Sometimes what seemed like a good idea…

turns out to be, well, a learning experience. This might turn out to be a long post, but if you like glitter (who doesn’t like glitter?) and you like die-cutting (again…) it might be worth reading it through.

So it started out with my wanting to make a card based on one I saw by Amy Wanford in the recently issued Card Creations Vol. 10 by Paper Crafts Magazine. This is my version of her card based on the supplies that I had:
Very simple to make. I used Paper Smooches’ Metropolis set and stamped it on some paper from Teresa Collins’ Everyday Moments pad (more on that later). The city scene is actually an outline, so I colored it in with a black Copic marker. I cut a strip of black cardstock with a scalloped die and adhered it to the bottom of the stamped piece, rounded the top corners and stamped the greeting. I then adhered a strip of double-sided sticky tape to the piece and covered it with glitter. The thing is, I thought I had some light blue glitter to match the printed paper, which is actually white with a light blue grid. But no, I only had turquoise glitter, so I airbrushed the piece with my BG15 Copic marker and there was no longer a problem! Then I stuck it onto a white folded card using foam adhesive dots. A small lesson there, but not the biggie.

Since I had the glitter out, I decided to try something I had been thinking about (danger, danger!). I had bought some of the Scor-Tape 6x6 double-adhesive tiles from Kate (you know, i {heart} papers Kate) with the idea of die-cutting them into shapes and glittering one side of them. Of course, I decided to try this idea out using the most intricate die I had – the Vivienne butterfly by Memory Box (which Kate seems to be out of stock on). The first thing I have to tell you about using this die, and any of the other more intricate Memory Box dies, is to make sure your cutting plates are NEW, or at least un-etched from previous uses. You will have much less angst. Trust me.

For my first attempt at this, I stuck one side of a piece of the Scor-Tape sheet to a piece of cardstock, and then ran it through my Big Shot with the die facing the Scor-Tape side. I ran it through MANY times, with many arrangements of shims, and just couldn’t get it to cut through cleanly. You can see the inner pieces I just couldn’t get out, and the mangled pieces near the top. What you can’t see is that in trying to get the other pieces out, I tore the back of the cardstock, which is very frail because of the delicate nature of the die-cut. You also can’t see the very long time and severe aggravation incurred in getting even this far. Fail.

The second time, I decided to die-cut the adhesive sheet alone, then while it was still in the die, peel off one side of the backing paper, stick it onto a piece of (thin) cardstock, and run it through the Big Shot again (and again, and again) with various shim arrangements. This worked a little better, and I was, with somewhat less aggravation, able to disengage it from the die, peel off the other side of the backing, and dip it in glitter.
Better. A little sloppy looking. You can see where the adhesive kind of missed on the edges a little, and there were a couple of small spots where it had not stuck at all. I touched a bit of Mono Multi Adhesive on those spots and re-glittered them. All in all, I think that this Scor-Tape adhesive sheet idea is much better suited to less delicate die-cuts, and I will use it for those at a later time.

HOWEVER. I was not ready to give up my glittery butterfly idea quite yet. I remembered that I still had some glittered paper sheets from an earlier order from Kate. Let’s try this again.
Betterer! It cut through cleanly (again, with a couple of trips through the Big Shot and some creative shimming). However, in the process of trying to get it out of the die, it stretched and got kind of warped. Still, not ripped, not sloppy looking, and so much better than before!

OK. There was one more trick I had figured out while working with the Tessatina border die a few weeks ago – putting a piece of waxed paper between the die and the cardstock. It helped the die-cut release much more easily from the die.
Voila! Perfect! That sucker pretty much popped out of the die, and the waxed paper peeled off easily. I’m not sure exactly how I’m going to use this little beauty, but I’ll show you when I do.

So the moral of this not-so-little missive is that if you want a delicate, glittery die-cut, use this awesome glittery paper. It’s just the right weight for die-cutting and will give you perfect results.

Oh, and the other moral: A little piece of waxed paper can go a long way in eliminating the frustration of getting intricate pieces out of a die.

Happy die-cutting!