Open your mind to apertures!  Technically speaking this would be a hole, an opening, or using the negative part of the die cut.  Its really pretty easy and makes fabulous results, as you’ll see.  Spellbinders’ Die Templates work wonderfully for this technique, their thin profile makes it easy to slide into a card and even emboss the edge around the opening.

So we’ll start with  piece of paper, I’m using a piece of double sided paper.  Fold the paper to make a card.  Place the die template on top of the card, cut side down, line it up to the exact spot you want the opening and tape it down with some low tack tape. (I use regular household tape, touch it to my jeans to make it less sticky.)

Now, with the die template in place, fold the card the opposite way so the inside of the card is on the outside and the die template is in  the middle of the card.  Slide the spacer plate into the card.  Place this between the Master Mats and feed it into the Wizard. Notice that the die is now facing cut side up!

Now you have an opening cut into the card.  Remove the Spacer Plate.  I usually put a piece of scrap cardstock between the die and the back of the card, the scrap piece will emboss slightly instead of the card back.  Leave the card folded as above, but this time place the tan embossing mat on top of the card.  Place in between the Master Mats and feed the sandwich into the Wizard again.

Carefully remove the die template from the card and fold the right way again.  You have an embossed opening!

You could embellish the opening by reverse stenciling, ink the die template before hand.  You can use the die template as a stencil and color through the holes in the die.  You can use the die cut to embellish the inside of the card.  You can use the opening to make a shaker box.

Check out these beautiful examples from our Design Team Members!

Linda Duke used chalk to stencil through the S5-005 Decorative Frames die template, and further embellished with glittered S3-146 Butterflies 2.

Holly Craft used stamps to further embellish her oval aperture.

Donya cut the frame opening and embossed the larger sized S5-006 Mega Curved Rectangle frame as well, to really accent the opening.

Jeni Calkins used the S5-005 Decorative Frames set to highlight this photo for a Fathers Day card.  See how using masculine colors can bring a whole new life to this flourishy and flowery die template?

This was a Make and Take from our CHA Winter 2008 show, isn’t it stunning! We used the S4-137 Classic Scalloped Hearts to cut the front of the card, and layered S4-136 Classic Heart die cuts on the inside.  The patterned paper is from Kaleidoscope Kreator Software.  Here is a tutorial on this Layered Heart Card!

Your cards and projects will take on a new dimension when you open your mind to apertures!

Have a wonderful day!
Beth

Donya, welcome to the Designer Spotlight! How’s the weather out there in Iowa? Let’s get some hot chocolate and spend a little time together.

Tell us about your crafting life.
I’ve been pretty much crafting since birth. I’m not sure if it would qualify as nature or nurture, but everyone in my family is amazingly crafty, for example: my uncle built his own unicycle when he was a kid and my mom restored furniture. They are great role models and teachers.

Did you go to school for art or design?
No, but did always sneak out of pep rallies in high school so I could spend a little extra time in the unattended art room!

What inspires you?
I’m an extremely visual person (surprise) so going to museums is a great way for me to get inspired. The last time I went, I wound up coming home and everything I made that week had gilt frames on it! When I can’t get to an art museum, historical museums are great. I went to Amelia Earhart’s childhood home in Atchison, KS, and got totally inspired by the great, funny family photos in a scrapbook they had laying on a dresser. That and the wallpaper, I took a bunch of pictures of their great floral wallpapers!

What is your favorite die template?
My favorite die template….well I am completely in love with all of the Label dies, but if I had to pick one single favorite it would have to be the 12″ Classic Lace Border. It is so perfect for all my frippery needs.

Favorite Technique?
Reverse Stenciling! Oh, it just makes the nicest borders on the Spellbinders Nestabilities, and is such a neat effect with the shaped dies. Plus, I tend to get a bit inky when I’m doing that technique. You can always tell I’m having a good time if my fingers are inky.

Preferred Product?
Websters Pages is my favoritest of all my favorite preferred product. I am a sucker for their paper. Swoon. But aside from my paper addiction I go through TONS of Kokuyo’s Tape ‘n Roller plus refills, it is the best tape runner (and I’ve tried dozens)!

Do you prefer to make cards, scrapbooks, or altered?
I like to make cards because I can do them in a day and share them. My scrapbook pages are really disjointed chronologically and topically, since I end to just scrapbook whatever photo appeals to me that day, but I love the idea of passing on not only the photo, and the basic information of the event, but also the feeling you had about it (through color and style choices). I’m still really intimidated by altering objects, but I think I love it the best since it makes me stretch my abilities the furthest.

Martial status, offspring, city?
I’m a single chicita living in extremely rural eastern Iowa. My black cat, Jack, and I just love it up here. I live and work at my family’s bed and breakfast while I restore the “house in town”, and old Victorian with a huge yard full of peonies and other wonderful old fashioned flowers left by the original owners of the house.

Do you shop for supplies locally?
I shop for supplies VERY locally I own a scrapbook shop with my Aunt Michelle. It’s very convenient to just be able to to cross the room and pick out whatever I need from stock, but nothing beats the thrill of the hunt I get from trying to hunt down uncommon supplies for customers who can’t find what their looking for anywhere else.

What have you been working on this week?
A diet journal. Sigh. I decided to bite the bullet and start counting calories, but the prospect is a lot more cheering when I get to keep all my information in an art journal.

Besides paper, what other materials have you used?
I love paint and soft gel medium. Oh, that stuff is fun! I’m pretty sure if you could eat it with a spoon without having to call poison control, I’d try. You have to try using it with a palette knife through the Spellbinder die templates. Way cool dimension.

Where do you look for inspiration for starting something new?
I have a huge folder on my desk full of ideas I pulled from galleries online (like the Spellbinders Inspiration Alley). Anytime a technique or new style catches my eye, I print it out for future reference, then when I need a quick jump start on my creative process, I thumb through the file and say- Oh, yeah, I wanted to try that!

What has been the most difficult aspect for you to learn?
I have trouble keeping projects simple.  I always work myself into a lather trying to do one more thing with a project, when really, my best stuff are things I got frustrated with, went for a walk, came back and decided that that one thing more would have been one thing too much.

What do find most pleasing about crafting?
Sharing it!

What else do you like to do aside from scrapbooking?
I am a baker. Cupcakes, layer cakes, biscuits, bread. Hmmm, and I wonder why I need a diet journal, lol.

What are two craft tools that you could not live without?
Paper piercer. Useful for poking holes in paper for brads, and making beautiful designs.  I’d probably hyperventilate if anything serious ever happened to my tape runner. Glue sticks just don’t cut it for 99% of projects.

Thoughts regarding a favorite piece?
The longest and hardest part of any project is getting inspired. Layouts themselves go very quickly once I have an idea. I pick a photo, then pick my paper to show it off. Embellishments set the theme. Usually the last thing to go on is the title for me, which is funny since it’s such a huge design element, but by the time I get the layout done, usually the title comes to me in a flash (and usually a fit of giggles). I’d say on average, I’m a slow scrapper. It will take me a whole day or longer to do a layout, but I don’t just sit there and stare at it either. If my ideas aren’t moving, then I get up and move myself. Go do something else, it’s the best way I know to get unstuck.

I love putting one big picture on a page so you can really get the detail. If I’d had this photo any smaller, you would be able to notice the horse (Dude) is watching the rainbow. I also love the fresh colors on this layout with all the fun, funky fresh green four leaf clovers made from Heart Nestabilities.

This is one of my favorite projects because I kept it simple and it came out fabulous! Plus shaped cards are so fun.

Spellbinders Die Templates do heritage and elegant better than any other dies on the market, I think. Look how great the cameo frame and rose border look on this may basket. The elements make it very pretty, without being overly “cute”. As a bonus I was able to make one of these for each of my neighbors without having to sacrifice my favorite metal bee charm, I was able to replicate with some foil with the Wizard.

To follow Donya’s artistic journey, see her bio and visit her blog, Puckish.

It is hard to believe that over the past 2 weeks, we have been here every day sharing with you the profiles of our amazing designers AND the designers have been sharing a new release, every day. The time has flown and we are really working hard to finish up everything for CHA (You know, doin’ laundry, packing, making last minute projects, checking on the baby sitter…shew, makes me tired just mentioning it.) The Die Reveal on Day 14: Polka Dot Frameabilities® was shared by Donya Schroeder. Cool. So here is that mound of die templates that our winner will be getting…

After sending our contestant totals over to random.org…

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:
205
Timestamp: 2009-01-21 03:42:58 UTC

We counted up to an Australian winner…seriously, we’ve now had winners from Canada, Sweden and Australia…how cool is that? Spellbinders™ Paper Arts is goin’ global!!!

So congratulations to:

Karen of Queensland, Australia

Who said:

{Karen, do you mind if I hand deliver these? (Eli)}

Just to put it into perspective, as of today, Spellbinders™ has promised 14 designers a total of 143 die template sets (remember, each set has 5-8 die templates in it) BAM! We sure did kick it up another notch with this season’s hottest party…

Cheers to all, Eli

Wow, can you believe we’ve been going strong for 14 days and we are not done yet?  Keep your gloves and hat on, its still cold in the Midwest, and we’re going to Iowa to visit Donya Shroeder.

Donya has loved paper arts since she first realized what paper was. “As a kid I collected stickers (remember scratch and sniff?) and still do. Now I try to actually use them instead of just owning them,” she says. In kindergarten, she wanted to learn how to write in cursive because it looked so cool (She is still fond of the cursive e). In high school, she started a stationery and card company, designing event invitations and gift certificates for her family’s bed and breakfast and the local arts council.  Currently she is purveyor and instructor for her paper and glue habit, a.k.a. co-owner of a paper arts store. She loves getting to play all day in the paper, paint, and glue, demonstrating to customers, and getting them as excited about the new tools as she is. She says, “I have a really broad range of tastes and that shows up in my work, from clean and simple to wouldn’t that look better if I drove my car over it distressed. I’ve had a fantastic time with the Wizard dies. They are some of the coolest and most versatile dies on the market.”

Well Donya, I wouldn’t drive my car over these, they look great just the way they are!

So drive, walk, or bike…or in today’s case hop on a snowmobile and head over to Donya’s blog, Puckish.  And you better bring a trailor, that prize package is getting pretty big!  Be sure to enter the contest when you get there!

Spellbinders introduced Borderabilites Grand Borders this past summer. The Grand Borders are wonderful fun for scrapbookers and everyone else too! Grand Borders measure true 12″ long. They come in designs that coordinate with the Rose, Daisy and Wisteria Edgeabilities Die Template styles, and one with the Symbology Die Template. You may have seen this tutorial I did for the summer reveal, but it deserves another run now that you have the borders in your stash, along with some fresh artwork at the end.
I am using Spellbinders Premium Craft Foil, which is 12 inches wide  It doesn’t matter which color I use, because I want the silver side. It comes in 5 colors plus pure copper, each color has silver on the back, except the pure copper. I used a tag from the Ribbon Tags Trio and the Daisy Patch Edgability Die Template. The paper is Worldwin’s ColorMates in Deep Awesome Aqua, Deep Totally Tan, Light Heritage White, and Inkjet Printable Translucent Vellum, and black acrylic paint. Note that this technique works on foil as well as paper. Die cutting and embossing a 12 inch long die template on standard mats is easy. Use the standard Spellbinders Die Template sandwich, when stacked from your table up: white master mat, white spacer plate, die, cut side up, material to be cut, white master mat. A little tip, if you are concerned your material will move off the die, you can use a small piece of removable tape. It won’t harm the die, and it peels off the paper easily without damaging the die cut.

Feed this into your Wizard. With a 12 inch long die, part of the die will stick out the back end, and that is fine. Only the part of the die that sits on the Spacer Plate will cut, but it won’t leave a line or crease where the spacer plate ends.

After the first pass, lift the top mat, turn the border die 180 degrees so the uncut portion is on the spacer plate, replace the top mat and feed it in exactly the same way as before. You can remove the excess cut foil from the outside of the die.

Embossing is done the same way. Leave the die cut in the die. Remove the spacer plate from the sandwich so the die sits on the bottom mat, place the tan embossing mat on top of the die, and cover with the top white mat. Feed the embossing sandwich through the Wizard. To emboss the other half, turn the die 180 degrees, cover with the Tan mat and white mat and feed sandwich again.

For my layout, I painted the entire die cut with black acrylic craft paint. Paint it evenly, and be sure to get paint into all the nooks and crannies. Let it dry slightly. With a dry paper towel, wipe the paint off the embossed areas. Be gentle, but you don’t have to be perfect. Do not wipe the paint out of the crevices. You can always add more a little more paint if you took too much off and you can always take a little more off if you put too much on.

I assembled my layout with photos and a poem.

Daisy Layout by Beth Pingry

Cathy Chlebana used the same Daisy Borderability Grand on this layout of her mother.

Layout by Cathy Chlebana

This decorative box is from Donya Schroeder, isn’t it clever how she used the Rose Borderability Grand?

Altered Box by Donya Schroeder

This heart shaped ornament from Heidi Blankenship is another example of Rose Borderability Grand.  She wrapped it around the heart shape.

Decorative Heart by Heidi Blankenship

Wendy Weixler layered the Wisteria Borderability Grand for an elegant accent on this layout.

Wedding layout by Wendy Weixler

Sally Lynn MacDonald linked together the Illumination Borderability Grand to frame her layout.

Layout by Sally Lynn McDonald

Thanks for spending some of your Saturday with me!  I hope you love the Grand Borders as much as I do!

Beth

PS.  I just got word, and its just for you!  Its an announcement.  Oh no, not just any old announcement.  This is a big one!  I bet you’ve been waiting for it too!  Come back on Monday December 15 for the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT.  Want some candy?  We’ve got Blog Candy coming, and a new feature too!  Its going to be so much fun, I can’t wait to tell you about it!