Playing with the Big Shot

Yesterday while tidying up my desk to do some work I got sidetracked by the Big Shot, I had only had a little play with it since April, and thought it was time to do some more experimenting, especially as I had been talking about it to Sandy of Dangling By A Thread and we decided we would have a virtual play together :)

This set of three below are from left clockwise:
Cut with Tim Holtz 'Baroque' die



Aluminium foil bonded to grunge paper coloured with alcohol ink, organza applied with Fuse FX and embossed with a Paisley embossing folder, this is gorgeous in real life I just can't capture the colours in the photo.



Aluminium foil bonded to grunge paper with double sided adhesive sheet, coloured with alcohol inks



Metal mesh bonded to pearlescent card with double sided adhesive sheet, think I will give this a rub with Staze-On ink pad as it looks a bit insipid.



The next three are a mixture of materials.
Top left: Pelmet Vilene, coloured with Adirondack Colourwash Spray, embossed with script and white acrylic dry brushed over the surface.
Top right:Gold card,embossed, I was going to rub the sandpaper over the surface, but can't get near my cupboard :)



This is the packaging that the Tim Holtz embossing folders come in,
I saw this tip on Tim Holtz video here
once embossed I coloured it with alcohol inks.



Below are the Spellbinders medallion dies, these dies are thin metal and are meant for cards, I found anything fibrous didn't cut very well, it did cut thin metal, pelmet vilene and grunge paper okay, I added extra shims and put it through a few times turning it each time.
I found that the Lutradur, fibrous paper and watercolour paper didn't cut well
To be fair these are quite intricate dies and I think the Nestabilities they make of frame shapes would do better on the more difficult fabrics.
Left shows the thin adhesive pelmet vilene inked and foiled, you will find how to do this on our free tutorial at Fibre In-Form Foil with Fusible Vilene,
the small medallion below on the right is from a coke can. Right is standard pelmet vilene,



For this one I didn't put the centre in and embossed the finished piece.



I thought I would try out some ordinary metal stencils and one of my home made stencils, this is aluminium foil adhered to cotton wadding, I was surprised how well the home made stencil did.
hard to get a picture of these darn metal effect.









Aluminium foil bonded to grunge paper and a mask was embossed, or I should say de-bossed as the mask is thin it won't push the design through the grunge paper, so you place it on the foil side.
The next one is aluminium foil on grunge paper and TH embossing folder,



I like the way the embossed part goes shiny and the surrounding areas are matt



Very subtle with the mask, maybe if this was backed with cotton wadding it would show up more.



Thought I would show this one, when I first tried the machine in April I cut a scroll in a coke can and some Lutradur



and then found this piece of fabric, it is crumpled aluminium foil painted with alcohol inks, glued to scrim, how to create this fabric can also be found here at Fibre In-Form in A Fascination with Foil free tutorial. the Tim Holtz Scroll die cuts through very easily.



This aluminium foil covered in transfer foil, was put over a Ten Second Studio mould, I had to play around with different plates shims and embossing mats to get it through, don't force the handle.
I think the aluminium foil was too thin to get good image but will try some metal shim, these wonderful moulds are from LB Crafts and they have a sale on at the moment on the moulds.
phew I was only going to put a few photo's to show what I have been up to :)

Another new toy

I recently bought this book binder,made by We R Memory Keepers, nice and easy to operate, push down lever easy on the hands, the little pegs can be pulled out to stop the holes being punched and an extension slides out of the side for punching 12" board,also a flap drops down to go even wider, only had a little play so far but have lots of plans.






Back in April when I got my Big Shot die cutter, my son and his partner bought me some embossing folders and said there were more to come on pre-order, well they have arrived.



Look at all those wonderful Tim Holtz textures waiting to be applied :)

Its been a great month so far

April is my birthday month and it started off well with these wonderful ATC's that started arriving at the beginning of the month.I am part of Kate Norths ATC Birthday Swap, there are about 30 of us and we send to whoever has a birthday each month, its great fun especially being on the receiving end.

I have spread them over the hearth along with some of the cards that came with them a wonderful variety.





Thursday my friend Jenny came over with this beautiful scarf that she had made for me, she makes the most beautiful felt, she doesn't blog much these days, hint hint but you can still see lots of her wonderful work on her blog HERE





Below is this wonderful book made by my eldest sons girlfriend, my son made the box to put it in, if you go HERE and scroll down to 'Regency Mini Album' there are pictures and a video of each page.



Friday was the big day, DH brought home this huge cake, it was delicious,I could have eaten the whole thing by myself, luckily the family helped me out.



He also bought me the Sizzix Big Shot, I had my eye on one for a while and I am looking forward to having a good play



I had some Tim Holtz cutting dies and Sizzix embossing folders I haven't had time to have a good play but did try the Lutradur and coke can metal, they worked great



There were lots more goodies my other son and daughter in law bought me Silver/Amber earrings, some wonderful African type beads, a hand made book and my favourite style of purse/wallet, how did DIL know I needed one. I also had a video/slideshow of pictures of my little grandson from birth to now two and a half, and he is singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and at the end says Happy Birthday Nan, aaah brought a tear to my eye :)
Now I have to work out what to spend my birthday money on, don't think I will have too much trouble with that.

I had a laid back day, talked to friends and family far away on the phone, friends visited and a Skype from my little GS, finished off with a take away and a bottle of wine, out for lunch Saturday and a family Christening on the Sunday finished the weekend off perfectly.