another holiday Cuttlebug card

I made this card using yet another Cuttlebug combo set that had been untouched.


This is the treetop combo. I decided to go a little non-traditional for colors. I cut the silver background freehand and used Liquid Pearls for the treetop accents. The sentiment is by Hero Arts and stamped using Memento dye ink.

playing at cards with playing cards

Oh, that dollar spot in Target can certainly have fun stuff for altering and crafting! Recently I found some small shaped playing cards with wintry themes. Here are a couple of cards that I made using a couple of the playing cards from the deck that I bought.


The deck that I picked up had a snowman image on it. I embossed it with the Cuttlebug Snow Dots folder, then mounted that on a white cardstock layer embossed using the C'bug Snowflakes folder, then I attached that to a red shimmer-finish paper that I offset Cuttled using the Diamonds in the Rough folder. I used a Tonic ticket punch to cut the corners. The sentiment is a Snag 'Em stamp by Imaginisce. I embellished with Ranger's Liquid Pearls.


I used another playing card to create this card. This time I embossed it with the Diamonds in the Rough and mounted it on glittery DCWV cardstock that I'd cut and embossed in one pass using one of the curved rectangle Mega-Nestabilities dies by Spellbinders. The patterned cardstock is also by Die Cuts with a View. I stamped the sentiment using Archival black ink, and oh, how appropriate that sentiment has been these last couple of days, by the way! Finally I added the faux snow from Cornish Heritage Farms.

Hope everyone is staying warm!

holiday ornaments

A few weeks ago I couldn't resist a clearance item that I'd found at Target--a bucket of thirty 2" diameter tins, the kind that are used for bridal or baby showers, for only $4.99. I didn't have a specific idea in mind at the time, but I knew that I could somehow fashion some ornaments out of these.

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


These are two of those tins. I'd embossed some sparkly cardstock using some holiday Cuttlebug folders, Winter House and Lace Tree. I cut 2" circles with my Martha Stewart circle cutter and then accented the snowy parts with Stickles in the ornament on the left and Liquid Pearls in the one on the right. The foreground image was made with the Martha Stewart train punch, and I added the smoke with a thin layer of Liquid Pearls.


This is a close up view. The sentiment is by Verve Stamps using Memento dye ink.


This is a close up of the second ornament. I attached the hanger by punching a couple of holes at the top with my Crop-a-dile. The embellishments are Primas and Brides flowers. The winter houses layer was popped out from the background using pop dots to give more of a 3D effect. Again, the train was made using Martha Stewart's train edge punch.

Had to play!

Got back from a week of vacationing and visiting family yesterday. I was thrilled to see that some of my Cuttlebug preorders had arrived while we were gone. Today I had to pull one of them out so that I could play a bit before tackling laundry, or heading to the grocery store, and that sort of thing. After all, I hadn't crafted all week!

Here are a couple of cards that I made using the new Friends Forever Cut and Emboss combo die and embossing folder.


The first thing that I noticed about this set is that the flowers are debossed, not embossed. Now usually that's not a big deal to me, but I really think that this would have been nicer embossed. I feel like that would have allowed me to do more with it. Yeah, I could flip it over and use the back, but of course that changes the layout--it's a mirror image--and it "feels" off as a card layout.

So, I tried a different approach. I ran Core'dinations cardstock through the folder instead. I used my sanding block to change the color of the non-debossed areas. Then I decided to try to add more "pop" to the flowers, and I ended up adding bling, Stickles, and Liquid Pearls. I finished by adding one of the die cut phrases from this set and embellishing with a small bow.

This next card was actually made with the first piece of paper that I'd put through inside the new embossing folder. I usually like the look of embossing on patterned paper, but the debossing seemed lost. This is patterned paper by Inque Boutique, by the way.


I ended up trying to bring out that debossed image a bit more, again. This time I used some EZ Tintz by FiberScraps. I applied it directly to my folder, gave it a very light misting of water, and closed the paper inside the folder to transfer some of the ink. It wasn't quite the look I'd been going for, but it was enough to add a little visual interest to the debossing. Again I added a phrase from the die that came with this set, and I distressed it with some Memento ink. I added the fibers for a bit more embellishment.

Moving & Shaping with the Cuttlebug

Okay, I'd noticed that I was repeating myself when talking about the new Sizzix Movers & Shapers and the possibility of using them in the Cuttlebug. I put them to the test this morning. Here's the scoop--they work!

A card to prove it....


This card was made using the Sizzix Movers & Shapers horizontal A2 card kit and the four pane window add-on. I put these through the Cuttlebug. The images are all Hero Arts and stamped using Tsukineko Memento dye inks. The patterned paper is Basic Grey Sultry. The butterfly die cuts were made using Spellbinders dies. I embellished with Liquid Pearls and Diamond Stickles.

Here's the stack that worked for me.


From the bottom: plate B, card die with add-on in place, card stock, plate B. I ran this through window side first so that the add-on die would help hold my cardstock in place.


Here's how it looked after that first pass through the Cuttlebug.

Now I shifted the B plates to the other end of the card die, taking care not to move my cardstock since part of it has already been cut out.


Here's the other end just about to be run through the machine.


This is how it looks after making those two passes through the CB. That part near the fold was a little bent but flattened out with a little tinkering. I'm not sure if that's where an edge of a plate caught it or if the cardstock shifted a bit. That's a chance you take when you have to make two passes instead of one pass with those extra long clear cutting plates.


And there you can see what the folded card looks like.

Yes, if you look closely I've already done a little tinkering with my card die. I've marked the center of the metal plate that represents the cardfront so that I can see exactly where I'm placing my die. No crooked windows for me! ;-) Yeah, I'm going for foolproof again, as usual. Hey, this stuff is supposed to make my life easier, eh? Not more frustrating.

Okay, but what about the add-ons? They'll work, too, and by themselves without the card die, just like with the Big Shot.


In the photo above, you see two B plates, a Sizzix long clear plate, the flower add-on, and a scrap of purple cardstock.


And this is the stack that worked for me. From the bottom: plate B, plate B, lightweight chipboard shim, add-on die with cutting side up, cardstock, clear cutting plate--if you have an extra B plate, that would work in place of the long Sizzix clear plate that I used here. They're the same thickness. Depending on your machine, you'll need to experiment just a bit with shimming, and as usual, you'll want to start thin and gradually add shims so that you won't break your machine.

So, there you have it. The Sizzix Movers & Shapers can work with the Cuttlebug. :-)

Find joy... in scallops

I wanted to play a bit more with some new dies. I pulled out the Spellbinders long scalloped rectangle megabilities dies and the Sizzix movers and shapers dies and I made this card.


This card is 4 1/4" on each side. I used the largest megabilities die to make the smaller tan scalloped layer. It's been scored and folded in half. I then used the Sizzix die to cut out the window on the front. The other layers of the card were scalloped by using that same die and feeding the paper or cardstock partway through the die as I've described before. The patterned cardstock is by G-C-D Studios. The sentiment is by Hero Arts. I embellished with Liquid Pearls and colored twine.

Spotlight Cuttling

Okay, so maybe technically this should just be included with creative Cuttling, but I thought it was kind of neat and deserved a "spot" of its own. I can think of a number of ways to use this. Here's one example:


The stamp images are by Rhonna Farrer/Autumn Leaves and stamped with chalk inks that I colored and accented using Copic Spica glitter pens. The flowers are Brides flowers with Liquid Pearl centers.

Now for the spotlight part of this--I used the Cuttlebug A2 Swiss Dots folder in my Big Shot to make the three embossed "spotlights" in the border. I used the technique that I described in my creative Cuttling in detail post--take a peek there for photos and step-by-step instructions that you can adapt to your machine. For this look in particular I used some of those Bazzill Basics chipboard 1" circles that were popular a couple of years or so ago. I stacked them in pairs, which made them conveniently the same thickness as one of the two clear plates that I use to make my embossing sandwich for these folders. This meant that I simply eliminated the bottom plate, put my folder (with the cardfront inside and the rest of the card tucked behind it) directly on my platform. I put the chipboard circles on top of the folder where I wanted the dots to be embossed, covered that with my clear plate and ran it through my Big Shot. That was it! I accented with score lines using my Scor-It.

Now you could use just one pair and run it through several times, placing the chipboard circle pair wherever you want the embossing each time. Alternatively you could use several pairs and put them all on the folder at the same time, cover them with your clear plate, and emboss them all at once. I did glue my circle pairs together, by the way. I didn't want them slipping off each other as they went through the machine. I also did this using some of the Bazzill Basic chipboard squares. I'll post that card when I've finished it. I was having a tough time calling squares spotlights anyway. ;-)