New Home Card (2)

Hi Crafters, having recently bought a 'Home Sweet Home' die I though I would use it to make a card suitable for someone moving into a new home. 
Most cards are discarded after the event they were given for so I thought it would be good if it had an additional use. With this in mind I made the card so that it can also be used as a wall plaque.

Home Sweet Home card

The body of the house was hand cut from 300gsm card. To save loads of measuring in the future, I have used Microsoft Publisher to save the outline of the house. I then print this onto the 300gsm card and cut it out using a sharp knife and ruler. The shape is then covered with a thinner card or paper with a suitable pattern for your needs and trimmed to the shape of the house with a scalpel. This is easily done by following the outline of the thick card shape with your knife. The card attached to the back is a 5" x 7" 300gsm scalloped edge card that has been cut down to fit as can be seen in the picture below. Some of the scalloped edge was used as weather board trim on the roof.

Inside of card.

The rest of the card construction is straight forward. The cards insert is printed from the computer then cut to size before attaching with a strip of double-sided tape. The text reads:

WELCOME TO YOUR NEW HOME

Every house where love abides

and friendship is a guest,

is surely home and Home Sweet Home

for there the heart can rest.

Card Materials:
300gsm Card.
Patterned Card/Paper to face house shape.
5" x 7" Scalloped Edge Card.
Parchment Paper for Card Insert.
Brown Gems - Habic Rhinestones (Boyes).
Red Gems - Dovecraft, Merry Magic (Range)
4mm Eyelet
Distress Ink - Tim Holtz, scattered straw.
Distress Ink - Tim Holtz, worn lipstick.
Brown Garden Twine.
Die Cuts:
Daisy Frame - Lea'bilities, Art. nr. 45.0362.
Home Sweet Home - Spellbinders, Die D-Lites S2-086.
Large Butterfly - Cheery Lynn Designs, Exotic Butterfly DL112.
Small Butterfly - Marianne Design, LR0261.
Flourish - Nellie Snellen, Flower Swirl SD 002.
Flowers (inner) - Nellie Snellen, FLP 035.
Flowers (outer) - Nellie Snellen, FLP 013.
Card Insert - Dovecraft Corner Punch.

If you want to make a card of your own and require a template of the card, click on the link shown below and download the PDF document. 

http://goo.gl/s337kq

I hope you like the card/plaque. It isn't a difficult card to make which makes it suitable for anyone new to card making or the more experienced crafter. 

Thank You for taking the time to look.

Happy Crafting

Spellbinders Tool 'n One Review

Hi Crafters, I recently bought myself a Spellbinders Tool 'n One. For those of you who don't know what it is, it is a special tool that has been designed to help release the card die-cut from the die and remove all the remaining off-cut bits. 

Spellbinders Tool 'n One

The Tool 'n One is well made and has three removable tools. A spatula, a pricker and a rotating brush. Each of the tools are easily removed or fitted by pulling back the spring loaded collar. Unused tools can be stored inside of the Tool 'n One body which unscrews so they don't get lost.

Tool 'n One - Tool Collar

The only problem I have found was when changing a tool. If the collar is pulled back too far, the ball bearing which is used to locate the tool can fall out. Other than that I found no other problems.

How does it perform?
To give a fair assessment of the Tool 'n One, I used a Spellbinders Shapeabilities Fancy Lattice die (ref:S5-152) and a piece of 240gsm card stock that had been rubbed over with a Tumble Dryer Sheet. 

Example 1: 

The die-cut was removed from the die after cutting without any problems and all the off-cuts were still in place. I then banged the die on my desk 3-4 times which removed about 25% of the off-cuts. The remaining residue was removed using my normal pricking tool. The total time taken was 1m 49secs.

Example 2: 

As in the first example, the die-cut was removed without any problems from the die and all the off-cuts were still in place. I then laid the die face down on a piece of firm foam and rolled the brush of the Tool 'n One over all the die. This removed about 95% of the off-cuts from the die. I then held the die in my hand, ran the brush over it again which removed the remaining bits. The pricker wasn't needed. Total time taken was 36secs.

Conclusion.

Although the pricker wasn't need on this particular die, I think on the more detailed and intricate dies that are available it would be required.
The big difference in time between example 1 and 2 speaks for itself as to whether the Tool 'n One is worth purchasing. I was certainly impressed with it's performance and think it is money well spent. I certainly won't be die cutting without having a Tool 'n One to hand in the future.

If you do a lot of die cutting and are thinking of buying the Spellbinders Tool 'n One, I don't think that you will be disappointed with it. It costs about £13.00 in my local craft stores but if you check on-line you can get it a lot cheaper. You can also get some special soft foam that you are supposed to use in conjunction with the Tool 'n One but I personally don't think it is needed.

Spellbinders Tool 'n One Foam

Note:

For those who are new to Die Cutting, rubbing your dies or card stock prior to use with a Tumble Dryer Sheet greatly helps removal of your die-cut and waste bits. The ones I use are Asda's own brand, £0.99p for a box of 40. They last for ages.

If you think my review has been useful, please let me know by leaving a comment. If enough interest is shown I may post other reviews.

Thank You for taking the time to drop by.

Happy Crafting.