Thirteen is sometimes seen as a superstitious or bad luck number but one lucky crafter is going to go against that trend and receive a bucket load of die templates. The rest of you are lucky to have Spellbinders constantly thinking up new and amazing products…Day 13’s die template, S7-013 Heirloom Scroll Border Grand, was showcased by Sally Lynn MacDonald. Thanks for the great projects. Let’s see that border die template AND the rest of the templates our LUCKY winner will get today.

Speaking of Lucky, we got our numbers over to Random.org and this is what we got:

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

1749

Timestamp: 2009-01-19 22:14:51 UTC

So we contacted:

Judi of Grangeville, Idaho

When we got ahold of her, she said:

Thanks Judi, I’d say your slowly growing collection is on turbo boost now. We’re excited for you too.

Even though we’re nearing the end of our contest, you still have lots of fun ahead of you. Remember, we’ll be releasing all the die templates on our website on Sunday, January 25th. So take a gander at SpellbindersPaperArts.com on Sunday and don’t forget to come back here for Spellbindersâ„¢ announcement of another new product innovation.

Eli

today’s Sneak Peek is from Sally Lynn MacDonald.  She lives in Connecticut with her husband of 21 years, Neil, her daughter, Brianna and the “Twinkies,” Cameron and Courtney.

Sally Lynn has been an avid scrapbooker, stamper, paper and altered artist since 1998, when her first child was born.  Subsequently, after the birth of twins, she quit her high-tech career at IBM to be home with her growing family. “This is when creativity became a survival skill!” she says. Her style is eclectic and she loves to make each project unique, interactive and indulge her creative side.  She is a certified and/or endorsed instructor for several companies, including Copic Markers, and she travels around the country teaching classes that focus on technique and tools. Her work has been published in Paper Crafts, Rubber Stamper and Stamper’s Sampler Take Ten. Her personal design challenge is to take products or techniques that would have her students saying “Huh?” and bring them to “Aha!” .

Be sure to enter to win today’s prize package, can you believe how many awesome die templates are being given away?  I’ll race you to Sally Lynn MacDonald’s blog, InkyHeart.

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!

Today’s Savvy Saturday technique takes a look at a way to use Spellbindersâ„¢ Die Templates that you may not have thought of…embossing them only (from the top side). But let’s get right to it and soon you’ll be seeing these babies from all sides.

Sally Lynne MacDonald, a member of our 2008 Design Team, created a card that is perfect for this time of year (I know this because I watch the Weather Channel for fun sometimes and see those little snowflakes all over the US map.)

Sally Lynn

This elegant winter card has a lot of interesting elements going on, so let’s pull it apart and show off some of Sally Lynne’s techniques.

1) By layering her dies inside her sandwich in a different way, Sally Lynne created the look of swirling snow. She used S4-121 Doodle Parts to emboss into the card. If you want to create this look, layer the following:

• White Master Mat
• Die Templates in a pleasing pattern with cut edges face down
• White Core Paper with the side you want to show, face down
• Embossing Pad
• White Master Mat

Then sand the embossed paper to bring out the white core. Cool, hugh!

2) Sally Lynne’s added just a little something subtle to her snowflake. Can you see it? Look carefully at each layer to see which ones she placed with the embossed side facing up and which layers she placed with the embossed side facing down. As I said, it is subtle but it creates some interesting textural effects. So, just cut and emboss the S4-085 Snowflake Wonder normally out of Spellbinders Craft Foils or even a Coke Can. Then, stack the snowflake with some layers face up and some face down. Niiiice!

3) The last little element I want to draw your attention to is Sally Lynne’s tag/ribbon at the bottom. Cut/Emboss the S4-081 Tags Five from a shimmery white paper such as WorldWin Petallics. Fold it in half. Cut a length of swirly ribbon (by Creative Impressions) that will go around the card front with enough to tie a knot. No need to use adhesive on the tag, wrap it around the right edge of the card and thread the ribbon through the end holes on the top and bottom. What a fab look as it echoes the background of the card.

Assemble the card: Don’t forget to cut/emboss a S4-131 Scalloped Rectangle. Then using a glitter brad from Creative Impressions add the stacked snowflake to the scalloped mat. Adhere it to the embossed background. Add the entire piece to a card base and Voila!

Thanks Sally Lynne for inspiring us all in such a COOL way (lol). See you all soon, Eli