Slice Embossing Picture Tutorial

Today's picture tutorial is for the Making Memories Slice Embossing Tips. My Slice setting is at 'draw/emboss'.

^ First you must remove the cutting unit and replace it with the embossing tip unit. I selected the finest embossing tip.


^ Here's what it looks like with the embossing tip in it.


^ Place your Slice in the far left corner of your patterned paper with the side you want raised, face down. This is double sided American Crafts patterned paper with solid brown on the other side. Placing your Slice in the far left corner will make it easy to line things back up when you are ready to cut. *** You must use the embossing mat ***


^ Select your image under a 'normal' cutting setting.


^ This is what you get on the backside. Cute little gingerbread man from the Mistletoe cartridge.


^ Remove your embossing unit and replace it with your cutting unit. No need to overtighten! I just twisted the tool until it was hand-tight, then turned it counter-clockwise 2 notches for my blade depth. That's the one that seems to work for my machine. Don't forget to change your Slice setting back to 'cut'


^ I meant to take this pic while it said 'SHADOW' but I had already hit select. Anyway, realign your patterned paper on your cutting mat; place your Slice in the far left corner! Select 'SHADOW' and push 'SELECT' to make your cut.


^ This is what you get when you cut it out!


^ Using a fine sanding block, lay the block flat against your diecut and lightly sand the raised image.



^ And Voila! Here is your cute little embossed gingerbread man.


Hope you enjoyed today's tutorial. Now you all run out and buy yourselves some embossing tips.

Gift Card Holder Tutorial

This is going to be a long post but it'll be worth it! I'm going to teach you how to make this fun gift card holder. You can create additional pockets to hold more gift cards if you want, but I only created 2. I must apologize in advance for some of the blurry photos but we had no sun, my camera battery was about to die, I couldn't find my charger so I had to hurry, and I was standing on a chair that spins. Let's get started!

^ First you need a piece of cardstock that measures 3" x 10".

^ Score this piece at 2.5"

^ Shift your piece of cardstock over to the 1" line then score again at 4.25"

^ Shift your cardstock back to the far left and score at 7".

^ Shift your cardstock over 1/4" then score at 8".

^ The picture above is what you should have once you fold at your scored lines.

^ Now you need another piece of cardstock measuring 4" x 5.75". You will need one piece for each pocket you make. I probably wouldn't put more than 3 pockets in this holder but you could probably squeeze 4 in if you need to.

^ Shift your paper over 1/4" and score at the 1/2" mark.

^ Shift your cardstock over to the 1/2" mark and score at 3.5". I forgot to put the bone folder at the score line for you. Sorry!

^ Turn your cardstock sideways as shown. Score down the length at 1/2".

^ Trim your pocket so it looks like this.

^ Get your handy dandy Scor-Tape out. I used the 1/4" width. I love this stuff cuz you can tear it! . Add tape as shown.

^ Can you see how it's going to go together?

****** DON'T REMOVE THE LINER FROM THE BOTTOM FLAP YET ****

^ Use a 1 1/4" circle punch to create a notch to make it easier to get the gift card out.

^ Decorate the front of the pocket with patterned paper. I used a 1 1/2" punch to create a notch that layers. See, my tape liner on the bottom flat is still there!! Hope you remembered not to take yours off.

^ Now you can take the bottom tape liners off and attach the pockets to the inside of your holder.

^ I covered up the bottom flaps with a small strip of patterned paper. Your recipient will appreciate the attention to detail.

^ Decorate the front as you wish. I used Basic Grey Magnetic snaps to hold the flaps closed. And how handy is this tip.....I used the 1/4" Scor-Tape across the top on the inside to add the wonderfully yummy brown stitched grosgrain ribbon as a handle. There is no way that sucker is coming off! Now, you all run out and make your own gift card holders then link your creations so I can see them. Go on!

Shrinky Dink Tutorial

I learned about this fabulous little Shrinky Dink trick from one of the stores I teach at and wanted to share it with all of you. I apologize for a few blurry pictures but I am too lazy to retake them. LOL. Do you ever find yourself wondering if an stamped image as a Shrinky Dink would shrink down to the 'right' size for your project? Well, here's how you'll know!

Step 1: cut yourself a strip of Shrinky Dink plastic to your desired length. I figure I'm never going to shrink something bigger than this 8" ruler so I cut an 8" x 1.5" piece of Shrinky Dink plastic. I sanded it in a cross hatch direction, per the instructions. Then, I took my ruler and marked lines at every half inch and full inch as seen in the photo above.

Step 2: Using your heat gun, shrink up your 'ruler.' Take care to shrink it evenly, moving your gun from left to right, for even shrinkage. It will crinkle up on you in the process. If it gets too crinkled, straighten it out a bit and finish shrinking it up. Mine kind of crumpled into itself near the center so halfway through, I sort of straightened it quickly, then took the heat gun back to it. Right after you're done, use a wood block or some other flat object to flatten your ruler out. It might not be perfectly straight but that's okay.

Here's a picture of my completed, shrunked ruler.

Step 3: Stamp your image onto another piece of Shrinky Dink plastic. I used Staz-On. Color the image in with colored pencil. Cut your image out. If you want to make a hole to thread ribbon or something through, now's the time to do it. Use a hole punch to make a hole. I would recommend using the size that makes holes in notebook paper. Remember, it's going to shrink to a tiny hole. You need it big enough to thread something through. Here's a picture of my stamped, colored Shrinky Dink image, before being heated, and measured against my real life sized ruler.

Now you want to heat your image to shrink it down. Here's a picture of my Shrinky Dink'ed image against my Shrinky Dink ruler. You'll see that in the picture above, the image before shrinking measured about 1 3/4". On the Shrinky Dink'ed ruler, it measure the same!

Isn't that cool?! Nifty trick, I say! Now I want all y'all to go make a Shrinky Dink'd card and share your link here. You can do that by leaving a comment with a link to your card on an online gallery somewhere.

Now I'll also leave you with a new Shrinky Dink'd card I made using the A Muse Party Time and Coffee Break clear sets with an Elzybells image.

All supplies, except the Shrinky Dink plastic, from A Muse Artstamps, Inc