Sunburst Valentine

Can you believe that it is already the middle of January? I'm still putting away Christmas decorations but I don't feel too bad because we were a little late in getting them up this year!

Besides un-decorating, I've been enjoying a little down time and catching up with some Netflix tv series. I'm watching Prison Break and it is quite exciting!

Today, after delivering my latest workshop orders, I had the chance to play. As sometimes is the case, I started making one card but it morphed into another! The card today was to be a Valentine card but the background that I created didn't work with my concept so I will save it for another card.

Today's card is 5 x 7" and uses a Melon Mambo card base. I started by creating my heart embellishment. I chose one of the Heart Framelits Collection dies and laid it over top of my Sunburst die to see if my idea would work. It did!

I used the Sunburst die to cut out a section of Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer paper that would fit the heart die. I glued the die cut to some Melon Mambo card stock and then used the heart die to cut out the heart. I then used two heart dies, with Melon Mambo card stock, to cut out a frame for the die cut.

The frame was embossed with the retired Swiss Dots embossing folder and then I used a sponge dauber with Blackberry Bliss to ink the inside of the frame.

I used the smallest Hearts die to cut two hearts from Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer paper and then punched four hearts from Melon Mambo card stock using the heart from the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack.
I sandwiched a piece of Silver Metallic Thread between the two glimmer hearts as well as the card stock ones and adhered them together with Fast Fuse Adhesive. I used a sponge dauber with Blackberry Bliss to ink the edges of each complete heart.

The three heart strings were sandwiched between the heart and its frame, and the frame was adhered using Fast Fuse Adhesive.

I cut five, one inch strips of a paper from the Have A Cuppa DSP pack and adhered them to the front of the card base using Fast Fuse Adhesive.

Using the heart from the Occasions Paper Piercing Pack along with my Stampin' Pierce Mat and Paper Piercing Tool, I pierced holes around the framed heart. I then used my 1/8" Circle Punch to punch larger holes. I sewed around the heart using the 1/8" Bermuda Bay Stitched Ribbon, finishing with a bow at the top.

The sentiment from the Bloomin' Love Stamp Set was stamped with Melon Mambo on Whisper White and then die cut using the arrow die from the retired On Film Framelits Dies. A sponge dauber and Bermuda Bay was used to ink the edges.

The completed heart embellishment was adhered to the card front using Dimensionals, leaving the hearts to dangle as they may. The arrow was adhered using triple Dimensionals on one side and a single Dimensional on the heart side.

I'm entering this card in The Paper Players Challenge:

and in the Global Design Project:

Now that it is complete, I'm quite liking this card even though it is not the card I set out to create! Have you started working on Valentine's Day cards yet? Drop me a link below and let me know!

Solid Gold Tips For Using The Bloomin' Heart Thinlits Die

I had such fun playing with my new supplies today! Yesterday, I created a list in Evernote of all the ideas I had for cards using the new products, and linked this list to all the new products I owned that it referenced. This morning, I sat down in my craft room to make one of the cards.

I cut a standard card base from Blackberry Bliss card stock and then used the Sunburst Thinlits Die to die cut Gold Glimmer paper. I adhered it to my card front using the Fine Tip Glue Pen and then cut off the excess.

Next, I die cut the heart using the Bloomin' Hearts Thinlits Die. Stampin Up recommends that you cut this intricate die using the Precision Plate on the Magnetic Platform and running it back and forth through the Big Shot several times to get a clean cut. Then they also recommend using the new Big Shot Die Brush to get all the little pieces out of the die.

I have neither the Precision Plate or the Big Shot Die Brush so I will share with you how I got a very clean cut and was able to lift my die right off the die cut and didn't have to poke all the little bits out of the die cut either!

This is the sandwich that I used for my Big Shot with 7 being the bottom of the sandwich:

1. Cutting Pad
2. Bloomin' Heart Thinlits Die
3. Card stock
4. Dryer Sheet, left folded as it came from the box
5. Cutting Pad
6. Metal Shim
7. Magnetic Platform

I ran this sandwich through and back in the Big Shot twice. It was a bit of a tight fit but I did not have to force it through.

I then removed the two cutting pads from the Magnetic Platform, took off the top one, and picked up the Bloomin' Heart Thinlits Die. If you try to do this on top of the Magnetic Platform, the magnet is too strong to do this easily.

I then was able to peel off the card stock from around the die cut heart. Next, I peeled the dryer sheet, with die cut attached, off the bottom cutting pad. Then, starting with a solid flower section of the die cut, I carefully peeled it back, carefully lifting the fine edges back from the dryer sheet, leaving the little bits of the die cut behind on the dryer sheet!

Now this method worked successfully for me but every Big Shot is calibrated a little differently so you may experience different results.

I used the Fine Tip Glue Pen to put glue only on the solid flower parts of the die cut and then placed it on top of the Sunburst die cut. I placed a piece of scrap paper over top to allow me to smooth it down, and then left my iPad sitting on top of it for a few minutes to ensure that the glue held.

To die cut these flowers it is necessary to use a slightly different method to that of the flower thinlits that we have used up to now. The flower dies that match the flowers embedded in the heart die cut are "closed" dies meaning that you cannot see through them to allow you to place them over the stamped image. Both the dies and the stamps, however, have a tab at the top of them.

Next, I stamped the solid flowers from the Bloomin' Hearts Stamp Set on Blackberry Bliss card stock using Versamark, keeping the tab of the stamps at the top. I heat embossed them with Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder.

To be able to die cut the stamped flowers successfully, I made a template for the flower dies by cutting out each of them from card stock being sure to keep the die tab at the top. Next, I placed my stamped images on my cutting pad and placed the template over the embossed flower and ensuring it was lined up correctly.

I remembered to snap some photos to show you how I used the template for the closed die. You will catch a glimpse of my well used bottom cutting pad in the photos!

Template in place over gold-embossed flower stamp

Die set in place in the template

When using small dies on the Magnetic Platform, you sometimes find that they change positions due to the polarity of the magnets in the platform itself. Because of this, I used some Washi to tape the die and card stock in place before running through the Big Shot.

Once cut out, I used my Flower Tools to shape the flowers a bit and then adhered them to the heart die cut using Glue Dots. I added a rhinestone to the centre of each flower.

Finally, I decided to use a folded banner for my sentiment. I cut a piece of card stock 4.5 x .75" and then stamped the sentiment in Versamark using my MISTI for alignment. I heat embossed it using the Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder.

Next, I used the Triple Banner Punch to flag each end of the banner. I used the Simply Scored tool to score .5" and .75" from each end of the banner. Each .75" scored line was a mountain fold and the remaining scored lines were valley folds. This gave me a banner that stands up in the middle with two flat banner ends–a nice touch that you don't often see.

I think the Gold Glimmer and the Blackberry Bliss paired with the Sunburst and Bloomin' Heart dies makes this card very dramatic!

Have you got your dies yet? Place an order with me today!

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