Spellbinders Butterfly Nestabilities

For my new Spellbinders Butterfly Nestabilities, I have to thank Liz from Making a Lasting Impression for sponsoring this project. I can highly recommend her as a very reliable and efficient supplier. In this day and age, it's good to find someone like her to buy from.

For this project you need a 4" x 4" card and various paper butterfly shapes. Position the largest butterfly die on the cardstock as shown taking care not to cut the centre fold. Stick the patterned paper to
the card front and inside front.








Open the card and emboss the back inside. You will need a Tan embossing mat to do this, or an embossing pen. If you are looking for a tan mat, which is the only one to use in the Cuttlebug - you can purchase these in a special 6" x 6" size at Making a Lasting Impression. What an appropriate name since the tan mat certainly does make a deep lasting impression!



On the front of the card I have used the small butterfly to make an aperture.






My finished card with a bit of wire, chalking and stamping.
I think these Butterfly dies would make lovely novelty cards for any occasion, or gift tags or for a journalling and embellishments on a scrapbook page.















I enjoyed making this card so much that I started again! This time I cover a 5 x 5 card with one of my treasured papers and and cut a number of different sized butterflies.





After sticking the large butterfly onto card I debossed with the Divine Swirls folder and cut out a small butterfly aperture and inserted a small gold butterfly for contrast.



Assembling the card was a crafting pleasure. A bit of wire, a few gems, chalk and a bit of cutting and glueing ... and I had this.....






I think my butterfly dies are going to be used a lot!!!

Hope you like these cards and feel tempted to try them. Happy Cuttling,

Spellbinders Nestabilitie Squares

In this week's tutorial I have used my new Square Nesties to make a triangle card. I have Jane and Andrea of Hollow Gate Farm Craft Class to thank for showing me the idea, I have just tweaked it to fit the Nesties.

Materials:
A4 cardstock
2 patterned papers
The largest square in the set and the next down

Cut three of the largest squares and score corner to corner









For the patterned paper shapes. Use the smaller square just as a template, cut and tape into position on 2 of the squares

Then fasten together









Tape the back of the third square








and position as shown here on the back of the card





The front of the card will now look like this







Cut a slit on the back panel









To complete my card I decorated the inside




and then the front








My finished card . The image is a Sugar Nellie Stamp. The card folds flat and goes in a 5" square envelope.



I was really pleased with how this card turned out.
I hope I have managed not to complicate the instructions and that you will like your card too.

Tippy Thursday #4 Spellbinders Nestabilities

Week 4 - what have I got for you today??????

Well lets start with Nestabilities and the confusion they cause us!!!!

First you have various shapes: Circle, Oval, Square, and Rectangle. Sounds straight forward enough. But, then we begin with Standard Large, then Standard Small, followed by Classic, Petite, Scalloped, Pinking, Inverted Scalloped. The list is growing and therefore the choices and the confusion as to what is what!

First lets start with Large and Small - this rule covers all of the shapes because they all interact in the same way.
For example: The largest Large in any of the Nestie shapes is the largest die. If you placed the largest Small shape inside this, and continued the pattern down to the smallest Small you would have a complete set of dies graduating down in 1/8" increments. So you can choose to have both sets of Large and Small , or go for just one set when the difference between the dies would be 1/4". A tip for you - if you are looking at Large and Small die sets - and cannot tell the difference - look for the smallest die - that is the Small set! This applies to any of the Nestie set of dies.

Nestabilitie Circles.

Standard Large (S4-114) is a basic circle that co-ordinates with all LARGE die sets with shaped edges.

Classic Scalloped Circle Large (S4 - 124)
Petite Scalloped Circle Large (S4 - 115)
Pinking Circle Large (4 - 171)
Classic Inverted Scalloped Large (S4 -194)

Standard Small (S4 - 116) is a basic circle that co-ordinates with all SMALL die sets with shaped edges.

Classic Scalloped Small (S4 - 125)
Petite Scalloped Small ( S4 - 117)
Pinking Circle Small (S4 - 172)
Classic Inverted Scalloped Small (S4 - 195)

Final tip: The difference between Classic Scalloped and Petite Scalloped is the number of scallops round the edge. Classic - 22 Petite - 37.

Next week I will list the Oval Nestie details, but for now enough is enough - I'm getting confused, but sincerely hope you are not, and that this info will be useful.

Tippy Thursday #3

Hi There, Tippy Thursday again and this week I have found an absolutely brill tip for you.

If you have any of the Spellbinders Nestabilities, or are thinking of investing in any, you need to check this out because it will give you insight into just what these dies can do!!!! Melanie's great idea for making new shapes out of your exisiting Nesties. Check it out - now! IT IS A MUST! I'd never thought of this one - WOW, what a tip! Thanks Melanie.

I can't follow this up it's just sooooo good, but what I'm going to do over the next week is to try and sort out a list of names. What names you might ask - well come back next week and I'll tell you?!?!!?!?

Have a good week,

Cuttlebug, Nestie Die Cuts and Adhesive

This week I'm only doing a short tutorial because I'm on holiday - so as you read this I (hopefully) will be lying in the sun.

The subject is Die Cuts and how you stick them to your projects. Obviously bigger is easier, but smaller is more difficult. I'm thinking of alphabets, swirls, and filagree and I'm sure there are others dies out there that I don't know about!

I have the Harmony alphabet and I like to link the letters as you will see in future projects. Sticking them down on embossed cardstock can be messy, so when I was given a tip by my Cuttlebug Buddy, Chrissie, I was more than pleased because it worked really well. Chrissie is a keen cuttler, and a very talented crafter producing some stunning cards. She works her bug well and creatively and you'll enjoy a visit to her blog.


This is Chrissie's tip:

Double-sided Sellotape. Well we all know this tape is invaluable for matting and laying but this an extra use. Chrissie tells me that you can buy 12 x 12 sheets of DST. I have a roll of 2" (this fits my offcuts from square cards) and works well. I've also seen self-adhesive pads DCWV do one.

To make this work - cover the underside of a small piece of card or paper with the DST, and place tape side down on the B plate with the die on top. I say this because I have cut so many letters the wrong way round, it's very easy to do!

After running through the bug, all you have to do is peel off the backing and stick on your project, with NO glue marks showing. I like this because I'm a bit heavy handed with the glue pot - I never seem to get the right amount and I hate to see marks on the card. This way you can a use a light weight paper to match your project, and you can also make your own stickers.

If anyone has any other tips on adhesives that they would like to share, please get in touch with me and I will pass them on linking you.

Now, I'd like to show you another flower - I used this die cut and
painted it with nail varnish. I don't know another crafter who doesn't look for ways of how to use bits and pieces before things go in the bin. I definitely fit this category and I even have my hubby on the lookout! so this flower has been made from a recycled object, BUT WHAT?

Answers on a postcard please - NO, ONLY JOKING, but you can leave a comment if you think you know what object and material I've made it from.

Have a good week, hope you'll drop by next week when I will be previewing a new project using the Cuttlebug Stylized Flowers Folder. Don't miss this it will open your eyes to using folders!

A Circular Scalloped Nesties Card

Since my tutorial of a Circular Nestie card has been a so popular, I thought you might like to see a slightly different version, but still using the same technique. I just made my Penny Black image pop over the fold - and showed kitty balancing on a glitter ball.

If you like these shaped cards, you will find a different shape on my other blog which is called Ikki's Corner. You are very welcome to pop over there and your comments are always appreciated - I love hearing from you.