Use It Up Surprises

Today I'm going to show you a couple more quick and easy cards made from pieces found in my "Press-Out Victorian Christmas Book".  For the background, I covered some plaid patterned paper with gold metallic lattice.  I matted the focal and glued it to the center, adding a little sentiment below the basket.

The tricky part of this card is the focal itself.  The center oval is actually scored near the bottom and folds forward to reveal a little message:

Here's a similar one where I haven't taken a picture of the hidden sentiment, and didn't put the lattice.  Instead I tied in the gold of the ornate frame by drawing a gold border around the card itself, and again on the inside of the green border.  I used my gold metallic Sharpie for this.  The sentiment below the focal is an outline sticker.

Embossing and Sharpies

This card started with my new embossing folder set from Sizzix.  It's a bit hard to tell from this picture just what is embossed, but it is the "Peace" sentiment along with the branches and the bird.  I cut a strip of white glimmer paper and embossed it with this sentiment.  Then, to help it stand out, I went over the raised areas with my gold metallic Sharpie.  (Have you seen the metallic Sharpies? I love them!)

On the left side of this, I glued a gold embellishment cut with a Spellbinders Holly Motifs die.  The Angel is a Dazzle sticker from Hot Off the Press.  I had a small white shape that I edged in gold to mat the angel on.  This was then put up on foam tape above the gold holly accent.

The white and gold glitter patterned paper was some I got a long time ago at Costco.  I cut it to size, glued it to the card, and then glued the focal to it.  I used gold Stickles to run a line around the edge of the background paper and I also created little sparkley dots along the horizontal edges of the focal (again using the Stickles).  When I was done, it looked like this:

 It was quite pretty, but the focal just didn't stand out well enough.  So, I grabbed a couple of piece of gold metallic ribbon.  I put a bit of glue from my ATG on each end so I could tack it down when ready.  Then I carefully slid the ribbon under the horizontal edges of the focal, tacking it down on each side when it was where I wanted it. A ribbon above and a ribbon below really helped.  I finished the card by adding a line of 3 gold dimensional diamond-shapes in the upper right corner. Compare the picture without ribbon with the one below and see what a difference a little touch like that can make!

Christmas Scrapbook

Some people put lots of thought into scrapbook pages but don't think to personalize the album itself.  Here is an example of a Christmas scrapbook that I personalized.  The album started as a very pretty green and red plaid with red velvet and gold braid border (sorry, I don't remember where I got it).  As you can see, I added a couple of things to it.

I started with a picture of our Christmas tree, and matted it on gold and then white before gluing it to the front cover (ATG works great for this!).  Then I took a fancy gold braid and glued it around the edge, forming a frame.  The words started out as fuzzy white stickers that I colored gold with a glittery gel pen.

It didn't take a lot of time, but just these few things help set the stage for the pages one will see inside.

On another note - as we head into the Christmas season, you might want to take a few minutes to think through what pictures you want for your Christmas album this year.  You might want to have some pictures from before Christmas itself.  Maybe pictures of:  Lights being put up?  Gift wrapping being done?  Card making and letter writing?  It's much easier to create a nice scrapbook memory if you have the pictures to go with it!

Big Shot Repairs & New Embossing Folder

YAY! I finally have my Big Shot working again and was able to use my new embossing folder!  In a bit I'll give you a run down of what it took to get my machine running again, but first, let's talk about the card.

This card started with another fancy sentiment piece from my "Press-Out Victorian Christmas Book."  I once again cut a piece of double-stick adhesive sheet to fit (peel off one side and place the piece on it, then trim around it), and covered it with clear micro-beads.  It's hard to really see the effect in the picture, but it gives additional texture and glitz. 

For the background, I embossed a cream piece of glimmer paper with my new embossing folder from Sizzix (Peace Poinsettia Set). After adhering the embossed panel to the card, I used gold stickles for the center of the flowers and then ran a bead of it around my embossed piece to frame it.  A gold bow would be a nice touch, but I left it off so I wouldn't have to worry about the additional thickness when mailing it.

So that's my card.  Now for the Big Shot saga.

It all started a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving when the handle of my Big Shot came off in my hand as I was using the machine.  The crank shaft had broken.  Fortunately they have a 3-year warranty, so I was able to call and see about warranty repair.  They sent me a replacement crankshaft and instructions on how to replace it.  It should have been relatively easy to replace, but when I got things taken apart, I discovered that another part needed to be replaced as well.  So, I had to wait a few more days while they sent that part to me (crank shaft bearings).  

Next problem, I needed a couple of tools I didn't have.  One was a pair of snap ring pliers; the other was a short solid steel rod approx 1/2" in diameter. My local hardware store was able to fix me up with both.  For the rod, we found a long bolt (I think it may have been 5" long). The guy that was helping me was willing to take a hacksaw to it and cut off the threads, leaving me with a rod that was about 3 1/2" long - plenty long enough to do what I needed.  After that, it was simply a matter of following the instructions.  The only problem came when I forgot to put a piece back and had to tear things apart again to put it in.  This meant removing the e-clips on the crank shaft again, and that caused me a bit of trouble.  At first things didn't want to rotate the way they needed to, and I knew better than to put things back together until I got that sorted out.  I guess something wasn't seated quite right, but I finally got it working.  Cranks so smoothly now!

I can't begin to express how wonderful it is to have my Big Shot back!  And it's nice to know that these things can be replaced should I need to do so sometime in the future.