Hi Spellbinders Friends!  Just like the kids write a “What I Did on My Summer Vacation” essay, I want to share with you what’s going on at Spellbinders Paper Arts this season.

Following a successful show at the Craft and Hobby Association Trade Show in Orlando in July, our new Die Templates and Impressabilities have been shipped to retailers and are available now.  But don’t wait, several of our products are limited edition!  They will only be shipping through November 30, 2009.  Don’t miss the chance to get them!  The limited edition products are:

• S4-220 Nested Pine Tree
• S4-228 Nested Maple Leaf
• S4-227 Pumpkins Nestabilitiesâ„¢
• S4-226 Harvest Borderabilities® Petite
• S7-017 On the Vine Borderabilities® Grand
• S4-222 Create A Flake 1
• S4-223 Create A Flake 2
• S4-219 Nested Poinsettia
• S4-225 Holiday Cheer
• S7-016 Poinsettia Borderabilities® Grand
• S7-015 Holiday Lights Borderabilities® Grand
• S4-221 Poinsettia and Stars Borderabilities® Petite
• S4-224 Snowflake Borderabilities® Petite
•  S5-017 Snowflake Frameabilities®
• S5-018 Poinsettia Frameabilities®

Education Director Kim Hupke and Design Team Member Heidi Blankenship were thrilled to meet throngs of ladies and a few gentlemen at Scrapfest 2009 last week!  They had a wonderful time introducing many new customers to Spellbinders™ products through demonstrations and some super cool make and take projects. Thank you for stopping by to say hi, to snag a tote bag, and to participate in the make and takes!

A huge thank you to my wonderful Spellbindersâ„¢ staff!  We welcomed our Marketing Team, including Education Director Kim Hupke, Design Team Coordinator Cathy Chlebana, Beth Pingry, and Eli Harlan to join Tobi Hall, Terre Fry and me in Phoenix this week for planning meetings.  We are well on our way to 2010, which will be bringing more of the new and innovative products you’ve come to expect from Spellbindersâ„¢ Paper Arts, as well as the fun and creative ways we reveal them to you.  We have some super exciting things in store and I’m sure you will love them, but that’s all I can say right now…

I especially want to send out a big THANK YOU for supporting us on the Great Crafters Tool Hunt on When Creativity Knocks!  We love our Impressabilities™ Templates and we love that you love them too!  Have you enjoyed the month of Impressabilities™ ideas, art and techniques on the blog? 

And we wanted to follow up with, Margarita, the Grand Prize Winner from the Pendant Project Contest. She received her prizes from not only Spellbindersâ„¢, but from our generous Coordinating Partners: My Mind’s Eye, JustRite, Core’dinations, SCRAPBOOK ADHESIVES by 3L, and Clearsnap!  Enjoy those fabulous prizes Margarita, and be sure to show us what you create!

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As you can see, things are always on the move at Spellbinders™!  Thank you again for all of your support!

Love,
Stacey

Impressabilitiesâ„¢ Rules! We Won!  If I can quote Stacey Caron, “Yeahhhhh!!!!! Yippee!!!!! Yahoo!!!!!!” We owe our faithful readers a huge thank you for supporting us and for loving our Impressabilitiesâ„¢ templates!  Don’t forget to check in over at When Creativity Knocks, a lucky entrant will win a prize package of one of all the nominated tools featured in the contest!  

Spellbindersâ„¢ wins a full-length episode featuring the Spellbindersâ„¢ Impressabilitiesâ„¢ and will be featured on the When Creativity Knocks website as the When Creativity Knocks Best Tool and receive a trophy! We’ll let you know when that episode is ready to view, and show off our trophy too!

So thank you again, from the bottom of our hearts! We really appreciate your support!

Back to school is the perfect time of year to send a note thanking teachers for how they impact the world. Your son or daughter’s teachers will know how you support them and that all their hard work is appreciated when this card comes their way.

Today, I want to share a quick and easy technique using Spellbindersâ„¢’ Impressabilitiesâ„¢…this time let’s emboss craft foil and then sand it for more impact. You can see the effect in the card below.
If you are not familiar with craft foil, it is basically a light weight metal sheet that can be used in all kinds of crafting projects.The Wizardâ„¢ especially loves to cut and emboss these shiny sheets. Spellbinders’ offers several colors in rolls, 12″x36″ and a 12-piece assortment pack with 5″x5″ sheets.

Because of its strength and pliability, craft foil, aka tooling foil, takes embossing perfectly and holds its shape beautifully. So let’s get started making this card to honor a teacher in your life.

Besides your Wizardâ„¢ and mats, gather the following supplies: I2-1002 Impressabilitiesâ„¢ Butterfly, Premium Craft Foil, Spellbinders S5-014 Small Deckled Mega Rectangles, Whimsical patterned paper by Fancy Pants, Gold cardstock by Core’dinations, Glue Dots adhesives, Checked ribbon by Creative Impressions, 25 pt Brayton font by JustRite Stampers, Sandpaper and Corner rounder punch

Begin by cutting three pieces of craft foil to 1-1/4″ by 4″. I used two colors but three coordinating ones could also be fun.

Build your sandwich for embossing:

• White master mat
• Impressabilities template
• Craft foil pieces, side by side
• Embossing pad
• White master mat

Lay the three craft foil sheets carefully on the template with the silver facing up.

Feed the sandwich through the Wizardâ„¢ to emboss. Check the photo below to see how crisp the embossing is. Take patience when removing the foil as it tends to grab the metal pieces of the template.

Flip the strips over to the colored side. Add a little wow by sanding each strip to remove the color and really show off the details in the silver. I like to vary the direction that I sand to get an overall effect but you can sand in one direction to get another cool look.

Stamp the beginning of your sentiment with JustRite stamps. I used the quote, “A Teacher affects eternity…she never knows where her influence stops” with the second half of the quote on the inside of the card.

Cut/emboss the stamped portion of the sentiment with S5-014 Small Deckled Mega Rectangles (#2).

Construct the card:
Cut the Fancy Pants paper to 6″x9″ and fold in half. Round the corners. Cut a cardstock square to 4-1/2″x4-1/2″. Add the three metal strips and then the small bow. Attach the card front sentiment with dimensional. Write out the rest of the sentiment and add it to the inside.

Now: sign it, put it in an envelope, address it, drop it in the mail and make a teacher very happy.

Don’t forget to go over to “When Creativity Knocks!” - and vote for Impressabilities in the Great Crafter’s Tool Hunt…you could win something cool and we would win ultimate fame and glory (maybe even a trophy? who knows). Follow this link for more info: HERE

Eli, who is really glad to be back with the team after taking the summer off for some family time.

This is an adventure sponsored by When Creativity Knocks! It’s a chance for you to participate with us by voting for the Spellbinders Impressabilities as your favorite craft tool!  Voting begins August 28 at midnight (PST) and ends on September 8, 2009 at midnight (PST).

Just register and log in at the When Creativity Knocks homepage, go to the Creativity Forum. Select Categories, and then scroll down to the Great Crafter’s Tool Hunt section, select Spellbinders Impressabilities, and leave a brief message in the forum. You can even watch a short video of the Impressabilities in action!

Why should you vote? Everyone who votes will be put into a drawing to win the big prize package including one of each nominated tool!  We know you love prizes!

What does Spellbinders get? When the Impressabilities win the most votes (thanks to you all!), Spellbinders will win a full-length episode featuring the Spellbinders Impressabilities and be featured on the When Creativity Knocks website as the When Creativity Knocks Best Tool and receive a trophy! Wahoo! We love trophies!

So go ahead and join us in voting for the Spellbinders Impressabilities, and we can both win!

Hey everybody. One of the big buzzes right now is the economy. As crafter’s we often have a propensity to buy, buy, buy, but let’s look at a way to use up some pieces from your stash.

After seeing Beth’s post on Saturday about squares, I wanted to do another card inspired by that. I wanted to create as much depth, elegance and beauty that I could using very little paper. Conserving my stash and my cash.

So, in my version, I used two types of paper: Core’dinations blue cardstock and Chatterbox’s artsy.licious Fine Paper in Alabaster. The extra oomph in this card comes from embossing with Spellbindersâ„¢ Impressabilitiesâ„¢ Template. It essentially turned one paper into two. Here are the supplies (plus my Wizardâ„¢ and some adhesive):

Instructions:

• Cut/emboss four S4-129 Classic Scalloped Squares, Small from cream paper.
• Cut four straight edge S4-126 Classic Squares, Large and adhere them to the center of the scalloped squares.
• Cut largest die S4-129 scalloped square. Spray with a fine mist of water or other embossing agent such as Paper Glide. Emboss with Butterfly Impressabilitiesâ„¢ (or if you prefer, try Snowflakes, Flowers or Paisley).
• Sand the debossed side of the scalloped square to reveal the light color of the core. (See, now it looks like a totally different paper!!)
• Using cream paper again, cut another square scallop, one size larger than the original squares. Trim it to make 2 small squares and one larger rectangle.
• Stamp sentiment onto scalloped rectangle. I sanded the paper first to knock down some of the shine and it stamped better.
• Put it all together with your fave adhesive.

Now, imagine a couple of words that could go inside the squares, spelled out, such as G-R-A-D, L-0-V-E or B-A-B-Y…now I know the gears are turning.

And I hope they keep turning. Grab some squares and create to your heart’s content…

Eli

OK, It’s my turn to share some fun projects with Impressabilitiesâ„¢, give you a few hints and show you a sweet spring layout…

First, I want to share some definitions a couple of terms that we are using with Impressabilitiesâ„¢. I know Beth showed you some amazing stuff but I think it bears repeating, I mean this is pretty fresh and hot.

1. Emboss: to raise or represent (surface designs) in relief. (dictionary.com)

2. Deboss: to indent (a figure or design) into a surface

3. Letterpress: the process of printing from letters or type in relief, rather than from intaglio plates or planographically.

4. Stencil: a device for applying a pattern, design, words, etc., to a surface

So, you can do all these things with Impressabilities, wanna see? Below you’ll see several images, all created with the Butterfly Impressabilitiesâ„¢ and Core’dinations Cardstock….

As a small note, the top two hearts are actually a darker blue that were run through with the Impressabilities template and sanded. The bottom two images are lighter cardstock with a dark ink.

Below is the layout that I created using sanded embossing, sanded debossing and letterpress…Thanks for letting me share. Order you Impressabilitiesâ„¢ today and start playing with them soon…

Here is a close up of the letters before and after:

Supplies: Wizardâ„¢ Embossing and Die Cutting System, Flowers Impressabilitiesâ„¢, Curved Rectangles die template, Kelly Font (Retired), Prism and Core’dinations Cardstocks, Glue Dots, etc.

So have fun with these very versatile templates!!! Eli

Funny that I should call this part 2, because I’m going to show that you can take apart the Spellbindersâ„¢ Impressabilitiesâ„¢ Templates and use Parts where ever your little heart desires.

The Spellbinders™ Impressabilities™ Templates are made of metal, but thin enough that your craft scissors can cut through the small sections.  No need to for heavy equipment on this technique.

Design Team Member Holly Craft cut this Impressabilities™ Snowflake Template so that she could emboss the outside of a card front.  she also inked the template, so that the debossed portion was colored after she passed the embossing sandwich through the Wizard.  You can see she kept the small snowflakes, cut them apart, and can use them to emboss anywhere on the project.  She could also color those with Copic Markers and use the individual pieces as an actual metal element on a project.

In this example, Holly cut up the Impressabilitiesâ„¢ Paisley Template to ink and emboss a corner of her project.  Wouldn’t that look beautiful on an envelope?  How about a journaling block?

Below is an example of the Impressabilitiesâ„¢ Snowflake Template.  This time Lead Design Team Member Cathy Chlebana cut the template so the snowflakes were all in a line, then embossed it into a strip of Core’dinations Cardstock and sanded it.

You can cut the Spellbindersâ„¢ Impressabilitiesâ„¢ Templates into any size you like, and emboss them in any position.

Here’s one more example, this quick example of using the Impressabilitiesâ„¢ Butterfly Template.  The cardstock is a glossy black from Worldwin, and the Impressabilitiesâ„¢ Butterfly Template was embossed and the card was sanded.

So the question remains, if you cut up your Impressabilities™ Templates, can you still use them as a whole?  YES!  With a thin magnet you can place your pieces back together and emboss as a whole.  Or, you could buy 2 templates, keep one full size and have fun with various sized pieces of the other.  The price is affordable enough to be able to have a whole lot of fun and impress your friends at the same time.

Beth

Spellbindersâ„¢ Impressabilitiesâ„¢ is a new embossing tool to use with the Spellbindersâ„¢ Wizardâ„¢.   Spellbindersâ„¢ Impressabilitiesâ„¢ templates are made for embossing, debossing, embellishing and more. The templates measure 4.5 x 5.75″, and are made of thin metal. Spellbindersâ„¢ Impressabilitiesâ„¢ emboss in the Wizardâ„¢ using the same sandwich you would use to emboss Spellbindersâ„¢ Die Templates, which is:

White Master Mat
Impressabilities Template
Paper or other material to emboss
Tan Embossing Mat
White Master Mat

Design Team Member Holly Craft had a chance to play with the Impressabilities™ and is sharing her artwork  today. Shown above is the poster she made for the CHA Innovations display. Lets delve deeper into the artwork.

On this card, the dark blue background is embossed with Spellbindersâ„¢ I2-1002 Impressabilitiesâ„¢ Butterfly onto velvet paper. The focal point square is embossed and letter pressed, then Holly added butterflies that she cut from the unused portion of the paper. To achieve the inked look, first apply ink to the Impressabilities template. Then build your sandwich as listed above, with the inked template facing the paper. This will apply ink to the debossed areas of the paper. Then, while the ink is still wet on the template, put another piece of paper in the sandwich and run it through the Wizardâ„¢ again. You will get the same embossing result, but a lighter, second generation inking. Use this for matting.

On this card Holly embossed the Spellbindersâ„¢ Impressabilities Paisley template into craft foil, and sanded the embossed areas of the foil. Then when Holly cut/embossed the Classic Heart die template, the original embossing flattens out, but still leaves the beautiful pattern.

This card employs two techniques with ink and Impressabilities Snowflake.  The background of the card is letter pressed, as explained above.  The square mounted on the scalloped die cut is embossed.  Then when Holly took the sandwich out of the Wizard she flipped it over, took off the White Master Mat and applied ink to the paper thru the Impressabilities template, just like you would with a stencil.  So yes, you could ink the template from either side for 2 different effects!

On this card, Holly first embossed the Flower Impressabilities template onto Core’dinations cardstock, then sanded it to reveal the colored core.  Then she airbrushed Copic markers onto a piece of Premium Craft Foil, cut/embossed it, and then sanded off the embossed areas of the metal die cuts.

This last card requires an extra tan embossing mat.  Holly used a circle cutter to cut this mat.

Instead of using the entire embossing mat, Holly only used the cut-out circle on the part she wanted embossed.  Holly calls this selective embossing.  She placed the Spellbinders’ Impressabilities template on the White Master Mat, placed her paper on top of it, then the circle, then the White Master Mat and fed the sandwich into the Wizard.  Just the section covered by the the tan circle embossed!  Additional tan embossing mats are available for purchase if you want to experiment with this technique.

Thank you Holly for starring in today’s Savvy Saturday!

Spellbinders’ Impressabilities will be shipping to your favorite Spellbinders’ retailer the first week of March.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Beth

Hi Friends, we’re having a great time, we wish you were here! The weather in California is mild, or so they’re telling me. We’ve been inside the convention center and we haven’t been able to enjoy the sun. That’s OK, we’ve been in the company of lots of old long customers and new friends from near and far. Yesterday we had an early morning class. Yawn. Oh sorry, I need more coffee!

We are not forgetting about you. We see your questions about the new Spellbinders’ Impressabilities. I have lots of photos and examples and I’ll write up a few entries on them, the show, the new carrying case and the fun we’ve been having here.

Here is a shot of the new markings on the Spellbindersâ„¢ Wizardâ„¢. The writing is facing the other way, there is an arrow showing the direction the mats should travel, and the color has been tweaked just so. Also shown is the Impressabilitiesâ„¢ in the package, and the make and take project we’ve been making.

Here we are at the group dinner, its me, Eli, Kim and Stacey at Buco De Beppo, YUM!

So hang in there! We appreciate your interest and Eli and I will be back home and writing all the details soon!

Beth

Hello crafting friends…Stacey here.

If you are here, most likely you played along with our Blog Frenzy that showcased 16 new die template sets, and you probably saw my  announcement that I’d be back today to share with you Spellbinder’s incredible innovation: Impressabilities.

This product is not your average texture-making folder that is readily available today. In fact, it’s not even a folder. We’re offering a new take on embossing with our versatile, customizable new templates called Impressabilities. This product will emboss, deboss, stencil or letterpress, all in one. Or you can snip apart the individual elements on the template and use them as an embellishment. So what does this mean to you? Let’s take a look…

1. Emboss or Deboss–Front of an A2 card or smaller
2. Emboss or Deboss–Precut die cuts, shapes or letters
3. Apply ink and Deboss–resulting in stunning letterpress effects
4. Customize–snip apart the elements of the template pieces to create one-of-a-kind flourishes, frames and more
5. Embellish–Trim and use the individual elements as embellishments
6. Stencil–Use the template as a stencil or mask to create beautiful patterns.

The flexibility and versatility make this a fabulous product to own.

I love having two of each around so I can letterpress 20 invitations with my full template and then cut the other one apart to use as embellishments for the cards. Like I said,  “Flexible and Versatile.” And you know whenever you can get those two great words in one sentence together, you’re sure to have VALUE. With the MSRP of $6.99, it definitely is a value.

I know the ideas are probably just swimming around in your creative brain…and we sure hope so. We can’t wait for these to start shippijng around the first of March. Then, later in the Spring (possibly May) we’ll be offering a contest utilizing this innovative product.

That’s all for today. Go check out the website to see that our new products are coming online this morning. So much potential for the coming season!!!

Hugs, Stacey