Wow, that was a fun 8 days of Spellbinders Pendant & Borderabilities reveals, wasn’t it?  We’re not done announcing winners, so stay tuned for more super excited daily winners.  I wonder who won the Grand Prize of ALL the Spellbinders Pendants and Borderabilities?  We’ll be posting names just as soon as we hear back from those lucky crafters.

Now, back to blogging as usual!  As soon as I received my package of Spellbinders Pendants, I did my little happy dance, convinced my teenagers I had lost my mind, and tried to think of what uses I had for these die templates beyond paper.  So today I’m showing you how awesome these work with shrink plastic!

I used a brand of shrink plastic that shrinks evenly, by length and width, otherwise the end result could be quite wonky.  I used the standard die cutting sandwich, of

• White Master Mat
• Magnetic Spacer Plate
• Pendant die template, cut side up
• Shrink Plastic
• White Master Mat

Now, because the S4-208 In Spades Pendant die template has some very intricate and detailed cuts, and shrink plastic is not very forgiving, I ran the sandwich through my Wizard 3 times in a row, without lifting the mat to look at it. You don’t want to manipulate the mats, just 1-2-3 times through.  You might still have to carefully punch the cut areas out, so be gentle.

No embossing is necessary. Next I colored through the die template like a stencil with a Black #100 Copic Sketch Marker. Be careful to go slowly and don’t let the shrink plastic move around under the die template.

Then I applied heat with my heat tool. Be sure to read the directions for your brand of shrink plastic. It curls up as it shrinks, but keep applying heat -resist the urge to stop and flatten it! It should flatten down towards the end of the process. REMEMBER, its hot, let it cool before touching it.

Next, I used my Lionet Gold #Y28 Copic Sketch Marker and Airbrush Kit to apply a thin coat of color over the surface of the shrunken die cuts. I wanted it to look a little blotchy. I adhered a 7Gypsies Typewriter Word and attached a jump ring and chain to the Pendant. The Heart Accents could be charms for the Pendant, or earrings.

You could color with any color Copic Marker (and there’s plenty to choose from!), or if your beading skills are better than mine, do a beaded design to accent the Pendant. The sky’s the limit on your own custom jewelry!

When I read Beth’s Savvy Saturday post on embossing…well, you know I had to play with foil and not just any foil! I love the colors that Spellbindersâ„¢ offers in their Premium Craft Foil products. So time to play with the Wizardâ„¢ and emboss some foil!

Today, I am using F-003 Blue Premium Craft Foil and some metal words - I know some of you have these metal word embellishments around. You can use them over and over again when you emboss them. It’s a great way to accent your layouts, cards or mixed media projects. The best part, it saves you money!

Since this is graduation season, we had two in our household! I created a layout celebrating my youngest’s sixth grade ceremony. The words I had fit the occasion so I embossed them with the Blue Premium Craft Foil (blue is their school color) and then sanded them to show more detail. I cut/embossed fonts in foil because I love the look! Then I added the S7-013 Heirloom Scroll Borderabilities® Grand Die Template to accent the bottom and give weight to the layout. Using pattern paper from My Mind’s Eye 29th Market Collection and cardstock from Core’dinations ColorCore Line, I edged the papers with Clearsnap Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink Chestnut Roan. Everything seemed to come together to make a memorable layout for graduation!

Happy embossing and for those of you who are graduating this year…Happy Graduation and Congratulations!!

MargieH

My inspiration for this Savvy Saturday was two-fold. My friend Kim was blessed with her first grandchild last weekend, a baby boy! I know a thing or two about baby boys, I have two of them myself.  I know how easy it is for grandparents to scoop them up and, well, give them back when it’s time.  My other inspiration is the S4-174 Deckle Scalloped Edge Petite Border. It has that certain “I don’t know who ripped it, Mom!” look to it. Mothers of boys, you know what I’m talking about!

To start, I gathered my supplies.

It’s so easy to use the Petite Borders. Looking at the die template, one side has the raised ridge, which is the cutting edge, and the other does not. That is the embossing edge.

Simply align the cutting edge where you want to cut, with the cut side down, facing the front of the card, and secure in place with some household tape. I touch the tape to my jeans to lessen the tackiness of the tape.

If I don’t want to cut through both layers of the card, I have to invert the fold of the card and insert the Spacer Plate inside of the card. Now the cutting edge of the die is facing up, and only one layer of the card will be cut.

To emboss this card, remove the Spacer Plate and place the Tan Embossing Pad on top of the card, and feed it into your Wizard. To enhance the embossed areas, I used a sanding block on this Core’dinations cardstock.

For the rest of the card I cut/embossed the S4-129 Classic Scalloped Squares Small, S4-197 Small Classic Inverted Scalloped Squares, and the S4-128 Classic Squares Small. The little boy embellishment was made from piecing together different colored die cuts from Cordinations with S3-014 Baby Boy, and a small scrap of Premium Craft Foil.

I placed a square die cut on the inside of the card with a stamped sentiment from Hero Arts, using Clearsnap Colorbox ink.

This is the finished card, ready for the mail!  Now if I could just find those stamps…

Happy Saturday!

Beth

The Wizard Embossing and Die Cutting System is universal,  that is, it will cut dies from other manufacturers.  The Wizard comes with all the mats you will need to cut Spellbinder’s Die Templates and dies from other manufacturers.  The Universal Adaptor Mat is our focus.  It is a semi transparent mat measuring 5 3/4 inches square, and 1/8 inch thick.

Today’s post is on cutting steel rule dies, which include Sizzix Originals, Sizzix Alphabars, Bigz, and Thick Cutz, ZipESlim wood mounted and Cross-Cuts.

The sandwich is easy, place the Universal Adaptor Mat, the material to cut, the die with cut side down.  This sandwich feeds with the back side of the die making contact with the rollers.

A few pointers on the Universal Adaptor Mat:

• It is a semi transparent square mat that measures 5 ¾ inches by 5 ¾ inches, 1/8 inch thick.
• Flip the mat over, you can cut on both sides.
• Rotate the mat each time you cut with it, so the mat will wear evenly.
• It will curve and bow with use, but that won’t affect the results of the cut.
• It is a durable mat and will last a long time, even if it looks quite cut up.
• It should not be used as a Spacer Plate with the Master Mats in the Wizard

Thanks for stopping by, and happy die cutting!

Beth