Linda Duke showed her stunning creations with the S4-206 Renaissance Hearts Pendant and the S4-217 Renaissance Hearts Borderabilities® yesterday. Thank you, Linda, for a beautiful inspiration! Remember you have until June 29th (11:59PM EST) to enter to win.

Welcome To Day 8 of the Spellbinders™ Pendants Blog Frenzy!!

For Day 8, Jennifer Davis will show us what she did with the S4-207 Kaleidoscope Pendant and the S4-216 Kaleidoscope Borderabilities®.

***Remember you need to send an email to enter! Link is in Jennifer’s Blog! Good luck!!***

Due to some technical difficulties, we will be extending the deadline for entering Jennifer’s Blog Frenzy.  Jennifer’s contest will end on Wednesday, July 1, 8:30am EST.

How many years of crafting?
I began crafting in high school when my grandma taught me how to quilt. I didn’t discover paper until my oldest son was born, a little over six years ago. Scrapbooking is my primary focus, but I love using my supplies for cardmaking and home decor as well.

How long have you been blogging?
I’ve had PreservationArts for over five years as an online gallery of my scrapbook pages and cards. I converted it to a blog only about five months ago

Your favorite Spellbinders™ technique?
I enjoy digitally stenciling, stamping or embellishing designs to match Spellbinders™ templates. After creating a digital design, I print it out, then cut and emboss to give it extra some pizazz. I’m a true hybrid girl!

Your favorite Spellbinders™ die?
This is such a difficult question! S4-014 Timeless Heritage and S3-004 Symbology hold special places in my heart because they were among the very first Spellbinders™ templates of their kind and being a part of their initial release was so exciting! Their classic designs have been my go-to items for nearly five years. I’m really loving some of the more recent releases as well, but there are just too many wonderful dies to choose only one!

Favorite food/beverage for crafting?
I don’t eat anything while crafting because I’m klutzy and can make a mess out of almost anything. I do indulge in Diet Coke sometimes, but I do most of my projects at night so I try to keep the caffeine to a minimum. Otherwise it takes me hours to get to sleep!

Here are a few examples of Jennifer’s work:

***Remember you need to send an email to enter! Link is in Jennifer’s Blog! Good luck!!***

Hey all, it’s Eli here with a very special announcement to make. We have a fabulous friend of Spellbinders™ who is joining us for the summer to help educate, entertain and inspire those of you who frequent the Spellbinders blog…YEAH. We needed someone to support Beth’s blogging efforts because I am taking the summer off to do some traveling with my family. So we thought of Margie Higuchi, who has been a fan/user of Spellbinders products almost since the beginning. She is known as MargieH on the boards so some of you probably already know her. I interviewed Margie a couple of weeks ago and this is what she had to say about her life as a crafter and the summer ahead.

ELI: Hi Margie, Welcome to Spellbinders™.

MARGIE: Thanks, Eli. I couldn’t be more thrilled to begin a summer of fun, hanging out with my good friend Beth and all the folks who visit the blog. I love to share my artwork and teach as I go along.

ELI: So how long have you been crafting?
MARGIE: It seems like I have crafted all my life…from when I was old enough to hold a crayon to what I do now which is paper crafting! I started paper crafting in the mid-70s. My father’s job took us all over the east coast, the south and the Midwest. So in order to remember each “hometown,” I would make a few pages of friends, neighborhood, school, etc. and add some memorabilia in my scrapbooks. That was the start of my scrapbooking! LOL!!

ELI: Like several of us around here, you’ve been crafting “forever”, but when and how did you “meet” the Wizard™.

MARGIE: A very dear friend was hooked on the Wizard™ and she had shown me the “PURPLE” side (the Wizard™ was purple at the time)…I was hooked! What can’t you do on this wonderful machine? OK…it can’t clean house for me or cook but it comes close!  LOL!! Seriously, the die templates are so detailed and you can’t get that anywhere else! So many ways to enhance a page or project (cutting, embossing and stenciling).

ELI: Do you have some favorite die templates? (I know there is no point in asking your precise favorite because no one can choose just one…)

MARGIE: Although I LOVE my Nestabilities™ sets (I have a lot!) recently, I have been getting into the Borderabilities®! I just purchased the Grand 12” Classic Lace Bordeabilities® (#S7-014) and I can’t wait to add it on my pages and cards! Heck I want it all! LOL! I’m having such fun!

ELI: I understand you are of Japanese descent and you teach in the Japanese community. Can you tell me about how that came about?

MARGIE: It started when I lived in NJ/NY area back in 2000. I was on the kindergarten yearbook committee for the Japanese Children’s Society (a Japanese international school) where my oldest son attended. The mothers saw my albums that I had brought as examples. I offered to teach them basics and it took off from there. In Chicago, I went to a series of Japanese card classes to make friends. When those classes were done, the students contacted me to see if I would teach them scrapbooking. Sure! LOL!! It has been going strong for about two years.

ELI: So what are you going to grace us with this summer?

MARGIE: I’m hoping to share the versatility of the Wizard™ and to show some “AHA” moments.  Of course, we have CHA (Craft & Hobby Assoc.) trade show coming up in July, so we’ll have some postings on that (wink, wink!). In addition to some FUN!! It’s all good but I don’t want to share too much…gotta have the surprise element in there. So stay tuned!

ELI: Any other thoughts before I show off some of your artwork and sign us off?

MARGIE: I just want to say thank you to everyone at Spellbinders for the opportunity to express my enthusiasm for the Wizard™! For me, it is truly the machine I go to–time after time.

Margie used the Labels 1 die template to create a shaped card which she embellished with Shapeabilities® Nested Butterfly. Love those colors!

Margie’s layout features a chain of Classic Scalloped Hearts, featuring her oldest son with his first girlfriend! Look carefully and see the Shapeabilties® Nested Bird cut out of plastic (using leftover transparency) and edges with ink…a sneaky little surprise right near the title.

Now this canvas is the one I can’t resist: Margie created a darling house and sunny scene, almost exclusively with Spellbinders™ die templates…see if you can find them all…

Classic Paisleys, Heritage Font (retired), Scalloped Circles, Pinking Circles, Shapeabilities® Nested Birds and Butterflies, Symbology, Brick Texture plate, { Brackets } (retired)…awesome, girl. Can’t wait to see what else you share with us…

To see get to know Margie more, please visit her personal blog, SCRAPS of (my) Life.

Have a great summer, everyone…I’ll see you in the fall. Eli

Here we are on the brink of Mothers Day and I get to share with you some projects made with Mom in mind,  by our fabulous 2009 Design Team.

To start us off, Karen Hunsaker made this candle and card with S4-163 Daisy Borderability Petite. We saw this the other day, but it’s worth a second look. I love that the envelope flap is embossed, and the edge of the card is cut and embossed, as well as the wrap for the candle.

Debbie Seyer’s card unfolds to 4 panels for Mom and she’s sure to cherish it. Debbie cut and embossed S4-111 Classic Scallop Ovals Large, S4-145 Long Classic Scalloped Rectangles Small, S4-138 Petite Ovals Large, S4-169 Labels Small, S4-072 Flower Creations, S4-124 Classic Scalloped Circles Large, and S4-125 Classic Scalloped Circles Small to make this gorgeous tribute to her Mom.

Karen Taylor’s scrapbook layout was made for her daughter. I love how she combined S4-072 Flower Creations, S4-109 Flower Creations 3, and the S7-014 Grand 12″ Classic Lace Border.

Kimberly Crawford’s floral card celebrates Spring, surely that’s Mom’s favorite season.  Kimberly combined S3-147 Labels Trio, S4-114 Standard Circle Large, and S4-124 Classic Scalloped Circles Large.

Julie Overby will score seconds of dessert with this adorable card! S4-190 Labels Four is so versatile, and S4-072 Flower Creations work so well with S4-198 Flourish Accents.

Kazan Clark’s Mum will be thrilled to get this card, here is Kazan’s interpretation of S4- Labels Four.

Designer Linda Duke shares this keepsake box just for mom’s treasures. Linda’s works her magic with the S4-159 Nested Flowers, S4-157 Sunflower Set One (for the leaves), S4-125 Classic Scalloped Ovals Small.

Linda’s mini book is something Mom will treasure. When assembled, Mom has a beautiful tribute to her patience, love and dedication.   S4-072 Flower Creations, S3-004 Symbology, S3-033 Cameo and Brooch, S4-142 Long Classic Rectangles Large,  S4-131 Classic Scalloped Rectangle Small, S4-116 Standard Circles Small, S4-125 Classic Scalloped Circle Small.

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Everyone at Spellbinders’ Paper Arts wishes you, your Mom, and those that are like a Mother to you a Happy Mothers Day.  We love you, Mom!

Beth

Welcome! And thanks for the introduction, Stacey! I’m so excited to be part of Spellbinder™ Blog Team with Eli. And I am amazed and thrilled at how many of you have already stopped by and told us about your favorite die. We’ll be choosing a blog candy winner later this morning.

Whether you own a Wizard or another die cutting machine, you can use Spellbinders Die Templates. Stacey made some great videos, so first I’ll direct you to those to learn how to cut and emboss in your machine. Videos! Back already? Good.

I’m using the S3-004 Symbology Die Template today. It was the first die template I bought and its still one of my favorites. If you didn’t take notes during the video, no worries, I’ve got you covered. The sandwich for cutting a Spellbinders Die Template is included inside the package of all the dies. But here it is so you don’t have to go digging for it (stack from the bottom up) —

1. White Master Mat
2. Thin White Spacer Plate (or Magnetic Spacer Plate if using the Raspberry Wizard)
3. Spellbinders Die Template with cut ridges up

4. Paper, Cardstock, craft foil (the material you will be cutting, the side/pattern you want to show in your final project, facing the die template)
5. White Mat

Now just feed this into the Wizard. What you have is a flat die cut. Exciting, huh? Every other machine can do that too. What makes the Spellbinders special is that you can emboss that die cut! Put the material right back in the Die Template. Then emboss it with this sandwich —

1. White Mat
2. Spellbinders Die Template (cutting ridges up)
3. Paper, cardstock, craft foil, etc in the die template. If it came out, that’s ok, it’ll go right back inside the cutting ridges.
4. Tan Embossing Mat
5. White Mat

Now feed that through the Wizard in exactly the same way. Great! How do you like it? Want to make it more interesting? Put the material right back inside the die. This is the really fun part, because you can customize it to match the rest of your project.

Use the same inks, chalks, markers, paint or other craft supply you used on your project. See, you can go right through the back side of the die to apply it. There you go—Cut, Emboss and Embellish!

Thanks for stopping by! Beth