Using the Pillow Box Die

One of the quickest & easiest little gift boxes to put together is made with the Pillow Box Bigz Die that works with the Big Shot and other Die Cut systems.

I've chosen to cut my pillow box from a 6"x6" piece of Nursery Nest designer series piece.  You can use a smaller piece of paper but I find this size gives you a bit of safety room.

I've found to get good strong creases in your Designer Series Paper (DSP) it's a good ideas to place a sheet of cardstock underneath the die as a shim before running it through the big shot.

 After running your paper through the Big Shot.

Crease the two fold lines with the Big Shot place adhesive on the tab and fold in to close the pillow box.

Now is the time to fill the pillow box.  I just fitted six Hershey's kisses in mine.  You can see it bulging a little bit.

If you wish you can make a tag.  I've used the Baby stamp from the Easy Events stamp set in Marina Mist ink, sponged the edges and punched out the image with the 1 3/4" circle punch then mounted it on a 2 3/8" Scallop circle punched from Marina Mist cardstock.  I've used the largest hole punch on the Crop A Dile to punch a hole for threading the ribbon through.

I find that placing a bit of adhesive on the back of the pillow box and sticking the ribbon to it keeps the ribbon in place when tying it round the box.  I've used a piece of Marina Mist Scallop Dots ribbon.

Thread your tag onto the ribbon and tie at the front and you're finished.






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Stockings Tag Punch

Stitched Stockings Christmas Card and Hints for Using the Stockings Tag Punch

Here are a couple of projects I've made up using the Stitched Stockings stamps and punch.



A quick and easy Christmas card using the jumbo texture stampin' around wheel in Marina Mist and Night of Navy.


Here's how I made it: -



Fold A5 Marina Mist cardstock in half and ink the jumbo texture stampin' around wheel with marina mist cardstock and run over card blank.



Layer a piece of 50x143mm whisper white cardstock on to 55 x 148mm Night of Navy cardstock and then across centre of card base.



Stamp three stockings in Marina Mist and three of the detail stamp in Night of Navy.  If you move too quick and get smudges like I did not to worry as we'll be punching them out.



You can see in the photo that the stocking shape in the punch is on an angle.  This means you will need to cut not to closely around your stamped image before placing it in the punch. 

Now punch around all your stockings and embellishments and assemble your card.

Here's another version of the card above using the Confetti background stamps and adding a greeting using Teeny Tiny Sentiments and the Word Window Punch.

 

Think of all the other colour combinations you could use, as well as adding a bit of glitter or texturing the centre white panel with a crimper or textured impressions embossing folder.

Christmas Idea Notebook

I've covered a notebook with designer series paper and embellished it with the stockings and punch as well as the woodgrain background stamp in tempting turquoise and real red.  I often manage to shorten my notebook covers when covering so the scallop edge rectifies that mistake.
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Dying White Ribbon to Match your Projects

This was a trick I learn't and used a lot as a very new Stampin' Up!® demonstrator but as I got more into the business and could afford to have more colours of ribbon on hand I haven't had the need to dye white ribbon to match my projects.

I used it at a workshop last week and had a great response to the budget angle so thought I would share it with my blog readers as well.

Now that I'm back up and running with You Tube I'm very interested in topics you would like to see covered in my tutorials. Please leave me a comment below. 

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Basic Cardmaking using Limited Supplies

plus some tips and tricks to make making lots of cards at one sitting a lot quicker and easier.

I love sending cards and it beautifully ties in with my love of making them but sometimes I want to send more than I have time to make. This is where keeping it simple and moving from my office into the lounge with limited supplies works really well. I also used this opportunity to use up scraps of In Colour cardstocks, cutting them into 9.9cm square and 3" square card bases.

These were the supplies that I had: - 

 - cut, folded and creased card bases

- whisper white card scraps

- matching classic stampin' pads

- fast and fabulous and teeny tiny stamp sets

- word window punch

- big shot and perfect poka dots textured impressions embossing folder

- stampin' dimensionals, stampin' sponges, paper cutter, sanding block, snail adhesive, bone folder, stampin' scrub.

One way to quickly fill up a blank space is to add dry embossing using an textured impressions embossing folder and the Big Shot.  To only emboss the front of the card turn the embossing folder in a landscape direction and align the first row the polka dots along the centre fold of the card.  Still keeping the embossing folder in a landscape orientation run through your Big Shot as usual.

Two step stamping is a very quick way of getting the look of a coloured image using only two stamped images.

My favourite Two Step Stamp Set at the moment is the Level Two Hostess Set fast and fabulous.  Here I've stamped the solid flower in the lighter 'Blushing Bride' ink and then stamped the matching outline image over the top in the brighter 'Melon Mambo' to match my card base.

Trim leaving approx 3mm around the image.  I like to sponge the cut edges to match the card base.

I use Stampin' Dimensionals or foam tape to stick my image down onto the embossed card base.  The foam moulds around the textured surface.

 To add a greeting I used the 'thank you' stamp from the Clear Mount Teeny Tiny sentiments stamp set.  When working with clear blocks and tiny stamps like these ones I place my stamp down on my work surface and then press the block down onto the stamp.  I find it stays put much better if I attach them this way round.

Stamp your image, punch out with the Word Windown punch and assemble your card.

This is one of the 3" square blanks in Poppy Parade and Pear Pizazz.  The same as the bigger one but without the dry embossing due to the smaller card size.

Another version of the smaller sized card: - 

I trim most of my stamped images using a Fiskars Paper Cutter and aligning the edge of the blue bar right on the edge of the image on all sides placing the last cut edge on bottom edge of the trimmer to keep it square.

The 'whisper white' cardstock from Stampin' Up!® has a high cotton content and so takes ink really well but this always means that cut edges can sometimes be a bit fluffy, like mine in the photo. If this happens I easily got rid of the fluff with a sanding block and/or flicking colour on to the edges with a stampin' sponge. 

Adhere your trimmed image to a larger piece of card for your mat.

Using the same technique as the one I used to cut around the image I cut the Pear Pizazz mat using the white edges as my guide.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. 

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Three ways to use Big Shot Multi Purpose Adhesive Sheets

This wrapped Chocolate Bar project uses Multi Purpose Adhesive sheets in three different ways.

1.  Adhere to back of cardstock/fabric etc etc to create a self adhesive die cut.

Cut your 12x12 Adhesive sheet to fit your cardstock.  It needs to be exact as any overhanging adhesive will end up on your die or cutting plates.  Peel the top cover off your adhesive sheet and attach to the back of your cardstock.  Run through the Big Shot die of your choice.

I now have fancy shaped self adhesive die cut strips using the Tasteful Trim die.

2.  Use it to adhere layers together before running through the Big Shot.

I'm using a 6x6 square of Adhesive sheet to stick a 6x6 square of designer series paper to some backing cardboard to give it more strength.

 

Peel the backing paper off the adhesive sheet and stick to the backing cardboard.  As the glue is tacky I find it helps to run a brayer or something similar over the adhesvie sheet before removing the top layer.

Remove the backing sheet and adhere the Designer Series Paper then run through the Big Shot as usual.  You will need to use a steel rule die as this paper sandwich is quite thick.

3.  Creating Stickers from already punched or cut shapes.

Peel back an edge or corner of your adhesive sheet revealing the tacky glue.  Place your shape on the glue.

Recover the glue and shape and use your finger or a bone folder to push the shape into the glue.  Try to only rub on the shape or you'll end up with stringy glue attached - ask me how I know.

Choose from the pieces you've cut and glued, add a greeting and decorate your chocolate bar.

 

Supplies I've used -

- Chocolate Bar - Fundraising Size
- Paper - Crumb Cake Cardstock 15x16 cms, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White Cardstock sized to match dies and punches used, Designer Series Paper Pack In Colour
- Curly Cute Stamp Set
- Peach Parfait Classic Stampin' Pad
- Multi Purpose Adhesive Sheets, Big Shot, Blossom Party and Tasteful Trim Dies, Crimper, Scallop Oval Punch, Sticky Strip & Snail Adhesive.


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Inlaid Embossing

In the Big Shot world, Inlaid Embossing seems to be the thing of the moment.  I've finally got my hands on the 'Square Lattice' embossing folder and I'm enjoying being part of the trend.

But this time something different, I've created Inlaid Embossing to fit in the window section of my Stampin' Up!® handbag and had to emboss a piece of card double the size of the textured impressions embossing folder.

Here's what I did: - 

Gather together: - 

- Big Shot Die Cut Machine with Cutting Plates and Multi Purpose Platform

- Square Lattice Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

- A Selection of circle punches

- Your base card I used Whisper White

- A selection of card scraps in the colours you want to use - I used Certainly Celery, Perfect Plum & Marina Mist

- Glue Stick

 

Cut a mixture of different sized circles from your cardstock scraps.  I punched some as rings by punching a smaller circle then lining up the punched piece of card in a larger sized punch as shown above and punching again.

Using a glue stick or another wet glue adhere your circles in a pleasing pattern to your card base.

Before your glue has time to dry place your base card inside the embossing folder, as my card was larger I embossed one side at a time, and run through your Big Shot as normal using the multi purpose platform with no tabs.

I then carefully placed the unembossed section of my card into the embossing folder carefully lining up the embossed edge of the card with the start of the raised section of the embossing folder.

And here it is with only a slightly raised line in the middle to show that it was embossed in two pieces.

I'd love to see what you make using this technique.

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