holiday cards Cuttlebug-style

I wanted to share a few more cards that I made using the Cuttlebug A2 embossing folders and the border folders. They were made in the winter holiday spirit. :-)


This first card was very simply embossed using one of the border folders on the top and bottom edges of the card. The bird image is by Inkadinkado and stamped using Memento dye inks. The sentiment is by My Favorite Things. The faux snow is by Cornish Heritage Farms.


This card was made by using diagonal Cuttling with the Snowflakes embossing folder. I used another border folder to accent the space for the sentiment by Inkadinkado. The corner were punched using a Fiskars corner punch.


I partially Cuttled the front of this card using the Christmas ornaments embossing folder. The score lines were made using the Scor-It, and again I used a border folder to add interest to that bottom edge of the design. The stamped image is by Stampendous, stamped with Memento dye ink and colored with Copic Spica glitter pens.


This last card was partially embossed using the Snow Dots embossing folder. I used an embossing border folder to set off the sentiment by Martha Stewart. The snowflakes were made via a punch also by Martha Stewart. The inky accents on the snowflakes and the stamping were made using Memento dye inks.

These are just some quick and easy cards that showcase the some of the fun looks that you can get by using embossing folders in different ways and in different combinations.

two more flower soft cards

I just love using Flower Soft. It's so fun! Here are a couple more cards where I've embellished with it.


This first card was embossed with the new Floral Screen Cuttlebug A2 embossing folder. And hooray! I got it right the first time and embossed rather than debossed the card front.


For this card I partially Cuttled using the Tiny Bubbles Cuttlebug folder and then added the score lines with my Scor-It. Those are Robin's Nest dew drops embellishing that card.

All of the stamp images are by My Favorite Things, stamped using Memento ink, and colored with Prismacolor colored pencils then blended with the Goo Gone Mess-free pen. I used scalloped Nestabilities dies by Spellbinders to cut out the layers for the images, and by the way I did use the Sizzix crease pad again and it really does make using these dies more efficient if you plan to emboss after cutting.

Partial Cuttling with new folders

I pulled out another "old" technique to use with one of the new Cuttlebug A2 embossing folders. This time I used partial Cuttling and the Floral Screen folder.


For this card I stamped the cardstock using Heidi Grace Designs clear stamps and Memento ink, then embossed it and added the score lines using my Scor-It. I embellished with Robin's Nest dew drops.


This card is actually debossed, not on purpose, but because it's one of the new releases that debosses if you use it with the logo facing you. Not a biggie in this case because you can just flip the folder over and use it to emboss. It's just that you have to REMEMBER to do it. Yep, even if you've marked the front of the folder to remind yourself that it will deboss. You can guess how I know that, eh? LOL!

The birds were made using a Martha Stewart punch. The sentiment is by Verve and stamped using Memento ink. I finished by adding a couple of bronze glitter dots.

Tips for diagonal Cuttling

When I do diagonal Cuttling, I usually have a result like this in mind....


Or a result like this....


Having done this a number of times now, I've encountered various pitfalls and I've tried a few things to try to minimize falling into these traps.

The first thing that can be tricky about diagonal embossing like this is keeping track of just where the pattern is, because I'm usually running my card and folder through the machine a few times to get the effect that I'm looking for. The second tricky thing is the scoring that I like to do--tricky because of the diagonal design and the fact that this isn't as straightforward as scoring vertical or horizontal lines on a scoring board. I'll address the pattern issue in this post and save the scoring for another.

For the first design above with the Cuttlebug D'vine Swirls, I find it easiest to keep track of my clear plate placement by using a transparency with lines drawn on it that represent the long edges of that clear plate. I'd placed my plate on top of the transparency and drew a line down each side with a black Sharpie.


That photo just shows approximately where I'll be positioning the clear plate when I put it and the folder with the card through the Big Shot.


Once the main section has been embossed, I open the folder and place the transparency inside, lining it up with the embossing. I close the folder, and now I have a way to tell where I need to line up my folder for the partial Cuttling of the corners.


It can look a bit weird to have the embossed edges not line up, or at least be somewhat close to parallel. It can also look weird to have a very narrow space between the embossed sections. I've embossed by guessing with some success, but I've been way off at times, too, and I can only use so many failed experimental cards. ;-) I needed a more foolproof method. So, slide the transparency out once the folder is in place, and run it through.


There's one corner down. I do the same for the other corner. This card front is ready for the scoring phase, so I'll set it aside.

In the second example at the beginning of this post, I used the Cuttlebug Textile embossing folder and embossed diagonally at each corner to leave an open diamond space at the center of the card. Again, you could eye it and get close, but it's nicer to be a little more sure of the placement. Yes, this is the voice of experience again.


If you look closely, you can see that I've made some small marks on top of my folder near the edges at the halfway point on each side. Well, you can't see all of the sides, but you can see them on the two sides at least. I used pencil here, but non-permanent marker would work well, too.


I use these marks to place my clear plate when I run my folder and card through the machine. The position of the plate in the photo above will emboss the top left corner of the card front. I'll reposition the plate and run it through three more times to finish the other corners, using the marks that I've placed to line things up properly. By the way, for this particular open diamond shaped card front embossing, the shorter plates that are used in the Sidekick or Tagalong can be a little easier to position than the long ones. For Cuttlebug users, I know that the opening of the machine is slightly smaller than the one in the Big Shot. You might find it easier to use something narrower like a ruler or perhaps two rulers stacked one on top of the other to make this diagonal embossing. I don't usually score this design, so this card front is ready for stamping.

Hope some of those tips are helpful if you try diagonal Cuttling. :-)

Equal Time: Cuttling for Cuttlebug Users

Go figure. There are a lot of folks who use the Cuttlebug embossing folders with a Cuttlebug machine and not a Big Shot. ;-) I've read some comments about folks thinking that the Cuttling techniques that I've described can only be done with a Big Shot. I've always thought that the way the machines work is essentially the same, so really Cuttling should be adaptable. I had to prove it to myself though.

For you Cuttlebug users out there, I pulled mine out. It was a good deal that I couldn't pass up, and it's my back-up should my Big Shot ever fail me. It's out of the box now, and yes, Cuttling can be done with this machine.

Here are some how-to's. Thankfully Blogger's photo upload is working well today.


Okay, so there you see my CB with the plates, a couple of embossing folders, a card, my transparency, and the items I'll be using to do my creative double Cuttling (the wood frame and the oval wood die cut).


As usual, put the card front inside the folder and tuck the back part underneath the folder.


Here's that transparency template that I made by tracing the inside of the opening of the frame with a Sharpie. I use this to help me position where I want my frame once I've closed the folder. This is Floral Fantasy, by the way.


Once the folder is closed, I can still see where I want the opening of the frame to be.


I position the wood frame so that the opening matches the traced oval.


Here I'm sliding the transparency out. I don't need it anymore, eh?


Now I've placed the B plate on top of the frame, on top of the folder with the card inside, on top of plate A. As I understand it, usually you'd have another plate B in there. I took that bottom one out. My wood frame is virtually the same thickness as that plate, actually a little less. So this should roll through just fine. The only question is whether I'll need to make a second pass using a shim if it doesn't emboss deeply enough.


Here's the card after it's been rolled through. I like it fine as it is, plus I'm ready to take the next step. LOL!


Now I've tucked my card front inside the Birds & Swirls folder. I pull out my handy dandy transparency again to see where I'd like those birds and swirls to show up.


Close the folder with the transparency still inside.


This time I position my oval wood die cut on top of the closed folder and over the tracing. It's crooked up there on purpose, okay? That's so you can see the tracing. My eyes aren't quite that bad. ;-) I'll straighten it out before running it through.


I've slipped the transparency out and placed the B plate on top of the stack. Again, this wood die cut is conveniently the same thickness as one of the B plates, so I eliminated that second B plate that would ordinarily be in the stack. Top to bottom: B plate, wood die cut, folder with card front inside, A plate.


Here's how it turned out after I ran it through. Maybe it wasn't the best combination, but it's still pretty and it shows that creative double Cuttling can be adapted to a Cuttlebug. And obviously you don't need to do the second Cuttling. You can stop after the first pass as I've described in creative Cuttling. You might also want to peek at creative Cuttling in more detail.

Partial Cuttling for the Cuttlebug works, too. Hey, I've got the machine out, so I might as well put this through the paces as well.


Here's my stack. It's the usual combo. The folder with card front inside between two B plates on top of the A plate. The key is leaving the area that's to be left unembossed outside of the plates so that no pressure will be applied. That's why my folder is just hanging out there.


And there's the partial Cuttling result using the Swiss Dots folder. Only the top part of a top fold card was embossed, and no cards or tools were harmed in the production of this look. ;-)

Diagonal Cuttling works, too.


The two long plates are from Sizzix and are usually used for those long border dies. They're the same thickness as the B plates. They let me emboss at an angle as I've described before.


And that's the result of doing diagonal Cuttling using the Perfectly Paisley embossing folder. I do run that through twice because that top left corner is left unembossed after the first pass, but you can just straighten those long plates and emboss that area. You can also just leave it if you like that look.

I'm going to skip over the double Cuttle because I don't think there was ever any reason to think that couldn't be duplicated with a Cuttlebug machine.

So there ya go! Equal time for fans of the Cuttlebug. :-) I'll just add that I did like the CB fine. I was bummed that the multipurpose platform was too wide to fit through the opening though. I'd rather not have to think about what stack combo to run through the machine, plus that little extra width gives me more room when I'm trying to run things through diagonally. I'll be sticking with what's most familiar to me, so it's back to the Big Shot again. :-)

Creative Cuttling - thinking outside the folder

Okay, I've described partial Cuttling and diagonal Cuttling for some different looks when embossing cardfronts with Cuttlebug A2 embossing folders. Ready to take another step beyond using the whole folder? Sure you are. :-)

I was tidying up my junk drawer and rummaging through some of the things on my craft table earlier today. I came across some things that I thought might be interesting to use with my Big Shot and Cuttlebug folders.


So, up above you see my trusty Big Shot, a Cuttlebug folder, a blank card, a fridge magnet that's supposed to frame a photo, a plexiglass ornament that I hadn't gotten around to decorating, and some craft sticks.


I started with the craft sticks. They're easy, eh? I placed my cardfront inside the folder and tucked the back behind, as usual. I then positioned the craft sticks as you can see. This is where things get a little tricky. You have to play just a bit because of the thickness of whatever you use for pressing on the embossing folder. My multipurpose platform gives me leeway because of the tabbed layers. I also found that I could use either a clear plate or the plate from the Big Impressions kit which is a tad thicker if I found that I needed to apply just a bit more pressure. This gave me plenty of options. Mind you, I've played with my Big Shot for quite a while now, so I have a pretty good feel for when something will go through and when I shouldn't force it.

Here's how the craft stick embossing turned out.


Kind of a cool look, don't you think?

Next I tried my fridge magnet with the Swiss Dots folder.


After a bit of tinkering, this is what I got when I ran that through.


Now for that piece of plexiglass. I went back to the D'vine Swirls folder again. I wanted a fairly busy pattern.


And here is the result of running that particular item through my Big Shot.


There's one thing that I haven't mentioned yet. For all of these examples, I just placed my folder with the card directly on my platform. That was just the way it worked best for me. I mention this because you don't need similar shaped objects sandwiching your embossing folder. You just need the pressure applied to whatever you have positioned on top. You can see from my examples that it works.

Now here are some cards that I made from these experimental cardfronts.


The stamps are all Hero Arts, stamped with chalk inks and colored with Prismacolor pencils, then blended with my Goo Gone pen, which just happened to be handier than the Icky Sticky Stuff Remover and a stump. I'm still planning to use ISSR more often. I was coloring in the carpool line though, and this was super easy to transport. It was also a gorgeous day so I had the windows open--no problem with fumes. The score lines were made using my Scor-It.


The stamps in this one were also all Hero Arts and stamped with chalk inks. I used the Scor-It to make my score lines and used Fiskars corner edgers to embellish as well. The ribbon was from the Target $1 spot.


This time the stamps I used were from Inkadinkado--one of their new mini sets. I stamped with black Brilliance ink, colored the images with Prismacolor colored pencils, and used my Goo Gone pen to blend the colors. Again, I made the score lines using my Scor-It. The flowers are Primas and embellished with a Robin's Nest Dew Drop.

So, if you're ready, give some creative Cuttling a try! It's time to think outside the folder. :-)

Partial Cuttling for Sizzix

Quite a while back I came up with a theory for partial Cuttling with a regular Sizzix. I never heard if the person tried it, or if it worked. Since there seems to be quite an interest in partially Cuttlebug embossing cardfronts, I thought I'd see if my theory would work for the folks who are still using the old red Sizzix machine.

First, I had to dig out my Sizzix. Thankfully I knew where it was. Unfortunately, it was on a shelf in my basement, so the setting for these photos isn't as nice. And wow, I'd forgotten how HEAVY this machine is!

So, here's what I started out with: my red Sizzix, the long white platform, the two long clear cutting plates, a white A2 size card, and my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder.


As usual, you place the front of the card inside the folder and tuck the back behind the folder so that it won't be embossed.


Okay, now here is where it got interesting. Most people *ahem* would have probably looked up what the usual set up is for using these folders in a Sizzix. I know people do it. I just never paid attention. But hey, I used to use this machine all the time. I was sure that I could figure it out. LOL! I tried a number of different combinations, including using the regular white Sizzix platform and the magnetic converter that I didn't show in the first photo. Most of the time my sandwich was just not thick enough and the handle went all the way down without applying pressure.

Here is the combo that worked.


From the bottom going up, Sizzix white platform, long border platform, embossing folder with card inside, then a clear plate. Again, the way that the folder is placed on the platform is the key here. Sandwich that top fold portion of the card in between the long platform and the long clear plate so that only that top part will be embossed. There isn't much clearance, but there doesn't have to be. You just need to be able to apply enough pressure to emboss. You don't need to crank down hard on this sandwich. I hardly moved the handle at all really--just enough to give the folder a good squeeze. Release and move the combo through as you normally would to emboss the width of that cardfront.

When you're finished and you open the folder....


TA DAAA! You should have your own partially Cuttled cardfront made using a Sizzix machine! Hope that Sizzix users find this helpful. I want you to be able to have partial Cuttling fun, too. :-)

Edited to add: You should be able to do some diagonal Cuttling with the Sizzix, too. Just run the narrower plates through the opening at an angle. You won't have as much room to play around with the angles as you would if you had a wider platform, but it should work.

Diagonal Cuttling

Some time ago I wanted to make a card with a Cuttlebug embossed design that was on a diagonal. Putting the embossing folder through wasn't the problem. My problem was getting the plates to go through--they won't fit diagonally, and no amount of manipulation or partial Cuttling could get it to work. Well, today I was getting ready to use one of the Sizzlit decorative strips, pulled out the clear cutting plates for it, and a lightbulb went on in my mind! This might be a way to make that diagonal Cuttling idea work.

Here's what I pulled out--my Big Shot with the multipurpose platform, the two long clear cutting plates, my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder, and a white A2 size card.


I placed the card inside the folder as I normally would to emboss the front of the card. I tucked the back flap behind the folder, and placed a piece of text weight paper between the back flap and the bottom plate to keep it from getting marked by the edge of the plate.


Using the same principles as with partial Cuttling, I placed the clear plates so that they would sandwich and emboss the Swiss dots diagonally.


I positioned the right edges of both plates directly over the last line of dots that I wanted to emboss, not worrying about the other corner that wasn't covered by the folder. Now there are a couple of things that I want to point out in the above photo. The angle is a little deceiving, but I placed the folder on the platform so that it was completely on top of the platform, no overhang. The trailing end of the clear plates did hang over, but that ended up not being a problem.


I rolled the sandwich through. I held the clear plates together to keep them even with each other--they tended to want to slip. By the time I got to the part of the sandwich where the plates were hanging over the side of the platform, the folder and card were most of the way through, the sandwich fit more loosely, and the clear plates both easily slid sideways over the top of the platform as they passed through the slot.


This is the cardfront with the diagonally Cuttled design. Now it was just a matter of doing a little partial Cuttling to take care of that corner.


And after the partial Cuttling, here is the cardfront showing the corner embossed along with the rest. I'll skip the illustration since I've described partial Cuttling before. Alternatively, you can also just roll that small unembossed corner through at an angle on your platform and roll it back again since that small corner will fit easily into the slot far enough to emboss it, and you're not looking to be very precise--you just want to emboss the dots of that corner.

And here is an example of a finished card with diagonal Cuttling. The die cuts are by Sizzix, the birds and branches decorative Sizzlit strip. The stamped images are by Hero Arts. I embellished with Robin's Nest dew drops and a couple of scored lines that I made using my Scor-It.

Edited to add: I've updated this technique, adding another way to diagonally Cuttle a card front. Click here to read it: diagonal Cuttling update.