Belated Christmas

I've not posted in ages and have just come across this one. Since it still feels like winter...

Like pulling teeth!

I use metal dies such as those from Spellbinders and Marianne Design quite a lot. Some of them drive me to distraction when trying to get the card out of the die and I often end up tearing the more intricate ones. I've tried various ideas submitted by other folk over the years and even some of my own such as spraying the die with silicone lubricant! Furniture polish was one of the best but here's something else I've come up with.

Years ago I bought some non-stick material for lining my baking tins. In fact it's pretty much the same stuff that's used now for the non-stick brown craft mats. Anyway, I had some odd scraps so I tried die-cutting with it and left it in the die. The next time I cut some card it almost jumped out of the die on its own! After putting it through a few times the liner was nicely set into the die and I find that even the subsequent embossing is fine. I use fairly lightweight card for die-cutting so not sure how well it would work with thicker card.
Having used up all my tin-lining scraps I wasn't about to cut up my non-stick craft mat, so I headed off to one of those famous Pound shops. They sell the non-stick sheets. They are much thinner and therefore perhaps even better for my purpose than my original thicker liner.

Here is a photo of my Heartfelt Creations lace die (made by Spellbinders) with the pound liner inside and a sample of what I've cut using this method.


I have to say, to cover myself, that it is NOT recommended by the die or die-cutting machine manufacturers and, like me, you would use it at your own risk.

Busy January

I've had to make quite a few birthday cards for this month.


Quite busy this one, experimenting with some new punches. An easel card primarily using Martha Stewart punch-around-the-page and then Spellbinder flowers.

A simple patchwork of paper squares.

This one is using Spellbinders after a sample done by Sue from PartiCraft. At 8 inches it's quite substantial but perhaps a bit over the top.

A very simple card using a Heartfelt Creations lace die threaded with ribbon. 

 

An embossed card background (not very clear in this photo), with a punched centre panel topped with fabric rose ribbon.

50 Golden Years

Here's a triple easel card I created last year for my parents 50th Wedding Anniversary along with a matching box. Took a while to work out the sizing to make the max use of A4 but not too complicated after that. The fancy border is a Martha Stewart punch, I cut the 50 on an Ecraft and also used Spellbinders after printing the photos onto card. The flowers were from Wild Orchid Crafts.

Lovely Lady

Here's another card along similar lines to one I've posted before (Die Cut Magic) but with a much more dramatic look.
The lady is a Marianne Design Creatable Charleston Lady LR0140 die and the small motifs are from Spellbinders Renaissance Hearts. I find a 6" square card format is great for this look.

Felt Flowers

Here are a couple of cards with felt flowers as the focal point. They were cut with the Tim Holtz Sizzix Tattered Florals die. The flower centres are made with Papermania DIY brads and the backgrounds from Spellbinder dies and various embossing folders.

Die Cut Magic

Thanks go to Eileen and her blog for this idea using Spellbinders Fleur de Lis pendants. I shaded the backgrounds using Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Milled Lavender and the grasses were also stamped onto Spellbinders Diamond Nestabilities with Marvy Heritage ink in Lavender Fields. The lavender pearls and ribbons from my stash.
I ended up with the muscles of a lumberjack after cutting the many shapes through my old Wizard but it's still quite an easy card to do. Thanks, Eileen.

Just Juicy

These grosgrain ribbons from Fantastic Ribbons are stunning. They are 10mm and I've used them with Marianne Design Creatables LR0109 die cut ribbon flower 2. The background is from the embossing folder, Dots & Swirls, that comes with the Sissix Texture Boutique. Unfortunately you can't get it separately, I've checked with Sissix.

Still not sure whether to put a gem in the middle of the flowers or not...

Mono Moments

A couple of cards I created using the Marianne Design Creatables Ribbon Flower 3 die - LR0110. I made use of the little waste "dots" from the flowers and leaves to add to the decoration. Fiddly but fun and rather effective, if I say so myself!
The background on the left was from a Sissix embossing folder where it has the swirls, dots and a blank centre panel all in one.