Hero Arts + Sizzix products

Check out Jennifer's video!

Fun, fun.

New Sizzix things

I've just noticed that Sizzix is bringing out dies with matching embossing folders - Cuttlebug did this a few years ago with some Christmas designs.

Here's the flower one - what do you think? That embossing folder is nice by itself, I reckon, although I'm not a huge fan of that flower. Something about the shape doesn't work for me.

And here are all the others - I spotted eight (they're on a page with other things). Check out the other embossing folders etc on those pages...nice.

I hope they're Bigz dies with A2 folders...if not, no go for me. I don't do Sizzlits much and I don't do small embossing folders much either.

Just checked again and it's a tick, tick for both. A Bigz die and a (free) A2 folder, which means the price should be the same as a normal die. Hopefully.

My favourite is actually the snowflake although it doesn't snow where we live. Looks more like a doily to me anyway.

Just out of interest - here's the snowflake (doily) on a card. I do not like it in kraft (I'm very opinionated today). What I do like are the holes - perfect for hanging end on end, or side by side, for a garland.

And while we're at it - I like this one even though it's got nothing to do with anything else in this post. Make sure you click on the blackline pic of the die, so you can see what it cuts out. It's a card base with a scallop edge. Nice and simple - perfect for my punch art cards.

Enjoying your click clicks today. Just a bitta fun.

:o)

Boy banner

We've had the cards for the fellas, but what about the decs?

A banner?

What else is there?

I think it's fairly obvious that I like banners...

And every party needs an invite...

The speech bubbles are a good way to dress the info up a bit...of course I didn't write any time/date info because it's a fake party...but still, you get the idea...

Having a few of these in one's stash (mine is very low at the moment) would be good, I reckon.

Very useful to whip out at the appropriate time and hamburgers are a guy theme, I'd say.

Do you like the red or yellow scallop better?

Today I'm leaning towards the yellow because it stands out more. And I like the red in between the yellow and white (ie. light, dark, light). 

Here's the banner at PC. 

And here's the Sizzix die set I used. 

You'll notice I followed the colours on the pack pretty much. Took the thinking out of it for me! 

Well, I hope you enjoyed. I think I'm going to make more circle cards in the future. Kinda like 'em.

Something else I made...

...for another family dinner.

A 70th family dinner, in fact.

This one was a biggie.

Double-sided and layered.

What would I do without my kitchen bench?

I made the glittered doilies there too. It's my default crafting place for big things...

I based the banner on the Hello dangly thing I made for the June show. Liked the colours and all that, so I decided to go with a version of it. Changed the pink to red.

I'm pretty methodical with big things like this.

Work out the colours.

Work out the order of the colours.

Work out the shapes.

Even though I was copying something, I still had to tweak the banner. Always happens when I change even just one thing.

The heart was a Sizzix die too.

The big circle was from my trusty CM circle cutters and I just used my trimmer to cut the squares. The small circle is a punch, of course.

In typical Masterchef style, I had a couple of problems I had to overcome.

I won't go into the details, but you know how it is...you have an idea, you get to work on it, you hit an unexpected roadblock that you have to shift and you come out tops in the end. Hopefully!

What it usually equals is more mucking around with colours, the order of them and basic creative thinking. Yes?

And note the cream card used to help hold the string in place? Hold that thought...

It was a 70th party, so I made six of these to hang from either ends of the banner.

Should've made seven?

Nah, six is even...three on each side...

Here it is at the party...sorry, babe, caught you unawares.

You can see the 70s hanging down the sides here.

There are two banners - one on each side of the opening.

Got that thought about the cream card? It glared at me all night. Would've been better if I had used coloured card to match each letter. Rats.

Other people don't notice these things, but we do. We know when we could've made it better and not burnt the jus.

Here's the banner over at PC.

The cream backs don't matter here. Good.

I love the wall of dies...it's one of my two favourite walls in the store. I don't have to tell you what my other favourite wall is...

Okay now, peeps. Hope you're all doing well and enjoying the winter sunshine...I know I am. It's been glorious this year.

I'll finish with a pic of one other little thing I made at PC. A lot of people don't know that you can cut the dies with lots of different materials. Steel rule dies (the big thick ones) are my fav because they cut the most stuff.

There's acetate, bubble wrap, pizza box cardboard, thick chipboard, felt, fabric, cork, tulle and plastic on that there string. It looks a little Christmassy, but it's not supposed to be.

Anyway, bye for now.

Talk soon :o)

Sizzix + Hero Arts

Just found these and thought you might like to see.

They're all the stamps with matching embossing folders from Hero Arts and Sizzix.

(Scroll down)

I do love hunting around for things...

The holly set is still my fav - what a winner.

Hotcakes, people, hotcakes.



I've been on the look out for new punches to show you, but there's not much around. Martha's releasing a few Halloween ones, as is EK Success. And the only other ones I've seen, I've already shown you.

Will see what happens with the old punchos later in the year. Maybe some Christmas ones are coming out...

Bye now!

:o)

Ah ha!

Have you ever wanted a background stamp with a matching embossing folder?

I have.

Once I was trying to use the crossword background stamp from Hero Arts and I thought an embossing folder to match would've been great.

Or what about a polka dot stamp to match your favourite polka dot embossing folder?

Well...check it out.

Sizzix and Hero Arts have teamed up and come out with background stamps and matching embossing folders.

Very cool...like seriously c-ooool.

See the video here.

Lovely!

Framelits again...

...from Sizzix.

I really like these!

The bike set really caught my eye.

Below are the three images that they show you. Their intended use (which I like), the dies and the stamps.





 

The thing about the dies is that you can place them around the stamped image and see exactly where you need to cut.

Check out this video to see what I mean. A very good idea.

The Fancy Squarey dies (not their real name!) are nice - hotcakes, I reckon.

Click here to see the dies for the reindeer.

Click here to see the dies for the snowman.

Fun.

Oh, last thing - just saw this video...new Flip-its dies. Love these. Can totally see them working with punch art...the circle one's my fav...

New from Sizzix

They're doing dies that look like the Nestabilities from Spellbinders....good on them.

Check them out here - new Framelits - be sure to click View All to see all the sets. That Fancy Square-y type one is going to go like hotcakes, I reckon.

PS. What are hotcakes anyway? Scones? Cupcakes? Just askin'...

A really snazzy idea...

...that I wish I'd thought of!

Want to turn this square into...

...this rectangle?

Or this square...

...into this smaller one?

Watch here to find out how!

So easy - love it - and thought you might like to see too. 

Thank you, I Teach Stamping lady. 

:o)

Ah, some nice cards this time...

Yes, up the top there I said some nice cards, but they are, in fact, the same card. 

The same card taken at different times of the year, that is. 

April, ie. autumn. 

September, ie. spring. 

Huge difference, hey? 

I don't alter my photos in Photoshop or anything tricky like that, what you see is what I took. I like the spring one the best because of the cosy, yellow glow. 

Yes, it's sideways. 

I like it.  

And I love that Donut Chain punch from EK. It totally rocks. 

I discovered this new die today. It's a Bigz one called Flower, 3D Fringed. What do you think? Looks kinda like my flower up there. 

When you're over on the Sizzix website, make sure you click on the grey 'line' icon on the left of the picture. See it? 

It shows you the actual graphic of the die cut. Only just discovered that myself. Makes life so much easier because some of those dies are hard to figure out when you just see the pic on the front.   

Now I didn't just post this card to talk about die and the time of year I took the photos, I posted it to show you the other cards it sparked. 

A repeat, if you will.

Repeats, actually. 

Remember the redo, repeat, revamp and re-something else concept that I've talked about before? 

Well, stay tuned more!

:o)

Sizzix die request

Hey, I just saw these in my files and thought, Wow, they'd make great Sizzix dies...

I really like the postage stamp one - it's about 6" x 6".

And the scallop circle one with all the little scallops.

And the scallop square one, which is why it's in the post too.

Okay, so there's three, but if I had to pick one, I'd pick the postage stamp edge because there's nothing like that out there and it'd work great for man cards.

Thoughts?

Thanks to Angie for the bear punch art - she used the scallop circle for the face, which I loved.

Sigh, looking at these makes me want to sit down and do something now. Again, if I had to choose, I'd make the top one again. Love it.

I don't often mix patterned paper with punch art like this, should try to do it more often.

Oh yes, the shapes I'd like to be dies are actually punch out shapes from Lily Bee. Really enjoyed using them.

Bye now!

Pretty bunting, garland...

banner or pennants!

These guys have lots of names - I tend to go with bunting most of the time.

And I agree with Melissa Goodsell - they're hard to photograph. She mentioned it recently and I nodded my head in agreement. Yep, I'm hearing ya.

Here's my photographing attempt.

If you visit Photo Continental, you would've seen it before.

It was made using the Sizzix XL Banner die.

The die comes with the three big triangles (wavy one - least favourite, straight triangle - can't see well and the scallop triangle in pink there). It also cuts an oval in each scallop triangle, but I covered them up with the circle. There's a heart on the die too. And even maybe something else.

You can see the straight triangle here.

Dies are so great. Cut and they fit together perfectly. Imagine trying to cut these suckers by hand. No way.

Ah, pretty flowers.

Eight six petal flowers crunched up and stuck together with a brad and spayed with some Glimmer Mist that you can't see, unfortunately.

And a last attempt to try to get a full shot of it.

As is usual, it looks better in real life.

My sister saw this...

...in real life on the weekend and she thought it looked better. Things usually do!

Honestly, it's there and I take a photo and post it and then I see the photo and go, "Far out, why doesn't it just look the same as in real life?" It's one of life's mysteries, for sure.

Bye now!

While we're at it...

...and making wish lists, here are some other things I'm liking.

Tim Holtz's Tattered Florals die. It's out of stock everywhere over here as far as I can tell - it's even out of stock on Sizzix's website. It's been soooo popular. No matter, it'll come back. The machines are probably cranking them out as we speak. Actually, probably not. They're probably doing the new ones, but they'll do some more Tattered Florals eventually.

This ornament die from Sizzix. I'm hoping it's the shape I think it is. Hard to tell sometimes.

I do like this Merry and Bright die. I'd like to cut the word Merry out and add Christmas in stickers below it.

Tim Holtz embossing folders - December Calendar and Holiday Words.

Some of these Sizzix + Basic Grey embossing folders. Nice.

Mini Baroque Die - goes with the bigger one. I think it goes inside the bigger one actually?

Mini Ornamental Die - goes with the bigger one too.

This Layered Flowers #6 has a lot of potential.

And lastly, so does this Tag and Bookplates die if you're into tags. I know a lot of people are. Ali Edwards does a December Daily album each year and Tim does a 12 Tags of Christmas each year. He's going to do it again this year and the tag die will sell out, I guarantee it!

Oooh, I just linked the tag over and saw the image for the first time. The tag is magnetic and the bookplates are regular and the reinforcer comes with it too. That is, you can cut a reinforcer for your tag - you know, manilla tag, brown reinforcer? This die is definitely on my list now, so much potential with it. I reckon it'll be a 'get out of the way, I'm coming through' job for a lot of ladies! ha ha. We all know what we like and we don't want anyone to stand in our way of getting it!

Things this post says about me:

1. I love tools.

2. I love dies.

3. I love embossing folders.

I love things that have longevity.

They last for a long time.

They don't go out of fashion.

They can be used a billion ways.

(As if I'd ever use them a billion ways, but the potential is there!)

Yep, give me some tools and I'm a happy girl.

You?

What floats your boat?

Rocks your world?

Calls your name?

Makes you want to sit down and create?

Sets of cards and Cuttlebug vs Big Shot

This is one of my favourite things to do when I have the time.

That is, make sets of cards.

I mean, I've got all the stuff out, so I might as well make more than one, right? And of course one card leads to another and another.

All these below are made using October Afternoon papers, Rock Candy Stickles on the Martha butterfly, a stamp I've had for yonks, Hero Arts ink (their yellowy chalk ink called, what's it called? Poppy, that's it) and some tiny type alphas. Not sure who makes the ones I used, but I like them because they put enough Hs and Is on the sheet for me. My original plan was to use all different sorts of alphas, but these worked best, and lucky for me I had enough for all the cards.

Oh, and hello, red buttons. I used red buttons. A staple in this crafting kitchen. Like denim, red buttons seem to go with everything.

I just noticed I used a variety of border punches along the bottom too. Some have two strips, some have one.

The one right above is from EK Success. The one above that is too. The one above that is Martha. I like some punches that have patterns in them and some that are just borders. I like punches, what can I say?

I also like decorative scissors. They really do rock when used sparingly. No cutting around the entire photo with deco scissors here. Just subtle use and you're good to go. I use the scallop ones the most - from Fiskars. I really am glad I didn't chuck them all out when they went out of fashion. I know some people did and they've had to re-purchase.

Ever chuck out anything you've then had to replace? I know of a lady who had a Cuttlebug, bought a Big Shot, sold her Cuttlebug, missed her Cuttlebug and bought another one! Now she's probably going to sell her Big Shot.

And on that. I have both the Big Shot and the Cuttlebug. I used the Cuttlebug for about 18 months. I got the Big Shot and used it exclusively for a while. Just recently I used the Cuttlebug again and loovved it. Realised I missed it.

It's cuter.

It's easier to use.

It's got the X-Factor. Remember I said that recently? It does.

That being said, the Sizzix rocks. It really does, but what I think puts me off the Sizzix sometimes is the mucking around with the spacer plate and the tabs and whatever.

And the shimming, oh the shimming when you're using Nestabilities (embossing them). I forget what to do a lot of the time and then when I have to teach someone else (Hi, Mum!), well, I can't remember and we have to figure it out all over again. The same applies with the Nestabilities in the Cuttlebug too, so that's the same between them. And Nestabilities aren't from Sizzix or Provo, so what do we expect, really? You've gotta do a bit of mucking around to make them work in a different company's machine. We're lucky they actually do work if we're truthful about it.

Anyway, stick with Cuttlebug brand dies and embossing folders in the Cuttlebug and it's dead easy.

Stick with the newest Sizzix stuff in the Big Shot and it's easy. Not dead easy, but easy.

Swap stuff between these two and it's easy.

Start adding different brands into either of them and the ole head can start swimming! Particularly if you add a lot of different brands. And particularly if you're embossing.

My point? There's just not as much swimming with the Cuttlebug.

My second point? The Big Shot is a smoother, sturdier machine.

My third point? This is why there's always debate about which is best.

My fourth point? I don't know of anyone who has regretted getting a Cuttlebug.

My fifth point? I think the Multi-purpose platform and all the flaps that come with it have caused some confusion with the Big Shot. I see why they did it that way, but still, confusion. Confusion can = regret.

My sixth point? The Big Shot can cut everything on the market. The Cuttlebug couldn't until recently - bring on their new 6 x 12 extender plates.

My seventh point? Spellbinders have blown Sizzix's "it cuts everything on the market" claim to fame with their new big dies that add onto their current ones. I linked you over to the new machine (Grand Calibur) and the new dies a week or so ago, I think it was. They cut up to 8 1/2 x 11. Very good, but they don't fit in the Cuttlebug or Big Shot, so am I going to buy a new machine? No. Obviously Spellbinders had to manufacture a new machine that would work with their new dies. It doesn't work with all the current dies on the market, so I'm not sure how many people will buy it. What do you think?

My eighth point? Provo was really generous when they included a C plate with their machine. That was purely so their customers could use other thin brands of dies in their machine, ie. Nestabilities and Papertrey Ink. They're the other brands I use and they work perfectly with the A, B and C plates.

My ninth point? Die cutting and embossing rocks, so it's worth figuring out all the sandwiches you need for cutting and embossing all the dies you have.

My tenth point? Don't be like me and write these sandwich formulas on bits of paper that you've put in some hard-to-reach place. Put 'em where you can see them. Put 'em in a little book. Put 'em near the machine. Write them on the machine! Seriously, write 'em down and refer to them often. Now, if you'd only take your own advice, Debra.

My eleventh, and final, point? Get a die cutting machine, just don't ask me which one!

Oh, and after all that yakking on about die-cutting, I totally forgot about the cards!

Well, here they are with, wouldn't you know it? No die-cutting. 

:o)