Hello everyone, this is Astrid here from the UK with my project for January.
Well, I am pretty sure that in the last couple of weeks or so, you have seen and been excited by all the wonderful new products Spellbinders has released at the CHA show. From the new Imperial Gold collection, that adds a whole new dimension to die cutting, to the totally exciting Media Mixàge line, with many other exciting products in between. There is sure to be something for everyone and I'll bet your wish list has grown to at least twice the size! But of course not everyone can afford to buy all of these new products all at once, so I thought I would show you how just one of the new products can add that extra pop to some of the dies you may have in your collection already. Because, like always, all of the Spellbinders products, both new and old work together.
These are the products I used:
Spellbinders™ Paper Arts Supplies:
GC-001 Spellbinders Grand Calibur® Machine
SKU: LF-002 Creative Bookpages Two
SKU: S5-086 Bitty Blossoms
SKU: S4-356 Floral Ovals
SKU: S4-116 Standard Circles Small
SKU: S4-318 Fleur de Lis Squares
SKU: EL-015 Bricks and Bark M-Bossabilities
SKU: MB1-006 Shields One (Bezels)
SKU: MD1-006 Shields One (dies)
Cross Promotional Partners:
My Mind's Eye™ Lost and Found Collection Union Square
Graphics 45 Place in Time 12 x 12 collection
Other:
Distress Ink Vintage Photo, Ink blending tool, Kraft card, thin chipboard, glue, scissors, metal twine, circle punch, decorative brad, white copier paper, Zutter bind-it-all machine, pearl pen, sentiment stamp and some bling from my stash, Glossy Accents.
Now I realize that I have listed a lot of different dies here, and of course you may not have all of these, but like I said, the great thing about Spellbinder dies is, they all work together, so I hope that with this project I will give you some ideas on how you can play with your dies, in layering them together, and remember, you don’t need to always use a whole die either, you can cut them apart and layer them in different ways.
I decided to make a little blank album, using the wonderful Donna Salazar’s Creative Book pages Two set for my covers.
I cut the largest die in the set 4 times with my chosen papers and twice with thin chipboard. (I used an old cereal pack for this). I sandwiched the chipboard between the papers for strength and then glued them together.
In the case of the top paper for the front cover, I also embossed it to bring out the detail and then inked over the raised bits.
Next I cut the second largest of the dies in this set, once normally and then I drew around the outside of the die and cut it by hand. This was to give me two further layers to add to my cover. I sewed them together with my sewing machine and glued them onto my front cover. (I forgot to take a photo of this stage…)
Now for the fun of cutting, embossing and layering my other chosen dies: I cut the number 3 (second largest) of the Fleur the Lis dies out of craft card, embossed it with the bark side of the Bricks and Bark embossing folder and then cut it in half, to layer between the two largest of the Floral ovals.
I then made some roses using the Bitty Blossoms die.
Next I stamped and cut my sentiment and finally layered it all with some twine, a decorative brat and some pearls as shown in the photo below.
I added some bling and little pearls with a pearl pen for further decoration. Here you can see some details:
I cut some white copier paper, just slightly smaller than the covers for the inside of my album and then bound it all together with my Zutter machine.
The final step was to add a charm made with one of the new bezels. I chose the Shields One one, to echo the shape of the Fleur de Lis Squares. Because the bezel is quite deep, I cut my chosen little image as well as two bits of chip board with the matching die to fill the bezel and raise the image up a bit.
I then filled it with Glossy Accents, let it set overnight and finally added it to my cover with a little jump ring. You could choose any sort of resin, sealer, or simply leave it plain.
Well, I hope you enjoyed my project and will get involved in “Exploring Beyond” with all the wonderful new products that soon will be available in your local craft shops!
Until next month!
