Bigshot RIP

After 12 years of hard use, my original Big Shot finally gave up.  The rollers locked and wouldn't move with a die trapped between them.  My friend and I tried desperately to save the die.  We gave up on the old tired machine, but it refused to return the die to us.  The machine was dismantled with the use of screwdrivers and hammers.  Here is some of the results:

The die remains trapped.  Ellison really made that machine tamper proof.  This machine was an original made by Ellison before Sizzix bought the rights to it.  R.I.P.

One more butterfly card

Earlier this week, we had a lot of rain here in the desert.  That forced me to stay inside to play with my new toys from the holiday sales.  In the process of designing cards, I die cut extra butterfly elements.  Now, I'm trying to finish up using those die cuts.  Here's what I did with some of the left-overs.  The Hello die is cut out and inlaid into the background.

More butterfly cards

While I was designing the previous cards, I had some dies cut out.  I turned them into cards for my stash.

Front of card

Inside of card

Butterfly cards

I'm still playing with my recently purchased dies.  I used Memory Box butterfly dies for both of these cards.  The first one is a shadow box card with designs on both front and inside of card and the second is a regular card with all design on front of card.  The background is made with watercolors, using Twinkling H2Os and coarse salt.

Front of Card

Inside shadow box

Front of card

Inside of card

More balloon cards

I recently purchased a set of balloon dies from Simon Says Stamp.  There are 5 sizes of balloon dies in the set.  I used the 3 smaller ones and cut each of them from 3 colors of cardstock.  I arranged them on an embossed background and added strings and bows to each.  The strings don't show well in the photos, but they go to bottom of card.  This resulted in 3 birthday cards for my stash.  The sentiment dies are by Memory Box.

Balloon birthday card

I splurged during all the holiday sales.  This is my first card using the new dies.  The balloon die is from a set by Simon Says Stamp, as is the sentiment.  The balloon is cut from glossy gold cardstock.  The background is from a very old Mat Stack from Die Cuts With a View.  I added adhesive with my old Xyron before cutting the sentiment.  The string is some gold embroidery floss.

Masculine thank you card

I made this card by watercoloring the background, then die cutting the Fresh Pine Curved Border by Memory Box from green cardstock.  I added a wide border with the same cardstock by using 2 rectangle dies from the Hero Arts Infinity set.  These are mounted on a cream cardbase .  The sentiment is a gold metallic sticker.

Thank you cards

After Christmas, it's time to make thank you cards.  I received a darling tea cup die from a friend and decided to use it to make a thank you card.  I die cut 2 of them - 1 from blue cardstock and one from white, then used the cut out pieces in the opposite color.  This resulted in 2 cards.

I will wait to add a sentiment to the second card, when I decide where it will go.  I have more cards to make, but these are finished today.

More Christmas cards

After I mailed the cards I had made previously, I decided I needed a few more.  This card was made with some new dies and stamps from Taylored Expressions.

Christmas cards

I got very late in creating Christmas cards this year.  I ordered some new supplies in recent sales and used some of them to create my cards this year.  I made them all with the same basic design, but changed the colors of some the cardstock.  I used what I had on hand.  The background is made with pearlescent cardstock.

The large holly background die is from Taylored Expressions.  The sentiment stamp is a very old stamp by Inkadinkadoo, embossed with Chinese Red embossing powder by Ranger.  I used Spellbinders dies for the ovals.  The holly berries are made with a red Pearl Pen by Viva.