Chain Die card.

This one  is a little different from my usual style. There is not a lot  I can say about this card.

 The Spellbinder Chain die is larger than I expected it to be. To give you an idea  the overall measurements of this card  are  8 X 6 inches. 

I think you could make some very retro looking cards with this die and  the popular colour combos of the 70's.

Photocopying and Hot Foiling Your Dies

I hope you're sitting comfortably, I have a feeling this is going to be a long post.

I accidentally stumbled  upon a video that had me very excited. It's a technique I have never come across before and in the video it looks very easy. 

So I decided to give it whirl to see just how  easy it is and to see how well it worked with my limited equipment. 

I will share how I achieved the technique. I will also leave  the link to Becca's videos at the end.

Firstly,  Becca photocopied her spellbinder dies. This is by far the easiest option.

 My laser printer does not have a copier. 

 So I had to scan the dies using my inkjet printer, then print them  off using the laser printer.                                     

 The first problem I encountered was by doing it this way,  was  that somewhere along the way the size of the scanned dies changes, which meant I couldn't  line up the dies with printed copy. 

 So I had to re size the scanned images of the dies many times before getting a copy that matched up with the die.
After a lot of faffing and a ream of paper later, I finally ended up with an image about as close to the  original die size as I could get. 

The next step was to lay a sheet of toner foil over the photocopy, then cover with a sheet of paper to protect the foil and run it through the laminator.  

After laminating I removed the foil sheet and was left with these beautifully foiled frames..

Once foiled, I laid the die over the foiled oval and run it through the big shot to cut out the centre.  

I forgot to mention,  once I had scanned the oval die, I added a text box with a broad outline around the oval before printing.

Do save a copy of your scanned dies on your PC as a template, especially if you have sizing issues as I did.

If you don't have a laser printer, print off your template sheet in black ink using an ink jet printer, Then take it to a local copier company and get it photocopied onto card and hot foil it when you get it home.

When the oval centre has been cut out, you'll  have  a gold edged oval and a card front with a gold edge aperture in it.
You'll need to repeat this with all  the dies in the set so that you can mix and match ovals and card fronts.

It's unlikely that  you'd use both piece  from the same template on the same card. 

Save the part you are not planning to use.

You could stamp a greeting/ image on the cut out and use it as a topper.

Lay the outer piece of card with the aperture  over some pretty paper as a background to a card.

 As you can see, you need to be very careful about the die positioning before cutting. I was slightly out on this one. But I think I can disguise the fact that my border is uneven by covering it with  a sentiment or flowers.

I think this is a fabulous way to give a gold edge to to those die cuts.

Especially if you only want a narrow border on those fancy frames.








I usually find the die the next size up is much too big to create a nice  narrow borders.

I hope you will find Becca's tutorial as inspiring as I did.
Here  as promised is the link to Becca's video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAicoQBRt5Q

Becca  also has another video on foiling more intricate dies. She offers advice on which dies to choose for this technique. These  are real must watch Videos.

 Link to  Video 2    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqRoN-O889k

Vintage Mother's Day Card

Okay, this was a last minute card and it 's still waiting for it's insert  which needs to be done as soon as I have finished writing up this post. So I'll make this a quick one.

I don't usually use ribbon flowers for my cards but as I left it so late to make this card I had to cheat a little.

I chose to do a vintage style Mother's day card for my Mother in Law,  she is 93 years old, so I'd say she is vintage too. 

I know she won't mind me saying that,  she has an amazing sense of humour. Probably due to raising my husband, who is very much the comic.
I love making cards for her, she appreciates them and work that has gone into them so much. It makes it all worth while. I do hope  she likes this one.

I used the Spellbinder Envelope  corner die  to  cut two corners  in cream card and glued them onto a cream card square, then I lightly sponged over the entire background using soft suede ink from Stampin' up . 
The sentiment is from the  stamp set "Occasional Greetings"  I think. 
It's a retired stamp set but it still comes in very handy.

 I die cut the circles for the sentiment/ layers  and cut the butterflies,   inked the edges with soft suede ink and a  sponge,   stamped the greeting and assembled all the layers. 
Lastly I added the  flower and butterfly.

Fancy Die Cut Envelopes

After Christmas I decided to treat myself to a couple of new dies  and I have been itching to get in the craftroom to try them out. But my favourite room became the dumping ground for everything I needed to get out of the way over Christmas. So the craft room has been out of bounds for a while. 

 Today was the day I decided to fight my way through the door and and have a go at creating these envelopes.
These would be great for wedding invitations. But I  wouldn't fancy making too many of them.

I have to say the 6x4 envelopes were a cinch to make with my envelope punch board from SU.
The die I used to decorate the flap is a Spellbinder  Gold die.  I think it's called the Envelope Corner Die.
It's Beautiful design and I have been umming and arring  over it for some months now.
I am glad I finally got round to buying it. I think it makes these envelopes look really specially. I would be loathed to throw it out if this arrived through my letter box...... Mind you, Hubby would say I am loathed to throw anything thing out.

As for the black lined envelope,  I'd like to say that was a cinch too  but it wasn't. Everything was  great until I got to the last flap,....... how the hell does one die cut the last flap without squashing the embossing on the two side flaps.
As you can see I did manage it somehow  but there has to be and easier way.
I found the die needs to be near the edge of my Bigshot pro to cut through the flaps cleanly.
but angling the flaps to avoid squashing the  previously cut flaps means the die had to go through the centre of my Bigshot. 
If anyone out there knows of a tutorial for making these without squishing the side flaps Please tell.
Hope you like these.