Spellbinders projects

Today I am working with my new Butterfly Corner and Ornate Square dies!

But first...

Shhhhh....I'm going to let you in on a dirty little secret...I take shortcuts! 

I do it all the time, because I am human...

and as such, I often get caught up in life. It creates the need to find ways to modify how I do things, so that I can fit in all the things that I want and need to do in a day. 

So here's one of my favorite quick crafty-tips that can save you a bundle of time when you are in need of a quick card, or crafty gift. 

On days when I do have a good slot of time to get my crafty on...I work double time with my Spellbinders Grand Calibur...

As I'm working on my project, I get out my paper scraps too--you know...the ones too small that you think you ought to throw them away...

but no...don't do that...

Instead, while you have all your crafty stuff out, run those scraps through your Grand Calibur with some of your favorite Spellbinders dies and then save them in a special place for a day when you don't have much time. 

I like to file my "pre-cuts" in a file labeled with the die set they were created with. That way I can find them on the fly when I really need to craft fast. This works great for Birthday cards, tags for gifts, or even holiday crafts that need a special shape. 

I have learned to craft this way, especially right now, as my craftroom is in serious limbo. We have been working to finish our basement for over a year. (My husband has been doing a fabulous job, but it is definitely a process.) I have a lot of my crafty stuff packed in boxes, or stashed here and there as it awaits a permanent home. So I find myself using my dining room table as my craft zone, which is not ideal, when you have to gather everything up, and then put it all away before dinner. 

This week has been crazy. Parent teacher conferences, school projects, swim team stuff, gymnastics, music lessons, deadlines, and more deadlines...it's all good stuff...but my week went by so quickly, that it left little time for crafting. 

This was the perfect week to get out my pre-cuts, and make some quick cards. It took me about 20 minutes to complete all three cards...and then I was off to my last parent teacher conference of the week. 

I went through my files and quickly found some colors I wanted to work with that had been cut with my newest dies from Spellbinders. 

Even though I did not have much time to craft this time...I wanted to make sure each project had something special, or a little twist in the design. I'll walk you through what I did in each project below:

For this first card, I took the tag die from my Ornate Square set and did what I call a "double take." That's where I use a die that is shaped one way, and make it appear another way by criss-cross stacking it with a duplicate cut. It's a great way to change up your die sets to get lots of looks from one set. So the original tag die is rectangular...by stacking it, I made it appear as a square. Then to add a little finishing touch to my card, I took some fabric and ran it through the center of the tag, like ribbon. I added a few knots for interest. In this case, I had also "pre-stamped" this with my coordinating stamps from JustRite, when I did my cutting session on a prior day. I just filed it away stamped and ready to go for a quick card. 

-Spellbinders, Samantha Walker, Ornate Squares Die

-Just Rite Clear Stamps Samantha Walker Botanical Swirls
-Carta Bella cardstock Traditions by Samantha Walker
-Riley Blake Fabric Serenata by Samantha Walker

Here's another pair of cards that I created on the fly...

Once again these were created with pre-stamped pre-cuts, that I created one day, and filed away for a day when time was short. 

I have two twists on this card...I first split my butterfly into two separate wings...to embellish the sides of my "happy" tag. Don't you feel like you have wings when you are happy? I thought it was a fun way to say "happy." The next twist on my dies, is that I took the smallest square from my Ornate Squares set, and just snipped off the ornate corners to use as a layered lace edge at the bottom of my tag. It was something simple, that really made for a nice way to "ground" my tag design...after all I had just given it wings...I didn't want it to fly away just yet. ;) 

-Spellbinders, Samantha Walker, Ornate Squares Die
-Spellbinders, Samantha Walker Butterfly Corner Die

-Just Rite Clear Stamps Samantha Walker Botanical Swirls
-Carta Bella cardstock Paris Girl by Samantha Walker

I did another "double take" on this card. I used my largest ornate square die, and criss-cross stacked it to make it go from a square shape to a lacey snowflake shape. I also double stacked two of my butterflies from my butterfly corner set to give it a little lift. 

-Spellbinders, Samantha Walker, Ornate Squares Die
-Spellbinders, Samantha Walker Butterfly Corner Die

-Just Rite Clear Stamps Samantha Walker Botanical Swirls
-Carta Bella cardstock Paris Girl by Samantha Walker

Since I made such quick projects for this blog frenzy, I wanted to make sure that I left you completely satisfied with some "knock your socks off" inspiration...so I asked my uber talented creative team to help show off my new dies with their interpretation.  

You'll LOVE what they did!

Project by Jamie Cripps:

Supplies:

Die Cuts: Butterfly Corner and Ornate Square by Samantha Walker (Spellbinders)

Patterned Papers: Traditions by Samantha Walker (Carta Bella)

Stamps: For All You Do Vintage Labels Three by Samantha Walker (JustRite Stamps)

Tools: Grand Calibur (Spellbinders)

Cardstock: Cream (Recollections and Bazzil)

Ribbon: Cream Crinkly (May Arts)

Twine: Buttercream (The Twinery)

Pearls: Cream (The Paper Studio)

Wood Chips: Hearts (Freckled Fawn)

 Projects below all by Aimee Maddern:

Supplies:

-Spellbinders, Samantha Walker Butterfly Corner Die

-LCI White Wood Grain Cardstock, Bazzill, 

Bo Bunny & American Crafts Cardstock

-Heidi Swapp Color Mist in Sweet Cherry & Primrose

-Dylusions ink spray in Cut Grass

-Mister Huey’s in Hot Dog, Lemonade & Bonny Blue

-Sequins, Misc

-3L adhesive squares, Glossy Accents

Supplies:

-Spellbinders, Samantha Walker, Ornate Squares Die and Butterfly Corner

-Just Rite Clear Samantha Walker For All You Do Vintage Labels Three Stamps

-LCI White Wood Grain Cardstock, Bazzill, Bo Bunny 

& American Crafts Cardstock

-Heidi Swapp Color Mist in Sweet Cherry & Primrose

-Mister Huey’s in Hot Dog,

-Charcoal Twine from the Twinery

-Hat Pin From My Minds Eye

-Sequins, Misc

-3L adhesive squares, Glossy Accents

Supplies:

-Spellbinders, Samantha Walker, Ornate Squares Die

-Just Rite Clear Samantha Walker For All You Do Vintage Labels Three Stamps

-Card Stock, Misc

-Stayton Ink in Timber Brown

-SEI ink in Tobacco

-Cantaloupe Twine from the Twinery

-3L adhesive squares, Glossy Accents

Sneak Peek: Spellbinders™ Summer Spectacular Day 4

I love this time of year! Don’t you? It’s fun to have the kids home from school, we’ve been actively engaging in swim team, having water fights in the backyard, and forgetting that it’s dinner time because the sun doesn’t want to go down. While they run around in the sun, I can enjoy their fun kid noises from my home office as I busily create new things for you to create with. I’ve been especially anxious about sharing my new Spellbinders™ sets with you!

This summer I have two new sets releasing with Spellbinders...a set with a Parisian theme...which is perfect for all your girly projects...and the second set a botanical themed set with a whole new concept in die cut crafts...just wait...you’ll see what I mean in just a minute...
Here is the first project I created:

Spellbinders Supplies:
Grand Calibur® 

S5-146 Botanical Swirls and Accents MSRP $29.99 (used in the first project)

S5-145 French Frills MSRP $29.99 (used in the second project)




















Cross Promotional Partners Supplies:

JustRite stamps Ooh La La French Frills clear stamp set (New CHA Summer 2012!)

JustRite stamps Botanical Swirls Label cling rubber stamp set (New CHA Summer 2012!)
Other Supplies:

colored card stock (pink & brown)

various ink (pink and brown)

make-up applicator powder puff

wax paper

Today I’m going to share the steps to create the card wrap pictured above with the Botanical Swirls and Accents set.

First I cut a 8 ⅛ x 8 ⅛" square out of card stock.

{Die preparation hint: this is a very intricately detailed die...please run the die through your Grand Calibur® machine with wax paper first to make die releasing easier...or you can lay wax paper over your project as you cut your card stock. This is what I did--makes releasing the paper from the die a piece of cake.} Here's a video link that also references the wax paper tip...you'll love the detailed dies that Kim Hupke shares in this fantastic clip.

Next I laid my corner piece from my Botanical Swirls set exactly over one corner of the 8 ⅛" square. Make sure that the edge of the die is exactly on the edge of your paper. Then I taped the die into place.

Then I ran it through the Grand Calibur® machine. Then I removed the die and positioned it into the next corner.

After the second corner was cut, I removed the outer edge of excess paper so that it didn’t get caught in the machine. (You can also see that my wax paper is getting smaller. I remove the cut corner portion of the wax paper each time I release the paper from the die.) I repeated this 1 time on each corner until all 4 corners are cut.

This is the portion wax paper part I remove after each corner is cut.

Then I embossed it with using the base plate, rubber mat and pink plate and ran it through the machine again.

After embossing each corner I quickly stenciled the high points of my embossed areas with a light pink ink, and then repeated the process until I embossed and inked all 4 corners. (Yes, that is a make-up powder puff I used to apply the ink with...you can get them cheap at the drug store and they wash up great.) The inked areas really highlight the embossed areas as shown in the photo below.

Next I folded the corners into the center, making sure to fold only at the dotted line. (You don’t want to fold the delicate design area.)

Then to crease the flaps so that they laid down flat, I ran it through my Grand Calibur one more time with my base plate, the rubber pad, and my pink embossing plate. I made sure the embossing rubber mat was touching my embossed leaves so that it didn’t flatten my project as I run it through to crease the folds.
I placed a black 5 ½" square card insert into my card wrap. You can get creative with your card insert, but I just left mine simple here as I’m only demoing the card wrap portion of this project today.

Then I used the large leafy window die to cut the artisan shape for my card wrap seal. I didn’t use the leafy frame, but rather the insert from the center of the leafy frame. I stamped that with my NEW coordinating stamp set from JustRite stamps called Botanical Swirls Labels.
Then I cut the a smaller artisan square using the smaller square die from the set (which has 4 holes punched in it which makes it perfect for threading ribbon.) Then I stamped this piece with the “Love You” stamp from the Botanical Swirls and Labels set from JustRite.
Then I layered my labels onto one another, and thread black checked ribbon through two of the holes on my smaller label, and secured it around my card wrap.
Here are few other ideas for this set:

I wanted to mention that if you start with an 8 ⅛ X 8 ⅛" square (like we did in the project above,) your result will be four corners that fold into the center without overlapping each other. See how the corner looks in this picture below?  That is what you are looking for when using this die to fold a card wrap.

However...

If you start with a square that is 7 ¾ X 7 ¾", your result will be overlapping edges when the corners are folded in. This can be desirable if you are trying to create an envelope instead of a card wrap. You will want to trim the inside corners that are created as you fold as to not add bulk in the folded corners. Then you can glue the overlaps down to seal them like an envelope and leave one of the flaps unsealed for the envelope opening.
Another idea is to buy or create a square envelop and then use the triangle die from this set to simply cut a lacy design in the envelope opening flap.
This set has so much potential for all kinds of projects. I would love to see what unique ways you find to use this set. I can't wait to see what YOU create!


For even more ideas with the botanical set, you should click HERE. Kim Hupke introduces even more fantastic ways to work with this set.

 Next project...

I made this project (or should I say projects) with my Paris Frills set...Oh My Heavens!!! Let me just say...this set has addiction written all over it! There is so much fun girly stuff all in one set!

Do you want to know how I created that 3D Eiffel tower??? 

Well I’m not going to tell you today...you will have to come back tomorrow.

It’s so easy peasy lemon squeezy...

I only use one die...and a little adhesive.

Really!

And those dress forms in the card above...well I’ll show you how you can use your Grand Calibur® like a letterpress to really show off the emboss detail of these fun dies.

One more thing...If you come back, I’ll also show you my new coordinating stamp set that I used on this card. 

So please come back tomorrow to see a few more tricks and ideas.

Now for the contest info:

The Sneak Peek: Spellbinders™ Summer Spectacular! 

Begins on June 21st and will end on June 28th, 2012. It consists of 24 individual prizes and one grand prize drawing. Enter the Sneak Peek: Spellbinders™ Summer Spectacular! by visiting the participating blogs each day.

At the end of each blog post, click on the "Enter HERE" to open the entry form. You may only enter once from each blog each day.

Spellbinders™ will randomly draw one winner from each participating blog to receive that blog’s newly revealed dies. The Grand Prize Winner will be randomly drawn from the pool of entrants who sent entry forms from each and every participating blog during the 48 hours each blog was open. For the full list of official rules please click RULES.

The contest is now closed!

Don’t forget to enter at today’s other participating blogs!

Debbie Olson

Michelle Woerner

Questions? 

ContestQuestions@Spellbinders.us

No entries will be accepted at this email address.