Spellbinders Blog Frenzy Project Follow Up & JustRite Stamps sneak peek!

Get ready for an uber long post chock full of pictures...

Don't let all the steps to the project scare you away...

the project goes by fast...

I just wanted to make sure I took photos of all the details 

so you could successfully make the project too.

First off...I'm going to give you the instructions for making the Eiffel Tower...so let's start!

I made a new one in Pink just to show you another version of this fun and simple project.

I'll walk you through the steps of how I use my new French Frills die set from Spellbinders 

to make a three dimensional Eiffel Tower.

First I placed my Eiffel tower die on the base plate blade side up, then layered a piece of wax paper over my die (for easy release) then paced a piece of hot pink paper on top of that.

(In this picture...I'm showing the sandwich in reverse order...only so that you can see how the layers go together...here is the cutting plate, my die blade down, the pink paper, the wax paper and the die, over which I will place the base plate. I alway keep my baseplate on the bottom to help remind me that I only need to replace the top plates with something different between cutting and embossing passes.)

To learn more about using wax paper with detailed dies...

here are a few fabulous video clips from Spellbinders:

 Botanical Swirls Projects

 Majestic Elements Projects

Next I run this through my Grand Calibur® to cut my first Eiffel Tower. 

Then I replace the cutting plate with my rubber mat, and my pink embossing plate and run it through my Grand Calibur® again to create the emboss. (see how easy it was to just leave the Eiffel tower die in place on the base plate and only switch out the cutting plate for the rubber matt and pink embossing plate--that's why you start with the base plate.)

Now that I've embossed it...

I want to show you the pretty details that you get in the emboss pass with this die...

Next step is to cut and emboss 3 more Eiffel towers. 

Now gather them all up.

We will work with them in sets of two.

Take the first one and lay it down so that the embossed details are on the backside. Then take a high quality paper glue such as Tombow Mono Multi, and apply a very thin bead of glue just along the edge. This glue is latex based--it dries fast, and will not wrinkle the paper. Don't use "school glue" (water based glue like Elmers.) For this project, it just won't dry quick enough and will warp your paper--this will just frustrate you. If you don't have a latex based glue like Tombow Mono adhesive, you can try some of the stronger tape runners out there...or that double sided tape that has the removable red film on both sides--you'll have to cut that in very thin strips.

Important! If you happen to get too much glue in any area...make sure to clean it up so that the glue is only on the edge. I used a wooden skewer to clean up this blob.

Now lay your second Eiffel Tower exactly on top of the one with the glue. Make sure that the one that you lay on top has the embossing detail on the front (so they are back to back). Work the edge together with your fingers.  Make sure edges line up perfectly together.

Do this same step with the other two Eiffel towers so that you have two sets each with one glued edge.

Now we are going to open each of these and make a crease on the corner where they meet.

You will fold along the glued edge on both tower pieces.

This will form a ridge where the glue holds the tower together.

Keep on opening it up all the way to the top.

Crease and make an edge on both sets of towers.

Now take one set and put a thin bead of glue along the edge. 

 Now join the two tower sets together along that bead of glue.

Now all sides are joined except for one. Lets get that side secured too.

Very carefully hold open the two unattached edge. Put a thin bead of glue on one edge and squeeze the two edges together--making sure that they line up perfectly.

Okay...now everything is all glued up...but it doesn't look quite right yet. We need to give it some shape so it doesn't look so distorted.

 Work with the newly glued edges to crease them as you did with the other glued edges.

 One tip to get a good crease...fold the edge one direction...

 Then fold it the other...

Then bring the edges up. Make sure all four corners look like this.

 Next I get a skewer (a pencil will work too) and I make sure to push out the sides as it narrows toward the top--making sure they aren't all bunched up together there.

 A skewer will poke all the way through to the narrowest point in the tower to help you give it great shape.

Now make sure that the bottom is square...and then you will know if it will sit right.

The final project should look like this:

Now I'll quickly show you how to do a letterpress technique 

with your Spellbinders dies and Grand Calibur.

Do you remember this card from yesterday...I used a letterpress technique in a very subtle way to enhance the emboss details. Please note, you can use dark ink with this technique to get a very dramatic effect...that just wasn't what I was going for here, because I wanted to also show off my stamp detail.

Alright...ready for quick and easy???

First cut your image as you normally would...

and take your cut paper piece out of the die and set it aside.

Now for the magic step...

Simply ink your die with stamping ink...either with an applicator like I did above...or directly with the ink pad to your die. Then carefully fit your cut paper piece back into the die.

Lay it back down on your base plate, put the rubber mat and pink embossing plate on top and then run it through your Grand Calibur®

Remove the cut paper from the die...notice how the ink gets pressed onto the paper. The 

Super Simple!

Cool...huh! 

Now imagine the possibilities.

I used this technique on my card...but I stamped my cut pieces BEFORE I "letterpress embossed." 

This technique gave my card an entirely new dimension. These are clear stamps which make them super easy to line up with your die cuts. You can see the full set below.

Now that you've seen my two new die sets from Spellbinders...

I wanted to show you the new coordinating stamps I created for JustRite Stamps  

I'm thrilled to be designing for JustRite--they are an industry leader in coordinating stamps 

with Spellbinders dies. I'm especially excited about my first two sets which will work perfectly with my French Frills and Botanical Swirls die sets.

You will find these two releases at CHA Summer.

Here's the Botanical Swirls set in action with the dies...so many mix and match possibilities.