World Card Making Day is Saturday (tomorrow), October 3rd!! We’re having a little fun over on Facebook:

Post a card using Spellbinders Die Templates on Spellbindersâ„¢ Facebook page on World Card Making Day and be entered to win a Spellbinders Die Template. We will randomly draw a name from all the participants!

Hey there scrapbooking fans! Here’s one for you today. I just had to share these pics of my family enjoying a Fall day in the park. I love the feeling of movement in them. Design-wise, I tried to include a variety of shapes to keep things interesting: ovals, lines, circles…These ideas can be applied to any card or layout.

I started by printing my photos at home and cutting them using the Oval Nestabilities®. The first attempt yielded an oval that was too big. As you can see below, the top and bottom edges of the photos’ white frame show… now, we can’t have that!!!

Not to worry…

The brilliant thing about Nestabilities® is that you can increase or decrease the size by just an eighth of an inch increment, providing a great deal of flexibility when designing.

So (now stick with me here), I began with S4-138 Petite Ovals, Large #6. (When counting die numbers, start with the smallest die template and count out to the largest.) This happens to be the largest in the set. If I went to #5 in the set, I would have a 1/4″ decrease. I thought that would crop too much of the photo. So I chose the largest in the coordinating set, S4-140 Petite Ovals, Small #5 which was 1/8″ smaller. It gave me the  perfect size.

And guess what? Since I wanted a 1/8″ mat around the photo, I used the first die template I used, S4-138 Petite Ovals Small, #6, to cut pink cardstock. Boy, these Nestabilities® sure are handy!!

If you want to try your hand at this layout or use it for inspiration for another project, you’ll need the following supplies: W-001 Wizardâ„¢, S4-138 Petite Ovals Large, S4-140 Petite Ovals Small, S7-017 On the Vine Borderabilities® Grand, S4-235 Fancy Tags from Spellbindersâ„¢

along with Chatterbox Fabulous bird rub-on, green patterned ribbon, epoxy sticker; The Paper Company Chocolate Brown, Sable papers; Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday patterned paper; Core’dinations pink cardstock; Creative Impression pink ribbon; SCRAPBOOK ADHESIVE by 3L, 3-D squares, Photo Tape; brown ruched paper, white opaque pen, sewing machine and thread

Now go out and PLAY!! Eli

We’re excited to share a new technique created by our Design Team member, Karen Taylor. She shared it first on her blog, Creative Yearnings, and we thought it was so great that we had to share it here too.

I am excited to share a new Spellbindersâ„¢ Impressabilitiesâ„¢ technique with you. It is a heat embossing technique.

To do the technique you will need fun foam or foam letters, an Impressabilitiesâ„¢, a hot pad and a heat tool.

Using your hot pad, heat the Impressabilitiesâ„¢ with a heat gun. Heat for at least 30 seconds and lay it on your foam. Gently press with hot pad. Let cool and lift the Impressabilitiesâ„¢

This is a very versatile technique. Since fun foam can be cut in the Wizardâ„¢, the possibilities are endless.

This is sure to be come a favorite technique….I know it is mine! Karen Taylor

WOW, Karen, that looked so fun that I had to try it on my layout featuring my daughter’s fall picnic at school.

I found the fun foam to be a little more challenging to “take” the embossing than I did the foam letters. So I modified the technique just a bit. First. I like to work on a 12×12″ ceramic tile. You know, the kind you get at the home store for a couple bucks. It is heat resistent and gives me plenty of room to work. I cut my three ovals (S4-140 Petite Ovals Small) from Burgundy fun foam. I placed the Impressabilitiesâ„¢ template on the tile and heated it with my heat tool. I was so tempted to check to see how hot it was before I laid my foam oval on but decided that was not a good idea.

As soon as I removed the heat, I placed the foam oval on top of the Impressabilitiesâ„¢ template and then pressed down on the foam using an acrylic block. I could see through the block and it pushed the foam down into the template in an even manner. I noticed that the places on the template that were the hottest, actually gave the foam a shiny look…so cool. Here is a close up of the embossing!

I created three of these ovals, changing the placement on the template for variety. I wanted to echo the template again on the page, so I embossed 2 sections of a cardstock strip, added metallic rub-ons for emphasis and adhered it with  the title. Next went the photos and journaling blocks on top of my embossed ovals. Voila! Not too difficult and definitely worth it. Thanks, again, Karen for the fabulous new technique and great inspiration.

Eli

I’d like to cover an oldie but goody - paper piecing. It’s like punch art but only bigger and we get to create with Spellbindersâ„¢’ die templates!

Today, Design Team Member Christy Farneth-Kerr shares her layout showing her beautiful girls in their cute outfits. Notice the poodle on their shirts?! This was Christy’s inspiration for her poodle paper piecing - isn’t it just darling!

She used S4-113 Classic Scalloped Ovals, Small (I see six of them on this poodle!) and to finish off the layout, she added S7-012 Flower Whimsy Borderabilities® Grand, S4-081 Tags 5 and S4-072 Flower Creations. Sparkled embellishments on her borders are Robin’s Nest Dew Drops, along with some touches of Clearsnap Colorbox black pigment ink.

Another great idea for using our die templates is how Design Team Member Kimberly Crawford did when making her strawberry motif for her card and box duo! So cute and who wouldn’t want to have this thoughtful gift!

She used three different dies for her strawberries! Kimberly started with two different sizes of the S4-140 Petite Ovals, Small and top it off with S4-072 Flower Creations die template. To pull off the rest of the project, she included My Mind’s Eye Penny Lane Collection, Taylored Expressions “A Year of Sweetly Stamped Sentiments”, Hero Arts “Four Leaf Grid”, Clearsnap Inks & Chalks, some buttons, twine and cardstock.

Will you be putting some pieces together of your own?
Share with us…we would love to see them!

MargieH