too, for a slightly different look.


Here are those light beams.


Diagonals are quick and easy. I started at the corners and then just moved my card stock, scoring at 1" intervals. I think you can see how easy it is to line up the ends of the scores with the rulers.


Here I gave the card stock a quarter turn and started scoring in the other direction at 1" intervals.


Here it is with more of the scores done.


And this is how it looks when you've made those scores.

But wait! You can still have more fun with this.


Here I flipped my card stock over and started scoring at the 1/2" marks.


And after making all of those scores, this is how the card stock looks. It's a fun diagonal grid pattern, but with the added twist of having embossed as well as debossed scores.

The nifty thing about using the ruler is that you can score at whatever interval you want. I made all of these scores at regular intervals, but you can certainly score in a less regular pattern and create a plaid look. You can also create scored frames. Because to make a decorative embossed score you score with the top side of your card stock facing you, you can also score designs around a stamped image. Lots of possibilities!

I hope this helps show just how this ruler makes decorative scoring a lot easier. :-)