thinking of you, part one

Ahhh, the urge to make some cards came on earlier. I pulled out the Making Memories Slice machine since I recently got my hands on the Studio Expressions design card and I wanted to play with it a bit. I also used some of my old stand-by techniques.

For this card I took a scrap of designer card stock and ran it through my Big Shot inside the Stampin' Up!/Sizzix Finial Press textured impressions folder. I accented the embossing with some Tuxedo Black Memento dye ink applied direct to paper and then adhered the layer to my card front. I added the score lines to my card using my Scor-it. I cut the labels using my Slice and a selection from the Studio Essentials design card, layered them and then attached them with foam tape to pop them out a bit. The stamped image is by Studio G and stamped and colored using Memento inks.

Interestingly, I'd made a second card with a similar sentiment, only in French. Sheer coincidence! I didn't even realize it until later. But I'm going to hold off on posting that one for just a bit. It ties in with something else that I'd worked on this week. Don't want to say more about that for the moment though. :-)

Now it's about time to see how Team USA will fare in hockey. I should be able to catch the 1st period before heading out on the afternoon drive to school.

on customer service

I posted a little while back on having to contact QuicKutz customer service regarding some defective embossing folders. Last night I received a comment from Kelly, who appreciated hearing about the QuicKutz embossing folders from the customer service standpoint. That reminded me that it's time for an update.

I'd emailed QuicKutz regarding the issue that I was having with a couple of their 2x2 folders. They said that they'd send out replacements. I received one quite promptly, along with a note that said that the other was on back-order and would be sent when it became available. I also received an enclosure suggesting that using a shim would result in a deeper impression. It was great to receive the replacement. It still isn't aligned quite properly, but unlike the other, it's close enough that it will line up under pressure. So that's cool. And the advice was appreciated, though no amount of shimming would have ever gotten that original embossing folder to mesh correctly. So, now I'm just waiting for the other embossing folder to arrive.

What I've found is that when items don't perform the way that they should, it's best to go directly to the source. It's not unusual for me to come across some issue long after I've lost or misplaced the receipt, but I do know how to find and contact a manufacturer by email, and how to politely but firmly ask if I have any recourse.

Here's a quick rundown, in my experience, of the folks who've stood by their products:

Scor-It: The scoring bar on my mini Scor-It was off-center resulting in scores that were off when I used the centering ruler. When I figured out that this was what was causing the problem and not operator error, I dropped the Scor-It folks a line. My note was answered on a holiday weekend by the owner of the company, and he promptly Fed-Ex'd me a new one.

Plaid Enterprises: I'd had some Dimensional Magic, unopened, which was very thick and unusable when I did finally open it. I wrote to them, asking what I could use, if anything, to reconstitute it. They apologized and sent me new product.

Wilton Industries: Okay, I know that there are a lot of folks who've had trouble with Martha Stewart punches. I had one that appeared to be defective. This had been ordered online, so I contacted EK Success customer service. (Contacting Martha Stewart customer service was not useful--automated reply that said that they couldn't help.) A rep from Wilton wrote back, agreeing that it sounded like the punch was defective. He sent out a replacement.

Making Memories: I've mentioned that I like the MM paper trimmer. When the cuts began fraying, I contacted MM to see if I could get/purchase a replacement blade. I'd already done the troubleshooting to no avail. They regretted that there were no replacements as the blade is designed to be self-sharpening and essentially told me to write a different dept about getting a replacement. A couple of weeks after making that contact, I had a new trimmer on my doorstep.

Then there's QuicKutz, which is also standing by their products and trying to make things right.

Those are the companies that I wanted to mention. BTW, Kelly, I do have some JustRite stamps but have not had any issues with mine, so I can't comment on their customer service. Sorry to hear that you've been disappointed so far. Hope they come through for you.

Addendum: In the comments below, Lesley reminded me of yet another company that stands behind its products and that's We R Memory Keepers, makers of the Crop-a-dile, among other things. My experience was with a defective Crop-a-dile also.

nice try with those embossing folders, QuicKutz

Wow, I can hardly believe how quickly time is flying! Yes, I'm still here and I've not given up blogging. Life has just gotten very busy!

That said, let me cut to the chase. I've had some of these QuicKutz embossing folders for a while now. I wanted to say a couple of things about them.


In the photo above you can see the A2 size folders and a couple of the smaller 2x2 size folders. These are very much like the ProvoCraft Cuttlebug embossing folders, except for the bluish tint to the plastic.


Unfortunately, they are also like the Cuttlebug embossing folders in that they aren't quite a true A2 size--by this I mean that the embossed design will not cover the entire front of an A2 size card.


I hope that you can make out that the vines reach from the top of the card to the bottom, and they're a nice crisp emboss, too, but they don't quite make it from the left edge to the right edge. If you're a crafter who's driven nuts by stuff like this, then be aware that these folders are going to leave you a bit of unembossed border on your card front.


I also had another issue with my new QK folders and this one is a more serious one in that it seems to be due to a manufacturing defect. In the photo above, you can see that the folders don't close with nice even edges. I had an 'Uh oh' moment when I noticed this.


This turned to a "GRRRR!" moment when I held them up to the light and saw that the two sides of the folders didn't match up. Hey, that's what makes these folders work, eh? But okay, maybe they'd still emboss.


My apologies for the poor quality of this photo, but frankly, the performance of the folders didn't help. The usual sandwich combo produced only a faint emboss. I went with a slightly thicker stack and ran these through again--this time I used Tab 1 on my multipurpose platform rather than no tabs. The embossing was more distinct, but far from the crisp design that it should have been. It was also very uneven in places.


Here's why. I could make the faces of the design fit together, but this is what I had to do to the folder to get them to match. There's no way that would get that way or stay that way going through a machine. Heheheh, well, unless someone, oh, I don't know, maybe decided to cut it apart or something. ;-)

Here's how the other folder looked when I fit those faces together, poor contorted thing. Again, the only embossed design I was going to get using this folder was a poor one.

So, the bottom line at this point for me is that QuicKutz apparently didn't hear the pleas of crafters who want embossed designs to cover the entire front of an A2 card, or even something larger. Hurray for Sizzix for getting that right with their textured impressions embossing folders! I should mention though, that the QK 2" x 12" borders do look like they'll emboss the full 12", so that's good news for scrappers. But I now have some defective product on my hands. I'll be writing to them to see if they're interested in making this right. I'll update if/when I hear something.

One last point, since I'm touching on customer service--my Scor-It (and I've mentioned before that they have SUPERB customer service) was buried under lots of stuff, so I used my Making Memories cutter as my background of sorts for photos today. I'd written to Making Memories a while back because my supposedly self-sharpening blade was fraying card stock when it cut. Unacceptable. I like this cutter. I've been using it for about a year. All I wanted/needed was a new blade. Well, they're supposed to be self-sharpening, so they don't have replacement blades available. ARGH! Their customer service suggested I get in touch with their dept that sends out replacements. I didn't really want a whole new cutter, but okay. My new one arrived yesterday. Wow. I like companies that stand by their product and are willing to make things right when things go wrong. Very cool. :-)

more holiday cards

Die cuts and embossing folders can make creating holiday cards go quickly. Here are some of the ones that I made today.


I pulled out a number of supplies that I'd been wanting to use, but hadn't had time to pull out. Up above, the deer die cut and the embossed deer image and its frame are both by Sizzix. The latter is one of the new XL embosslits. The tag die cut is by Cuttlebug. The stamped images are by Making Memories and stamped using Memento dye ink. I embellished with some Distress Stickles and Brides and Prima flowers.


For this card I used the Cuttlebug Snowflake A2 embossing folder for the card front. The snowman and his accessories as well as his embossing were all done with the Cuttlebug Snow Fun combo. The sentiment is by Sizzix, and the snowflakes were made using a Martha Stewart snowflake punch.


This last card is one that I'd been wanting to try for a while. I love the simple elegance of the Lace Tree image--this is a Cuttlebug A2 embossing folder. I wanted a simple sentiment and decided to go with the fairly understated "With Love" embossing border. The bling is 2mm size rhinestones. I love these because they're so small and understated. I have to laugh though because when you end up using so many of them I'm not sure how understated that really is! LOL! But I do like the way it turned out. :-)

white and splash of pink Christmas - DCM

It's been a long time since I've done a daring cardmakers challenge. This one sounded too fun to resist: we are dreaming of a WHITE (and splash of pink Christmas!) I would love you to design a card which includes white mostly (ie: snow, snowmen etc ) and also a little splash of pink somewhere on the card. :)

This is my mostly white with a splash of pink card....


The embossed background is an A2 Cuttlebug embossing folder that I ran through my machine twice since my card is extra long. The die cut is a Spellbinders Labels Two Nestabilities die and the stamped image and sentiment are by Making Memories. The pink ink is a Memento dye ink.


I added a few touches that were hard to appreciate in that first shot. Here's a close up that shows the clear Glaze pen coloring that I used to accent the ornaments. I used a Copic Spica clear glitter pen to accent the garland. I also used the Copic pen to accent the sentiment.