How to Find the Center of Spellbinders Dies

Sometimes I need to know how large a Spellbinders die is and sometimes I want to know where the exact center is. I could eyeball this but I am a bit of a perfectionist, control freak, geek (you pick the description) and would prefer to have a permanent guide on my dies. I've figured out how to do this once and for all and thought I would share it with you. 

 

How to Find the Center of Spellbinders Dies

You will need 

•  a Spellbinders die with a symmetrical shape

•  your die cutter (I use a Cuttlebug)

•  a piece of copy paper

•  a thin point, permanent marker (I used a Sharpie)

Cut the shape out of copy paper.

 

Fold the paper in half.

 

Fold it in half again. Make sure you have a nice crisp crease.

 

Unfold the paper and put it back inside the die. Turn the die over so you don't see the cutting edge.

 

Use your marker to draw four lines on the edge of the die that line up with the four folds on the paper.

Take the paper out and refold it along one of the creased lines. Measure the width of the paper along that creased line. This is the size of your die, write it directly on your die and you will never be guessing again.

When you want to line up the die with text in the future you have a guide. When you want to cut a half or quarter of the design you have guidelines.

If you need to find the shape's center all you need to do is get out a pencil and a ruler. With the paper still in the die, line up the ruler with the guides and draw a faint line near the center. Repeat with the other 2 guide lines. Where the two lines intersect is center.

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Happy Crafting,

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Click here to help my son pay his own way through scouts. Order Trail's End popcorn using code 79936evan674 and great tasting treats will be delivered to your door.

Thinking outside the box with Creative Katie

I went to a crop at Memories and Beyond in Downers Grove a couple of weeks ago and wanted to show a bit of what I did there. Of course science fair prep kind of got in my way. There is just so much radioactivity around my house these days.  Well today is a day of rest and recovery - my poor boy was sent home sick from school before I even made it to work so I can get a bit of blogging and cleaning done today (note the order).

I didn't have a lot of photos I wanted to scrap at the crop. My goal was to get a lot of school awards and papers into my son's books. Thought it was going to be an easy productive day. Slap an 8.5 x 11 page on to a 12 x 12 page, embellish lightly and go.

I had about 5 pictures for a spread on my son's preference for his thumb over a pacifier and I didn't think that would take too long. WRONG. I looked and looked for a pacifier in the rows and rows of beautiful things at Memories and Beyond. There were oodles of safety pins, which few people use for baby things anymore but not many pacifiers. I found a couple of papers that were too pale or too pink for my project and a nice felt pacifier that was way too small and puffy for my needs. In looking at these pacifiers I identified a few shapes I could work with to make my own.

I headed to the wall of dies and started gathering my shapes. I chose the science collection, a large O and a plain D. I layered them all on a circle I had cut out with my Cuttlebug. To make the NO sign I cut out a larger rose red circle and added a line of cardstock the same width. I knew exactly how wide the edge was because I have labeled all my Spellbinder circles.

Paci by Teri Vlasak

As it happens I wasn't the only one looking for a pacifier that day. Teri Vlasak, another scrapper at the crop, needed a pacifier for a spread about her dog's love of his paci toy. Teri followed my lead in creating the shape then took it to the next level with chalk inks and pop dots. I really like her take on it. That's one of my favorite things about going to a crop, you meet people and share ideas and learn new things.

I talked to Karen, the owner, and she told me they have over 1000 die cuts, and they are all free to use. The folks at Accucut told her that Memories and Beyond has the largest selection of die cuts in the Midwest. Love that.

I apologized to Karen for not spending more money in the store that day and she told me they are more interested in helping people tell their stories than in having them spend oodles of cash. Love that too. Of course Memories and Beyond gets most of my business because they have such a great selection of papers and supplies. I even found a C-plate for my Cuttlebug there. No having to order online and wait and wait.

Memories and Beyond also has great service and they offer advice on layouts that just aren't working for you. They even have a man on staff, Karen's son Jim, who helped me with the male perspective on a page about notebook monsters. My son had drawn these fabulous (I may be biased but hey it's my kid) monsters in a notebook and gave them to me for his book. I didn't want to slap them in and go. They needed something special. Jim suggested I look for a forest and pointed me to the Graphic 45 Garden Isle patterned paper. I was perfect. Karen ran off two photocopies for me so I wouldn't damage the original and I started cutting.

The Olfa art knife got quite a work out that night. With the help of a sharp blade and a self healing mat I was able to get in and follow every uneven line. So happy I was able to include monsters from both sides of the original page. I was even able to include the pogo stick guy and the words "Bonig Bonig" I know what he meant but I love this little bit of second grade spelling.

I used a Copic grey marker to add the shading so the monster on the right looks like it's in front of the monster on the left. The patterned paper was perfect. This is my favorite page from the crop because, even though it doesn't have any pictures on it it shows what my son was into, his talent, a bit of his personality. I feel like we worked on this page together even though he was miles away watching a movie with Nana.

So do you ever scrap without photographs? I'd love to see those pages, send a link and share.

Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles SM

Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles LG

Cuttlebug

Graphic 45 Garden Isle Patterned Paper

EK Success - 1-2-3D Paper Crafting System

Copic Marker Set

InLinkz.com

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Happy Crafting,

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Click here to help my son pay his own way through scouts. Order Trail's End popcorn using code 79936evan674 and great tasting treats will be delivered to your door.

Video Tutorial - Using Digi Papers with the Silhouette

I've been playing with the Silhouette Studio software and discovered some things I just had to share. There are so many file formats you can print out from the Silhouette. Take a look.

So here it is, my first Camtasia video (I'm test driving it this month) my first video on YouTube. Hope you like it and can use at least some of the information here.

I have a few more tutorials planned but if you would like to know how to do something with the Silhouette Studio software leave me a comment and I'll try to figure it out.

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Thanks for watching and special thanks to The Graphics Fairy and Mel McCarthy over at Mel Stampz for letting me use their images in the tutorial. You can find great images on their blogs and at Mel's Flickr site.


Happy Crafting,

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Change Your Silhouette's Mood

I'm working on several new tutorials for this week but I keep getting distracted by life. So I thought I'd throw out a quick tip that I stumbled on. It will not help you create anything, but it may change your mood. It will definitely change the view of your screen.  

I've chosen pink for my Silhouette window.

There is a little color wheel on the bottom right side of the Silhouette window that changes the color of the border of your Silhouette window and your highlight colors. 

I could just as easily choose teal.

Change the color when the mojo wanes and see if if helps. Change the color for different holidays. Change the color to match your brand or your mood.

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Happy Crafting,

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