Ooops

Just adding links in to challenge blogs only to realise I've posted my last 2 cards on the wrong blog! D'oh it's been a hard week lol.

For those wondering I am still playing with scal, struggling with the design of a template at the mo. It's the cannabilised mermaid card on my other blog. File is pixel perfect and cuts well on my expressions but the score dots arent lining up with ends of the cut lines on someone elses cricut. If anyone fancies doing a test cut for me please just leave a comment with your email addy (I wont publish the comment) & I'll email the file over. Or you can email me at playingwithpaper@googlemail.com

Another anya card

Quite CAS compared to some of my latest cards. If I'm honest this is more me than loads of bling & flowers.

For another playday birthday girl and I've used a layout from sketch n stash.

Papers from first edition, baja breeze cs from SU punched with my new MS patp, swirled lace (I think) crumb cake taffeta ribbon, some pearls and another anya image coloured with copics. I'm still in love with the Elegance card stock from Joanna Sheen and it's rather nice not having to cut the image out because of a line bleed. All I need now is to work out where the light and shade is supposed to go lol.

Anya card

We've got quite a few birthday girls at playday this month and this is for one of them. The rather crooked signpost arm and sign are a semi clear shrink plastic cut with spellbinders dies then heated until they stopped curling. I had to keep going in with the heat and trying to get the arm to go straight but this was as good as it was going to get lol. Copper and pebble alchie inks helped give it an even more rustic appearance.

Layout from sketchsaturday
Papers, first edition, sentiment from SU, paperflowers from WO
Coloured with copics

Important news on scal

SureCutsALot and MakeTheCut have made legally binding confidential agreements with Provocraft to remove cricuts from the range of digital diecutters compatible with their software. This means that unless you have bought scal or mtc you will no longer be able to buy download versions for use with cricuts, at this moment there are still cd versions available but associates have been asked to withdraw them from sale.

Fairy Cuts is at the moment the only software available that will allow you to make your own designs and cut them on a cricut. It's not as easy as scal/mtc but is the only option for new users. How long this will last before PC take legal action no one knows. Provocraft are intending to make their own webbased software available at some point in the future but there are serious issues which need to be remedied before I would even consider looking at it let alone use.

Since the introduction of scal I've been a huge fan and have happily recommended peeps to go with scal & cricuts as an easy but excellent introduction to the world of diy digital diecutting. Without cricut support in the new versions of scal & mtc I can no longer recommend cricuts.

For me the next best thing would be to go with the Pazzles inspiration which has double the cutting power of the cricut. A blackcat cougar would be an excellent choice for those who want to take it even further as it has double the cutting power of the pazzles. Neither machine are low entry prices though starting at over £400 & £500

The new comer on the block is the ecraft craftwell machine being wholesaled in the UK by crafters companion. It does have an entry level pricing but until I've used it myself to know if the original bugs have been ironed out I can not say one way or the other if I think it's a good machine.

Pazzles, black cat cougar & the ecraft are all supported by new versions of scal & mtc.

Words in Frames tut

One of the things I often get asked is how to weld words into frames. It's actually quite easy but there are a few things you need to realise otherwise it's going to get you in a pickle.


These 2 shapes from the scal library might look the same and they will both cut a square frame but they're made from 2 different shapes. The first is made from a frame, the 2nd is 2 squares, 1 inside the other.

Now scal's good but it doesnt know that we're cutting 2 frames, it just thinks it has to cut 1 frame and 2 squares. The fact that the 2 squares create a frame and that there's a square left in the middle of the frame is purely incidental and of no interest to scal.


This is the screen shot taken when we preview the cut, still no difference between the 2.








Using just arial font I've typed in dad in seperate letters so that I can move them all individually. You might want to click on the pic to see how I've overlapped them slightly as well as overlapped the frame.



When we do a cut preview you'll see that scal is going to cut each of the shapes individually and it really doesnt mind that it's going to cut a piece out where they overlap. All it's doing is cutting what it's told to, 6 letters, 1 frame & 2 squares.





Once you're happy with the way you've arranged the letters you need to draw a box around them with the cursor and click weld. I've added a black arrow to show where it is on the properties box.


This is going to be the first time you'll notice a difference in the cutter preview. As you can see with the letters in frame on the left it's going to cut out exactly what we want, welded letters in a frame. The frame we made by drawing 2 boxes will only cut the outer large square. Basically scal thinks that you've glued everything together and wont cut in to the outer square because you've told it not to by using the weld button.

One word of warning, if you use the breakapart function on the frame scal will then treat it as 2 seperate shapes and it will be no different to using 2 squares to create a frame.


This is a tag I made for Tim Holtz 12 tags of christmas.

Instead of using one of scals basic shapes I drew a bauble in psp and erased an oval where the letters are before tracing it in scal and welding the letters to it.











It might not look like the square frame but scal treats it in the same way, a shape with a waste area in the middle.

If you want to have a play with my bauble feel free to. Just save the jpg and file/trace image with scal. Usual copyright applies to it, you're free to make & sell a completed project with it but not cut and sell as diecut or offer/share as a download.

Have fun with it and I'd love to see any finished pics.

Plate rack cards

This was going to be a tutorial on putting my new plate rack design together but when I went to take the photos there really wasnt much to write about them let alone take pics of.

Very easy card to make and whether you're using the heart or basic rectangle (and any future designs) you simply need to score between the dimples. I've gone over the score lines with a pencil in this pic.


Up to you whether you decorate now or after folding. I prefer to decorate flat when using frames then fold but it can be nerve wracking when you've spent ages colouring and handcutting a stamped image.

I've marked M for mountain fold and V for valley fold. If that's gobbledegook the mountain fold is the same fold that you'd make if you were using a normal square card.






I have taken a bit of a liberty and resized the card slightly as I needed it to fit a new stamp. I also imported the heart topper twice, resized one slightly then resized them both at the same time as I enlarged the base card & straight mats (draw a box around them all on the mat and drag to size, use a 12*24 mat if need be, then move pieces you don't want to cut off of the edge of your normal sized mat and you're all ready to go)







Here we go with the finished card. I've used SU cardstock in melon mambo, pacific point and very vanilla and the lotv image is coloured with polychromo pencils.

The vanilla card has been embossed with 2 different papermania embossing folders. I was tempted to colour in the leaves and roses on the border but I don't think it needs it.

Flippin women sentiment, couple of heart shaped brads & a couple of paper roses.

Waterfall card tut

This is a tut for my scalloped waterfall card svgs. In the set there are 2 options for the base one with guide holes (white) and without (lilac) and 2 different tabs. The white tabs are very slightly smaller than the base. This allows a very fine mat effect and doesnt affect the waterfall action.

If you're working without a template each of the scallops are 1/2" wide.



With scallops you don't need to score, just fold at the joins along the main strip of the base.







Using my most beloved tombow glue I've attached the white tab to the bottom of the base. In practise you would decorate the tabs before attaching.

I've shown pics so you can see the difference between the bases and how the smaller tab will look.










Very carefully apply a tiny dap of strong glue inside the next row of circles.








Line the top edge with a tab and hold in place for a second or two while the glue dries.

Repeat for the next 2 tabs.








Fold the top section on the base backwards so that the tabs are all facing outwards.











If using brads now is the time to mark your base so you know where to make your holes. I just make a pencil mark through the gaps.











Gently ease some folded ribbon through the hole and slip the ends through the loop before gently pulling the tails to secure.














It's a good idea to use an eyelet if you're a bit hamfisted like me. When I've pulled the tails I have ripped the card before now. Oops lol








If using brads attach the waterfall to the base. If you arent using brads strong dst underneath will work but I prefer to use thin ds foam.









Gently pull on the ribbon to make sure the waterfall is running freely.







Attach the base & waterfall to your base card. I've cut the waterfall at the design size and mounted it on an A6 card but it will work perfectly well on a 5*7 or a5.

3d flower tut

A huge thankyou to my mate Angiebabe for teaching me how to make 3d flowers from 6 sided punchies. I've been meaning to get the technique translated into an svg file & tutorial since last summer. The files have been made for ages but seeing as the girls are coming to make flower embellies next week I thought I'd better get the tutorial up.

For the tutorial I'm using my scalloped rose svg but it can be done with any symmetrical design of punch or die. You could even use scalloped circle or border punches.


If using my svg file simply drag to the required size and cut from a nice paper. Not worth using card as it's hard work getting it to bend nicely.

If using punches cut the petals down as per the picture. It's going to take 4 punchies.


Using a large embossing tool to gently curl the top edges.











Apply some strong glue to the top of one of the edge petals.

I'm using tombow mono multi. OMG this glue is the business how did I ever not know about it. It's got an amazing grab power within a couple of seconds, even for box tabs. (Knowing that it's repo I even coated the back of some of my ums last night and they're sticking well to the blocks and laminate carriers).



Enough of the raving about glue and on with the tut.
Gently ease the adjoining petal over the top of the glue.












You'll now have a 5 petaled flower that's sitting proud of the mat.









Repeat this step for the 5, 4, and 3 petal pieces. You will now have 4 layers of the flower.










The 2 and 1 petal flower have to be gently rolled before glueing one edge down.












If you feel it's looking a bit flat you can gently ease a pencil inside while the glue is drying.







Using some dimensional glue or tombow to stick the layers into each other. My own preference is pinflair glue gel as it dries clear and doesnt smell. The tombow does work and doesnt need the drying time but I want to make the centres stand proud.


Leave the flower well alone until the glue has had chance to set. Top tip... leave the flowers to dry on some nonstick cooking mats. I've have a few stick to the card they were standing on and my marble chopping board has to be scrapped to get rid of the mess.

Easel Card Tut

Easel cards are all the rage at the moment and after making some it's easy to see why.

For my tutorial I'm using 2 of my scalloped easel card templates but you can follow along making one by hand using a piece of card 10* 5" for the base and with a 5*5" piece for the easel front.




With the base card you need to score half way along at the 5" mark. With my svg templates this is marked with a tiny perforation each side or if using the scallops just count the scallops and score between 10 & 11 on the circle base. The square base doesnt need scoring as the scallops will fold on their own.





The next score along is at 7.5", for the circle card score where the scallops end, the scalloped square is 5 scallops in.














Fold the card as normal and fold along the 2nd score line.













Place a decent amount of strong dst in the small section nearest the edge of the card.







Under normal circumstances now is the time to decorate the front of the easel before attaching them together. I rarely decorate a card on a tut because I want to show the mechanics not something that you'd need to go out and spend a small fortune buying the inks/stamps/decoupage etc to recreate to the letter.

The circle base has to be attached to the scalloped circle so the fold line is half way down the circle and runs between the scallops. It's hard to photo and explain but once you have the pieces in your hand it's quite easy to see what I mean. With the square line the outer edges together. You might find it easier to have the card folded as a normal card and lay the square over as though you were doing a normal mat.





Once the easel fronts are in place they should look like this. Don't worry if they flop over instead of standing up.









Decorate the inside if required. Glue a strip of card/paper across the inside of the card if using a strip. The back edge is going to be the line where the front stands against the inside so don't put it too far away from the edge and make sure it's not in the half nearest the fold line.






Cut a small decorative tab and attach some 3d foam tape/squares.
This is where I normally add a sentiment and it's easier to do so before the sticky is applied.








Attach the small tab centrally across the strip and fold the front over. The front edge should sit nicely behind the tab.