Happy Craftmas to Me!

When I started crafting I started out with some stamps and pens. I then got a Sizzix Big Shot so cut dies and used this for two years before it was replaced by my Cricut Mini and then Explore. As I didn't use my Big Shot I sold it as I only used it for die cutting and found my Cricut was more versatile and also took up less room (strangely!)

So recently I've been wanting to add texture to cards and was looking at getting a die cutting machine that didn't take up much room and then Cyber Monday happened and I found the Sizzix Texture Boutique for £20! A great deal in my opinion and perfect due to its size and that it only embosses.

It arrived last Wednesday afternoon and I had such a headache, bordering on a migraine, but I wanted to try it out! 

I looks so pretty and is a great size. I was also so surprised by how much stuff you got with it! In the box you get:

Two packs of card blanks (in white and cream) with envelopes

A stack of different coloured card (about business card size)

Rub on sentiments 

Three embossing folders 

The machine itself with plates and a shim

This would make a great gift for a new crafter or children as you can get crafting straight away. 

I tried it out quickly on a piece of card and it was so easy to use. I can't wait to use this now in conjunction with my Explore. I have a lot of coredination card stock so I'm looking forward to using it with this and sanding it back. 

Up cycling Unused Foil Tray Lids

I use foil trays a lot at home as I make meals and freeze them but I always seem to have loads of left over foil lids (as I usually freeze 3 meals and use one or I cook stuffing in them) but I've found a great use for them! They are great to put through a die cutting machine to make a mattish silver embellishment so great for Christmas plus fingerprints done show up as easily as on mirri-board.

They also emboss amazingly and done cracker (unlike some cardstocks)

I used a mix of spellbinders, sizzix sizzlets, Tonic dies and Darice embossing folders (plus one free from Simply Homemade). They cut great in my Big Shot and came out so easily. 

Do you have any novel uses for other household items in crafting?

Update on my bunting from Crafty Creations #CCbox2

Sizzix machine came out this morning and after cutting fabric in it for the first time I've managed to embellish the pink gingham flag!

Found out its easier to cut fabric if you also put a bit of card over the back of the material when using the sizzix big shot as it give a better cut

A quick trip to my local craft store turned into two visits!

I went to visit my local craft store yesterday, In2Crafting in Wickford, Essex, for a few bits for my Christmas cards. I'm not making my Christmas cards just yet but wanted to get the design finalised so I know what I'm doing (and don't end up buying more and more Christmas dies when I won't be using them). 

I went with my sister and brought some textured brown card for my reindeer's body (the rough design was just white card coloured with promarkers), sequin dots for his nose, card blanks, Marianne Designs dies (Merry Christmas and Seasons Greetings), and some other little bits. We came back home then remembered we wanted some card toppers and also remembered seeing some Christmas toppers which I was wishing I'd brought.....so we went back!

I love In2Crafting as their items are really well priced, it's not too big there and the staff are always on hand to help if you need assistance. I'd had my eye on the Marianne Designs Merry Christmas set but was looking at paying nearly £8 for them, but in the store they were just under £7!

Must now use what I've brought and not go on a spending spree again! (even though my second visit cost me only £4). 

I do still need some other Christmas dies for my parents Christmas cards and for my sisters cards but I'm waiting until we find something we really like rather than just buy things for the sake of it.

Having just searched for In2Crafting online, I've just found they have a blog! Why not head over and pay them a visit http://in2crafting.blogspot.co.uk/

Testing out my deer die

I brought the sizzix deer die for my Christmas cards this year (brought it early while cheap) and have only just tried it out after having it for over a week!

I don't have any brown card or paper so used white and coloured it in myself.

Forget Rudolph, this is Diva the diamonte nosed reindeer! Lol

It was just a rough first try to see how. I can decorate it etc.

Sizzix Dies from QVC

Last week on QVC the Todays Special Value of christmas craft papers sold out so they did a one time only offer of Sizzix dies. I wasn't sure at first but after seeing the demonstrations (and not having any Bigz dies or embossing folders) I decided to buy the deal, especially since I had a £10 off voucher for QVC! 

The deal included 3 Bigz (flower with leaves, large flower and large leaves), 4 embossing folders, a cut and emboss die of bluebell like flowers, heart flower sizzlets and a DVD from Sizzix.

The pack arrived on Saturday morning and I sat down to watch to DVD in the afternoon (after a nice little visit to an art gallery in Westcliff on Sea to see my Dads photo on display and a spot of lunch and shopping with my Dad and Mum in Leigh-on-Sea). The DVD is really informative but a bit of a pain as there isn't a 'play all' feature, so you have to click each short clip separately. It did have a lot of great information on, especially about sizzlits and how to build them up.

The dies are really lovely and the Bigz are perfect as they fill up large space so not much is needed on the card if you want to keep it simple.

Below you can see two quick cards I made with the dies (plus a sentiment embossing folder I already had from crafts-too). They were really easy to make and I used a lot of ideas picked up from the presentation on QVC such as making the petals curve by running your nail across them, and making them more 3D by folding the petals.

I'm really loving the Bigz dies and another die arrived on Monday for my Christmas cards which I can't wait to try out.

Freebies from Papercraft Inspirations

I brought my first copy of Papercraft Inspirations 2 issues ago, mainly due to the price and the extra freebies being given away via Asda (Forever Friends papers). I found it modern and had lots of unisex ideas as well as the printables available online.

Due to the birthday offer on subscriptions, I snapped up a 50% off deal and am now subscribing to my first craft magazine!

The new magazine arrived two weeks ago now I think.... and came with some see through cut outs of flowers, butterfly's and frames. A few of these were split but not noticeable (one was tapped :os which was a bit strange).

It also came with some papers which were really nice and girly with pokadots, butterflys, swirls etc.

I used some of the free die cuts in the card attached, then added my Marianne Designs cupcake dies and a crafts-too embossed 'Happy Birthday'.

I'm still getting the hang of embossing the Marianne Design dies as they keep moving with the embossing mat as it stretches when it squishes through the Big Shot.

Sizzix Die Sale! All end this Saturday

I have a number of Sizzix dies (and an unbranded die) for sale on eBay. 

These were included with the Big Shot I brought a few weeks ago and won't really be used. I've also brought lots of dies myself and need a clear out! (I've only had it 2 weeks!)

The items for sale are:

Sizzlets #3 Tags

Sizzlets Nappy Pin

Thin Cutz Bouquet

Medium Sized Hugging Bears

Book Hedgehog

All my items for sale can be found here Sara's eBay  

All the dies have a starting price of 99p!

Also on there I have a hand folded book hedgehog and Corel Aftershot Pro so go and have a look :o)

Country Companions Hedgehog Die & Sizzix Die Sale

Finally got a hedgehog die :o) taken me nearly an hour to make though after putting the bits together and figuring which bit went where!

I didn't have brown card so used my letraset stamp pens for the body, then red and purple card for the boots and flower.

I have put some Sizzix Dies on eBay which finish on 6th June. These are ones I won't use much and they came with my machine so thought I'd sell them to make room for my new dies :)

One of the items is here http://bit.ly/Ne8Oer and just go to my page to look at my other items

My First Makes on my Sizzix Big Shot

I received my Sizzix Big Shot on Wednesday morning, but unfortunately had lots to do so didn't get to play with it until later in the day for a short while, but had a proper play with it yesterday morning.

I brought a second hand Big Shot on eBay with some die cutters included. The one thing I would say is to be careful when buying Sizzlets second hand, or as part of a bundle as the ones I got were not smooth on the spongey background so left a pattern on the pieces I cut so they weren't smooth. This isn't a biggy though as the Sizzlets were a nappy pin and a bouquet of flowers (which are a bit abstract....you can't really tell what they are).

At the same time as buying the Big Shot I brought 2 Marianne Designs die cutter sets, a cupcake and a flower (shown above). With these I made the below cutouts.

It was only while showing my husband these that he said he thought that the cupcake would have the patterns on as shown on the dies. I was a bit confused to but after looking online found that I needed an embossing mat for these type of dies and purchased one from ebay. It came yesterday and I'm getting much better results now! Just have to remember to cut first and THEN emboss as I did it the other way, forgetting it wouldn't cut it out and had to then fiddle getting the paper and die to line up. The embossing mat I purchased was £8 and does not need extra card to thicken the 'sandwich' up so it's much easier to use.

You may notice in the background of the photo a very heavily used cutting mat. The Big Shot I purchased came with 3 cutting mats, 2 heavily used and 1 new mat. This was due to one of the ladies original mats shattering so she brought a new set and just used one new one and an old one. I have purchased another set of mats as the old ones look like they're going to break at any moment, but I did pick up a great tip online. I found that it was hard to lay the dies and card easily on the mats before cutting as both plates were warped, but a video online said to use a new mat on the bottom and never to use it on the top as the bottom plate will then not warp and also not get scratched! This means the mats/plates will last much longer.

I also received my GlossyBox yesterday and after packing away my items, I used the packaging to make the below flower!

The pale pink back petals are from the information card, the smaller petals are from the tissue paper the items are wrapped in, and the GlossyBox logo button was from the information card. (I was still using two warped plates/cutting mats, so the card slipped while going through the Big Shot so it wasn't perfectly in line).

I am going to have a massive Big Shot day over the Jubilee Bank Holiday I think! I purchased another die yesterday of a hedgehog, and holographic and glitter card from Home Bargains (79p for 16 holographic sheets and 79p for 6 glitter sheets!).

Now off to make Sunday dinner! Not sure I really want to in this heat but it'll be nice once cooked.

Just purchased my Sizzix Big Shot! YEY!

After much deliberation I finally decided last week to buy a die cutting machine for card making. I had originally looked at the Sizzix Big Shot but reviews said how big it was, and it was also quite expensive so decided to look at getting a Cuttlebug. After looking around for these someone advised me that the Big Shot was a great machine and did much more than the Cuttlebug (such as cutting material) so I went ahead and started looking for Big Shots.

Online they retail for round £70-£80 for a starter kit but thought I would try and get one on eBay with other dies (as starter kits come with hearts and some basic shapes which I wouldn't particularly use). I found one with lots of dies, some of which I would have sold, and waited a whole week until it was ending today but at the last minute it went for over £100 including postage!!!! Luckily for me one ended 2 hours later and I got it for under £40 plus £12 postage! It comes with a few dies of bears hugging, presents, the word party and a nappy pin (which I may sell). Due to it being much less than I was going to pay I've also treated myself to an embossing folder with different greetings on, and I'm currently bidding on cupcake dies (where you can have different toppings) and flowers. The flowers I'm looking to use with material to make a floor mat (which I started at Christmas with my sewing machine but haven't got far with it due to our wedding).

My mission this year is to make my own Christmas cards and also my parent's cards. I've got lots of ideas and will be on the look out for the dies I want in the next few months to try and grab a few bargains.

Now it's just a waiting game until my Sissix machine arrives!