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

You asked for it, you got it!  Remember this card from a week or so ago?

I took a moment out of my craziness to write out the instructions and take some pictures. Follow along me, its really not as hard as it looks.

On the original card, which was a Make and Take at CHA Winter 2008, we teamed up with Kaleidoscope Collections, they provided the kaleidoscope pattern paper for the project.

For this example I grabbed these supplies:

Fancy Pants patterned paper, 5 1/4 x 5 1/4″  First Date (pink) and 5×5″ Head Over Heels (striped)
Worldwin 5 1/2 x 11″ Light Hawaiian Blue Colormates cardstock and 5×5 Silver Mirro Card cardstock (I love this stuff!)
Krylon Silver Leafing pen
S4-137 Classic Scalloped Heart Die Template (just the largest one)
S4-136 Classic Heart Die Templates

Fold the Light Hawaiian Blue (blue) cardstock in half.  Run the Krylon Marker along the edges of the card.  Do this also on the First Date (pink) cardstock.  Allow to dry.

Cut/emboss the Silver Mirro Card with the largest S4-137 Classic Scalloped Heart.

Adhere the pink paper to the blue card, edges only, no adhesive in the center.  Center and tape (use low tack tape, or stick it to your clothes to make it less tacky) the S4-137 Scalloped Heart to the center of the card, with the cut side facing the pink paper.

Now invert the fold in the card, so that the pink paper and die are on the inside of the card.  Slide the spacer plate inside of the card, and position the card so the cut edge of the die is facing up and will cut into a Master Mat, not the spacer plate.

Feed into the Wizard.  Remove the spacer plate from the sandwich and place the tan embossing mat over the project.  Feed in to the Wizard again to emboss. (Remember when we did this here?) Now you have cut a scalloped heart shaped hole in the front of the card!

Grab your striped paper, blue scalloped heart die cut and S4-136 Classic Heart Die Templates.  Pick every other die, starting with the smallest die template, and arrange on the striped paper, then tape with cut side down.  Using the other 2 die templates, tape them on the blue scalloped die cut.  Cut/emboss each set.  Edge each die cut with the silver Krylon pen.  Assemble as shown, stacked to the center of each heart.

Fold the card so the pink paper is on the outside front, adhere the silver scalloped heart from the outside so it sits perfectly inside the hole in the front. Adhere stack of hearts onto the silver heart.

See, you just made this super cool card with a few supplies and only 4 cut/emboss runs!

I’d love to see your creations, leave a link to your card in the comments!