Here’s any alert for anyone who has purchased any of the Tim Holtz Movers and Shakers Dies for use in their scrapbooking or paper crafting:

The following is a quote from Sizzix. com

“Creative note: All Movers & Shapers Base Dies are designed to work with Movers & Shapers Magnetic Dies to cut a window within a shape. However, when Movers & Shapers Base Dies are used without Magnetic Dies, special Magnetic Ejection Foam is needed to eject the die-cut shape. One piece of Magnetic Ejection Foam works on all Movers & Shapers Dies, no matter the design.

This special Magnetic Ejection Foam will be available soon from Sizzix free of charge to owners of Movers & Shapers Dies. To get yours, please contact customer service.”

If you own the Movers and Shapers dies, please visit Sizzix and make the request through Customer support.

I know of someone who contacted Sizzix customer service regarding this issue. She reported that customer service responded to the email the next day and asked for a mailing address. They said the foam would be shipped shortly.

Hey, fellow stampers. Are you short of ideas this summer?  If you are, you might want to check out this blog post by I’m Impressed Paper Arts, a  stamping and scrapbook store in Vancouver.

They’ve posted a list of 120 things you can stamp.  Imagine!  They even suggest stamping on a marshmallow. I confess I have no idea how that would be done.  I did make my own suggestion to the list, though. I suggested stamping on decorative food items, such as gourds, pumpkins, eggplants and squashes. I’m thinking in terms of decorations, not things you eat.

I can see those little tiny decorative pumpkins that you get near Halloween — stamped and decorated with messages.  I suppose you would need to use small stamps and solvent inks.  Perhaps die inks would work.  This would take some experimenting.

Anyway, the link for the list is: 120 Things to Stamp.

I’ve made another birthday card decorated with Sizzix  dies that cut party hats and the word Party. The dies used are
Sizzlits Shape Sets Die – Birthday Set #2.

The concentric pink circles are cut using the Spellbinders S4-124 Nestabilities 6-Piece Concentric Die Template, Classic Scalloped Circles, Large

As always, I cut the paper with my favorite tool of all time, the Sizzix Big Shot .

To make the party hats, I cut a hat in brown, a hat in rose and a hat in pink. I then layered them as shown, and decorated with a bit of Snow Writer. The hats are attached with 3D tape to add dimension.

The hat die could be adapted for a New Years theme, or for any other theme where a party hat may be apropos.

This birthday card is decorated with die cuts made with Sizzix dies and cut on the the Sizzix Big Shot . The Big Shot has to be my most favorite tool ever.

The die cuts I used are the Sizzlits Shape Sets Die – Birthday Set #2. The scalloped circles are cut with Nestabilities dies.

To make the birthday cake, I cut two cake shapes, one in brown card stock and one in pink card stock. The dies are perforated so its easy to rip off the pieces you need for layering.

I layered the cake pieces as shown, and added a rim of white using Snow Writer. I finished by putting a daub of shiny glitter glue at the tip of each candle.

I bought a new punch yesterday. It is one I had been wanting for quite some time. It’s the EK Success Paper Shapers Large Punch, Butterfly Whale of A Punch

I made several cards, similar but different, using paper and card stock left over from Valentine’s Day craft projects.

The shapes are cut on the Sizzix Big Shot using various Nestabilities dies.

As for the butterfly, I cut three identical shapes, one on brown card stock, one on rose card stock and one on scrapbook paper. I used the brown butterflyfor the base, then cut pieces away from the other two, which I layered as shown.
I filled in the butterfly’s body with Stickles Glitter Glue in this particular card. In other cards, I used beads, glitter and Fun Flock for the body.

The sentiment, Hello, is an acrylic stamp.

I’m particularly fond of butterflies. I like this punch. No buyer’s remorse here.

This Stud Muffin card was completed today, thanks to a make and take at Making Memories with Scrapbooking in Burnaby, BC.

It is a simple card with red cards stock framing patterned scrapbook paper.

The oval and the scalloped oval are Nestabiliity dies cut on the Sizzix 655268 Big Shot Cutting-and-Embossing Roller-Style Machine.

The design is a collection of stamped images, colored with marking pencils. The yellow is stamping ink applied with a smudging tool.  The cupcake is decorated with brown Fun Flock.

This project is a combination anniversary scrapbook and guest book. I made it on request of a woman who is planning an anniversary party for someone’s 20th anniversary. She intends to pass the book around so guests can view the pictures in the scrapbook, then sign and leave a comment in the empty pages at the back.

I chose a ring-bound 8 inch by 8 inch album with a cover of black felt with silver threads running through. The ring bindings made it relatively easy to add the Guestbook pages at the back.

My instructions were to put a picture on the album’s front cover, and to use a simple design. With that in mind, this is the project I came up with:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xC6ORSAGDg

I have attempted to make the facing pages complement each other, picking up colors and using similar scrapbook paper, card stock and embellishments. The entire book leans heavily to a red, white and black color theme. Those colors seem to match with almost of all of the photographs, and I’m told red is the wife’s favorite color.

Not all pages have headings, but those that do are cut with the Cricut Personal Electronic Cutter using the Jasmine Font Cartridge

I’ve used a considerable number of quotations set in journaling blocks, since I know the people involved are fond of that approach.

I hope the Anniversary Scrapbook and Guest Book is a hit.

This Sweet 16 birthday album is a scrapbook made for my granddaughter’s 16th birthday.

The layouts contain photographs arranged chronologically, starting at age six months and ending with a blank layout with a space for a picture taken on her sixteenth birthday, or at some point during that year.

I have also added an envelope for small keepsakes and journalling tags so the young woman can write about various interests that she has.

Most of the materials, including the album, came from the Bo Bunny collections.  I went for pink, bling, glitter, ribbon and frills — to me, that seems fitting for a Sweet Sixteen memory book.

The chipboard mini album is the Bo Bunny My Edgy Chipboard Album With 6 Cascading Pages 6″X12″ Blush MWC-B854, 2 Item(s)/Order

All photographs were digitally edited in Adobe Photoshop CS5
For some years of her life, I created collages in Photoshop and printed out the collages using my inkjet printer.

This video shows the complete scrapbook with all layouts.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tja3g4vZy7M

This Sweet 16 scrapbook album required a substantial amount of work, including participation  from my daughter-in-law, who painstakingly scanned and emailed the photographs to use. Thanks go to her for all the help.

Yesterday I needed to gift wrap a birthday present. I thought I had wrapping paper on hand, but it turns out I didn’t.

I turned to my stash of craft supplies and found two sheets of scrapbook paper that were a light lavender in color with darker dots of purple.

Nice, but not very festive.

The recipient is fond of butterflies, so I found a large  butterfly stamp and some red die ink.  I stamped the red butterfly over both scrapbook papers, then stamped it on the accompanying envelope.

I added a couple of paper flowers to the envelope and placed a gold and pearl button in the middle.

It’s quite a nice look.  Given that craft supplies are more costly than gift wrap, I don’t recommend this as a regular practice. However, in a pinch, its a good substitute.

This chipboard mini album was completed as a birthday gift for a friend.

I made it using an Edgy Album  from Bo Bunny. I also used Bo Bunny papers and embellishments for the layout.

The cover is acrylic. I stamped the bird image and the word Happiness using acrylic stamps and Stazon ink.  It needed a solvent ink because other inks would not dry on acrylic.

Here is the video showing the inner layouts of this little scrapbook.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct3vCSfUfuc

It’s an interesting little mini album. I am particularly fond of the Bo Bunny collection that I used. I’m using a similar collection to make a Sweet 16 mini album for my granddaughter’s birthday.