scored die cuts

Two or three weeks ago, I had this idea of using the Scor-It board and ruler in a different way. I wanted to decoratively score die cuts instead of card layers or card fronts--not that there's anything at all wrong with doing either of those things. I just wanted a change. I tried it. I liked it. I wanted to share it, but I also enjoy posting cards as examples. Well, that's what caused the delay. Took me a while to get back to my crafting because of the beginning of school and all of the activities that go along with that, and also because omigosh, I have a high schooler now! LOL! Time really does fly!

Things are settling down now, so here are a couple of cards that I made earlier using those die cuts....


I used Spellbinders scalloped circle Nestabilities dies for this card and scored it using my Scor-It and Scor-It ruler. The background stamping was done using an image by A Muse Art Stamps and Memento dye inks. The sentiment is by Hampton Arts and stamped with Versafine Black Onyx ink.


For this card I used another Spellbinders Nestabilities die, this time from the scalloped hearts set. The stamped image and sentiment are by Hero Arts. Again the scoring was done using my Scor-It board and Scor-It ruler.

I think that venturing into the realm of scored die cuts ended up being a not-so-bad idea, even if it did take me quite a while to get around to showcasing it, and it's an idea that I think I'll be using again. :-)

my new Cuttlebug embossing folders are here!

I knew that the new folders that I'd ordered were on the way, but I didn't dream that they could possibly arrive so soon! Imagine that thrill of hearing the dog bark and seeing the Big Brown Truck out front! Yes! The box was imprinted with the HSN logo! Hey, it was a deal that I couldn't pass up, eh?

They arrived in a fairly small box with these 11 folders each wrapped in its own plastic sleeve. I like that there wasn't a lot of extra waste, though I usually do manage to put the backings to good use.

Here's another look at them. Just had to look up all their names so I could label each one.

This card was debossed with the new Moroccan Screen embossing folder then inked with Memento Dandelion ink. Just as a side note, this folder debosses rather than embosses if you place it inside the folder with the Cuttlebug logo facing the front. I then embossed with the Owl Flourish folder--double 'bossing--and accented it with Memento inks and added the die cut sentiment, also by Cuttlebug. The decorative scoring on the card front was made using the Scor-It.

I've always liked the look of embossing on decorative card stock and papers. This is some DCWV Taj Mahal card stock that I embossed using the new C'bug Victoria folder. I accented the embossing with white craft ink. The sentiment is by Hero Arts. The flowers are Primas and the decorative pearls are by Kaisercraft.

This is the Celtic Knot embossing folder that I used on some polished stone card stock. I accented the embossing with Memento ink. This is one of the folders that is supposedly only available if the new folders are purchased as a set. I think the other is the Harlequin design. The stamps used are by Scottish Borders Stamping. The die cut was made using a Spellbinders scalloped circle Nestabilities die and the accent scores near the sentiment were made using the Scor-It.

I can't say that I would have purchased all of these at the regular price, but for what amounted to just a bit more than $3 per folder, including shipping and handling, it seemed worth it to go for the bundle. These were delivered very quickly, too! Kudos to HSN for that. I was very pleasantly surprised. :-)

Guest Design Spot: flower pounding

Please note: this article was originally published on the Cuttlebug Challenge blog. I think enough time has passed that I'm publishing it here as well so that it can go out to my email subscribers and be linked along with my other tutorials.

Hello everyone! This is Jay from IndigoInklings dropping by for another visit this month at Maggie's request. Recently I read about a technique that was done using the Wizard by Spellbinders. It's called flower pounding. Flower pounding itself isn't new. As you might guess, it's been done using a hammer or a mallet and a nice flat solid surface. Flowers were placed atop paper and pounded to release and transfer the pigment. What was different was that this was done with less effort (and noise!) by using a die cutting machine. I decided to adapt this technique for the Cuttlebug and share it here.

Now thankfully, this time of year there are lots of flowers in my backyard. These are a few that I picked just for this project. Love the wonderful variety of shapes, textures, and colors!

What you need to have on hand for flower pounding, besides some fresh flowers, are your Cuttlebug machine and plates and some card stock or water color paper. What I did was cut the sheets in half and then fold each half in half to make a folder. There's no need to be neat about this. I know my Scor-It is in the photo, but it was there primarily to be a nice backdrop.

Here is the sandwich that I used for flower pounding: A, B, and C plates, with the flowers placed inside the folder. I've found that the side that releases most of the pigment is the face of the flower, so if you don't use a folder, then put the bloom face down onto your card stock, then cover it with a layer of scrap paper before sandwiching it and putting it through.

Here you can see that I did place the folder between the plates before rolling it through. You can also see why I used a folder. This can be a juicy project. Depending on what type of flower you use, it can be really juicy! This is why I mentioned that water color paper would also be a good option.

This is what it looked like when I opened up the folder. You can see that pigment has been transferred from these shrub rose blooms to the card stock.

This is how it looked after I peeled the flower petals etc away. Both sides of the folder are potentially usable, so that's another neat thing.

Here is the same sandwich, different flowers. These were much thinner than the first blooms. I had a shim handy, just in case it looked like the blooms needed to be squeezed harder, but I didn't need it. It's a good idea to have at least one or two of them close by though.

Again, here is the folder opened up.

And this is the design that's left once the flowers are removed. You can gently rub the flowers off with a finger. Often you can peel up an edge of a petal with a fingernail then pull it off the rest of the way. I found that using a scrap piece of card stock as a scraper worked nicely, too.

This is one more example with a Bachelor Button. I used watercolor paper for this one. I've had a lot of moisture get forced out of this type of flower before, so I learned from that!

This is one side of the outside of the folder after rolling it through.

This is the other side. I really liked the colors and the delicate look.

Here is the folder opened up. The flower was squeezed from the top then down toward the stem. This is why I also tended to place my flowers near the edge of the folder that would be going through the machine first. Think of the Cuttlebug as a wringer with all of the pigment and moisture getting squeezed out and forced along as the bloom moves between the rollers. It's much less messy to have excess folder at the trailing edge to catch all of that. Yes, as you might guess, that's the voice of experience. :-)

This is one side with the flower parts removed.

This is the other side. The amount of pigment left by the flowers can be impressive. And don't discount the stems and leaves, or the stamen and the pollen. They can all leave color, shapes, and texture behind.

This is a card made with flower pounded shrub roses. Notice the bright yellow that was transferred from the pollen. You might recognize the scalloped QuicKutz border embossing folder that I used as the background for their layer. The sentiment is by Hero Arts and was stamped using Memento dye ink.

Since the pounded Yellow Loosestrife blooms left behind an image so reminiscent of stars, I paired them with the above sentiment from The Little Prince made by Silver Crow Creations, and I added some QuicKutz die cut flourishes.

The focus of this card is that Bachelor Button "image" that was on the outside of the folder. As I said, the delicate look appealed to me and I wanted to go with something more subtle. The stamped sentiment is by Hampton Art Stamps and I added the score lines using my Scor-It.

I made this last card using one of the images made with a shrub rose bloom. I cut and embossed it using Spellbinders Nestabilities dies and layered it on top of white card stock with some decorative scoring that I again made using my Scor-It. The decorative edges were made using the Fiskars Upper Crest border punch. The sentiment is by Hero Arts and was stamped using white craft ink.

So, no tips or tricks using embossing folders this time, but I hope that I've inspired you to try a technique that doesn't get much more complicated than going outside and picking some flowers. I've found that fresh blooms work better, by the way. Again, it's that voice of experience. :-) And for those of you who are Big Shot users, or even owners of the original red Sizzix machine, click on over to my blog where I've described how to flower pound using those die cutters.

Have a good day everyone! Enjoy your weekends! And be sure to have fun checking out all of the special features that will be published on this blog in the upcoming days. :-)

etched glass plate using stamping supplies

I left off yesterday with a teaser about a project that I'd worked on. Here's a peek at how I made the connections.


The above photo is currently gracing my desktop. I love the delicate look of azalea petals and I particularly like the way the setting sun lit some of them from behind.


This is the part of the photo that caught my eye. That's the translucent sparkle that I was talking about--almost a ground glass look, but softer.

That reminded me of a project that I wanted to share--ground glass-->etched glass. That wasn't too far a jump, eh? So anyway, some time ago I'd seen some crafty projects made using etching cream and stamping supplies. I'd tucked that info away and got around to trying it a couple of weeks ago. I think that the most straightforward tutorial that I've seen is in the resources section of Splitcoast Stampers: Emboss Resist Etching. I more or less followed those same steps to make the following....


This is an 8" clear glass plate. I wanted to start with something that had a nice flat area for me to work on. I didn't take photos along the way, but I'll walk through what I did. It was actually fairly simple.

First I cleaned the back of the plate well, removing any labels, adhesive, oils, fingerprints etc. I then chose my stamps--the Highland cow and thistle are by Scottish Borders Stamping. I decided to make the etched background in the shape of one of the Nestabilities mega curved rectangle dies by Spellbinders, and I picked the size that would fit nicely with my stamps. I pulled out my Big Shot, cut that shape from clear contact paper, and used the negative part of my die cut to act as the frame for the images. I removed the paper backing and stuck that down well on the backside of the plate, taking care that all of the inside edges were well adhered so that no cream would seep underneath when I got to that step.

The Versamark and some regular old embossing powder came out next. I stamped and heat embossed the images on the back of the plate inside my framed area. It did take much longer than usual to melt the powder, so it's good to have some patience set aside for this part. :-)

Once that was done, I pulled out the etching cream and applied it over the whole area inside my frame and on top of the embossing, taking care to try to spread the stuff evenly and get into all of the curves and corners of my frame. Set it aside for five minutes and let it do its stuff.

Over to the sink now to rinse off the cream. When it first comes off, it looks like nothing happened. Thankfully, I'd read that this would be the case! No panic here, or at least not much. ;-) You don't really appreciate the etching effect until you pull off the contact paper, then TADA! You can see that the etching cream worked its magic. Whew!

Now some of my embossing actually began to come off as I'd rinsed the plate; the rest scraped off easily with some extra rubbing and a bit of scraping with a fingernail. One last soap and water bath and it was ready to be sent off!

Here it is one more time, now that you know what you're looking at.


So yeah, Judie, this was part of your birthday present and I know you occasionally come by here, so I didn't want to post about this earlier and spoil the surprise. Glad you like it. :-)

I think this is a really fun project and can easily think of many more possibilities. By the way, the etching cream (Armour) is kinda pricey. I bought mine at Michael's and used a coupon, so that helped. I didn't find that I needed any extra tools for applying the cream other than a cheapo 1" foam brush. I've seen that there are etching creams that you can reuse (Etchall)--that might be worth looking into. Being able to salvage and reuse the cream for other projects sounds great to me, and I think they cost about the same as this stuff, but I've only seen it online so far, so I can't use a coupon to buy it. Decisions, decisions.... It's a tradeoff , as usual. :-)

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. :-)

celebrate spring

The grass is coming back to life. (One of the neighbors has already cut his yard!) Trees are starting to put out leaves. Flowers are blooming. Time to celebrate spring!


I'd been keeping an eye out for crocuses. Those are usually the first bloomers in our yard. Sadly, I think the bunnies ate most of the ones in the backyard. These are some that I found at the front of the house. They're usually late because they're on the north side and don't get as much sun, but at least they're there!


We have a lot of daffodils blooming, too. I particularly like the soft color and delicate look of these flowers.


And last but not least, here's a card that I made to acknowledge the arrival of spring. The tulips aren't blooming yet, but they're getting close. I made this quite a while ago. Yes, I was a bit overly optimistic at the time, but I love spring! :-) I'd have to check to be sure, but I think I made this using some stamps from Michael's dollar bin that were stamped and colored using Memento inks and markers. The chipboard shapes are by Maya Road and were colored using Adirondack pigment inks. The die cuts were made using Spellbinders Nestabilities dies.

multi-challenge GW card

Things have been busy here, as you can probably tell by my lack of posting recently. I've squeezed some crafting in here and there, and I have a card to show for it. Some background first though--on the Gingerwood stamping forum, there have been a number of challenges issued. The first was to make a shaped card. I didn't get to it. The next one was to use an old stamp, I think, or some supply that hadn't been used in ages. I didn't get around to that one either. The most recent one is to make a manly card of any sort. Well, okay. I got tired of not participating, so I rolled those three challenges into one card, and here it is....


Here is my circular saw-shaped card. Doesn't get more manly than power tools, eh? LOL! I used the pinking circle, regular circle, and paisley Nestabilities dies to cut the die shapes. The "saw blade" is card stock covered with aluminum foil. The "Thanks" die cut was made using a Cuttlebug die--yes, this was a shortcut. The rest of the words were made using Sizzix Sizzlit alphabet dies--something that I hadn't used in ages!

I made the card so that it could open. I did this by folding my navy card stock before cutting it, and also leaving part of the fold intact inside the cutting edge of the die.


Here I've opened the card partway to show the rest of the blade. I also placed a smaller paisley shape behind the card front. Not traditional placement, but I hated to cover up the blade and I did want to have a place to write. I added the zigzag edge to mimic the blade--this was from a set of clear stamps by Inky Antics that I don't think had ever been inked, but that I've had for years.

So there it is--my three challenge card. :-) Oh, and my apologies for the play on words. ;-)

challenge triple play

I've combined two challenges in one card before, so this time I wanted to see if I could incorporate three challenges in one. Here are the ones that I chose:

From daring cardmakers: I dare you to make an Oriental themed card which doesn’t use Red or Black.

From the Cuttlebug Challenge blog: ....this week's Cuttlebug Be inspired #17 is "LOVE".

And finally, I chose to use a card layout from Mojo Monday.

Here's the card....


I used patterned card stock from the DCWV Far East collection. Wouldn't you know it--the flowers look almost reddish there, but they're more brownish-orange in real life. The borders were punched with the Martha Stewart Lattice Arch punch. The stamped images are by InkaStamps and stamped using Memento Potters Clay dye ink. The hearts are Spellbinders Nestabilities die cuts. The subtle texture of two of the panels was made using the Floral Screen A2 Cuttlebug embossing folder. Finally I added some Mizuhiki cord embellishment.

Seems that I've been making much simpler cards lately. It was fun to make one that used more layers and more elements.

scalloped heart card and Cuttled nugget purse details

I wanted to add some visuals to the descriptions that I gave the other day for the scalloped heart card and the Cuttled Hershey Nugget purse. I'd received some questions about those, and I think that photos can be very helpful.

Those are my pieces of card stock and their dimensions.

I'll start off with the scalloped heart card.

Score as I indicated above. The dimensions are for the largest scalloped heart Nestabilities die. If you use a smaller one, make the inside panel about 1/4" narrower than the heart at its widest point, measuring from the cutting edges, and adjust the two outside panels accordingly so that they'll meet in the center.

Fold the outside panels in toward the center.

This is the largest of the scalloped heart dies. It's about 4 3/4" wide.

I usually put the dies through my machine cutting side up, but I wanted to show how I position it over the opening.

 

Here I've flipped the card and die so that you can see that the folds are inside the cutting edges at a couple of points on each side. This is what will make the "hinges". It's a fine line between having them be sturdy and having your heart look misshapen, so I thought this was a good compromise. That's also why I added other heart layers on the card front. They distract the eye from those folds.

Now I've run it through my Big Shot on the multipurpose platform Tab 2, between the two clear cutting plates.

And there you have the base of the card that can be stamped on or embellished as desired.

So now on to the nugget purse.

Make the score lines.

Fold along all of the scores.


The free panel is the purse flap. That's what I embellished using the edge punch. The nugget rests inside the triangle, and the holes that I made for the ribbon handle were punched through the fold at the top.

Love the Scor-It for making these projects easy!

heart hugs

This was a quickie card that I made today. Still have that Valentine theme in mind.


I cut it out using the scalloped hearts Nestabilities dies by Spellbinders. The card actually opens down the center, but that's partially hidden by the overlying heart layers. The white layer was embossed using a Cuttlebug embossing folder.


Here you see the card opened up. I left some of the scallops intact so that I would have folds at each edge of that central heart. The stamped images are by Hero Arts. To give you an idea of the dimensions, the heart base is roughly 4 1/2" across, so it's a good size card.