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Sunday 23 January 2011

...fashionably late!


I spent so much time embossing everything in sight yesterday that I didn't leave myself enough time to make a card!!! Today I managed to finish one that I started yesterday!!

And so, I am fashionably late for the party, just squeezing this card in before we wind down our Spellbinders party!

If you haven't seen them already, off you go to visit Sandie, Lynn, Jennifer, Belinda and Laurie!

I was impressed by the embossing capabilities of the Grand Calibur, so much so that I got a little carried away, ribbons, string, skinny twigs, all got passed through the GC yesterday...and then I had an idea!!!

Stitching!!! I LOVE stitching, I love the look of it, but I also love the texture!! I thought I would try my hand at embossing stitches!!

I have a fairly cool sewing machine, I was a quilter before I made cards and there are some pretty fancy stitches on my machine. I ran out some straight lines of a little leaf pattern stitch and passed it through the GC. Fabby!

What I got was a lovely homespun texture!! You can see the actual stitching on he left and the embossed texture on the right. Here's a tip - if you fancy trying this, do your stitching on as thin a piece of paper as you can, that way they can't 'hide' in the paper when you are trying to emboss the onto a piece of thicker cardstock.


I got the sponges out...lol, and tried sponging the front...


and then the back...cool! two looks for the effort of one. I chose to use a circle of the front texture on my card above, I trimmed it out with a circle nestie (Spellbinders classic circles small). As the plates are so big on this machine, I trimmed out the lacy circle mat and the little sun shape at the same time. (Sun shape is the smallest circle in the lacy circles set)


I added the little paper pieced tree and birdie from Teeny trees. I grounded the image by adding a string landscape, these are held in position on the front with two tiny pieces of extra sticky double sided tape. A Lacey circles mat and a piece of patterned paper (Cosmo Cricket Togetherness pad) cut into a square mat complete the front section.


Then I made a string background texture for the background panel - I laid out some strips of the same string in lines across the base plate of the GC. Then I laid a sheet of card over, added the tan mat and embossing plate and fed it through the GC.


I liked being able to custom make a nice subtle texture to suit my card!


Hope it tickles!!!

I do hope you have enjoyed our little party, I'm still catching up - I've been embossing all day!

Don't forget -

• We will be drawing a random shopper from the 3 day party period to win their basket for free! I will announce the winner tomorrow as the deadline is midnight tonight!! (my time, check the clock on the sidebar!)

• If you've been leaving comments on the DT blogs (party posts) you are in with a chance to win one of the 3 comment prizes!!

• Also, tomorrow we will invite all you folks to CASE a card/project from the 3 days. You will have one week to link your entries to the WMS blog post (which I will post tomorrow, Monday) and then we'll pick a random winner for a prize. You may enter as many times as you like. One random winner will receive a set of Grand Nestabilities Dies - Grand Labels 4 and a set of stamps of their choice!

Thanks for coming to our party!!!

54 comments:

  1. Wow! That is soooo cool! I thought I didn't need the Grand Calibur since I already have the cuttlebug and the big shot, but now I'm changing my mind. My wallet isn't going to like that too much!!!

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  2. How cool to use household items to emboss paper! I'll have to try that out!

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  3. OH Claire how clever and very inspirational. Love this card. I have ordered this weekend but not sure if they will be with me in time to CASE a card, fingers crossed they will.

    Have a lovely evening
    Ali x

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  4. Hi Claire!

    This card is so lovely! Your embossing ideas are fabulous!!! And the tree with the stripes is very very nice! Love the pattern and the colors of this card in total. Fabulous work and I didn't mind at all that your fashionably late, when you come up with things like this!! ;-)

    Hugs, Wendy

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  5. Hi Claire,
    wow... love your experiments :-)
    Your card looks really great!
    XX Kathi

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  6. Love it! Love all the experiments you are doing with the embossing capabilities of the GC! and if I had a michine that would stitch those tiny leaf vines...they would be on everythign I made! Precious! Thanks for showing us your experiments!

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  7. Your card is awesome as usual. I can see how a day could pass trying fabulous embossing. I think I need a "GC".

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  8. Fabby card, Claire! Such clever ways to emboss and add texture - way cool!

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  9. Way way way cool ideas and tips!

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  10. Fabulous Claire, as always! Love love love the string embossing, such a cool look! Thanks for the inspiration, I reckon the GC is gonna be on a few Christmas lists this year, if we can wait that long!

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  11. That is just gorgeous! Love how you thought outside the box! We all need to do that more often!

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  12. I love how you have made all your textures without embossing plates - how clever is that?!

    I think the tiny trees stamp set is fast becoming a "must have" and will probably be on my next WM shop order.

    Lynn Wild

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  13. Love your card Claire! It's so sunny. Love the paper pieced tree detail and I am just amazed that you were able to emboss the stitches like that. Wow, the GC is obviously a very cool machine!

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  14. Seriously, you are such a genius with papercrafting (and nonpapercrafting!) supplies! That card is so unique, just amazing! Love how you twisted the twine around the front. You always use the coolest cooler combos, too! AWESOME little post, Claire!

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  15. So many creative ideas, things I would never have thought of. Great card. I have enjoyed the blog hop very much, thank you.

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  16. that is really neat - thanks for sharing!
    Sandra ltb

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  17. Cool technique! I want to try the stitching embossing today!

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  18. I am loving these different textures that you're finding in everyday things, Claire. And putting it all together makes for a very fun card. Loving the party! Woot!

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  19. I love how you are doing your embossing! Looks so cool and is so unique! Your card is stunning!

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  20. You are just rocking with the embossing!! I was wondering what you used to get that amazing texture! Now I want to emboss everything in sight! LOL!

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  21. So glad to see you had lots of fun with your GC! :)

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  22. I think your card is just "fabby!" I really like how you've used household bits to emboss in the Grand Calibur. It's no good - it has to go on my "must have" list :)

    It's been a great party - thanks for the invitation.

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  23. This card is just what the doctor ordered, isn't it? I can't get over the variety of embossing on it, it's super! It's no wonder you got carried away when you're turning out results like that...

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  24. Thank you for your inspiration. I've got yarn. Now I am looking around for other embossable things that are "outside the box."

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  25. Beautiful card Claire! I'm intrigued with the ability to emboss everything with the Grand Calibur. I don't think I would have stopped embossing long enough to make the card! LOL

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  26. Claire,
    I just love your card! Especially seeing how it came together. How cool is that Grand Calibur!! I just love all your embossing with thread and stitching. Thanks for the inspiration.

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  27. Awesome ides with the string embossing! Great card!

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  28. Wow! This is so cool! I'm going to have to try that:-) Thanks for sharing and for the chance to win!
    Inky hugs,
    Janet
    janet@swofford.com

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  29. Such great embossing ideas! I can totally picture you looking around the house for textures!!

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  30. FAN-TAS-TIC!! Such lovely ideas!! Now I'm combing the house for embossing possibilities too! Many Thanks, Pat.

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  31. Wow these are so cool -- especially the "leafy" pattern! I was wondering if the Grand Calibur could still be used for embossing items such as this because of the change in the mats. I would still keep my Wizard for the thicker items and dies but the GC looks like a must have now.

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  32. BRILLIANT!! I have definitely got to try these ideas!!

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  33. Thanks for showing us your experiments! The Grand Calibur looks great!
    DeniseB

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  34. Stitching onto paper,and then embosssing?
    When does your brain EVER rest, Claire?

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  35. How creative you are--I am loving what you have created with all the non-traditional embossing materials. Fabulous! And the GC is looking better & better. I am still using my Cuttlebug but boy, this is so tempting!

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  36. Oh! So clever!
    And a beautiful card to go with it.

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  37. Love your card Claire! especially the twine! what fun you had trying all these ways to emboss 'stuff'!!

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  38. I just love the embossed string. It really looks great. I just got a grand calibur and now I can't wait to try it Thank you for sharing your creativeness.

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  39. Wow! Your embossing is so cool! And what a beautiful card with such great, cheery colors!

    I love that the GC can cut such large paper...seems like a great machine and I love those large shapes!

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  40. Oh My!!!
    What a fabulous machine. I love the embossing that you did with it.
    Your card is gorgeous!!!

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  41. Claire, you are so creative! These cards are amazing! Love the backgrounds you have created!

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  42. Wow, neat embossing ideas! Now you've got me thinking...hmm, what can I use, lol! Thanks for the inspiration!

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  43. This is great...thanks for showing us how you did it! Love it

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  44. cindy holshouser24 January 2011 at 03:54

    Seems to be no end to the possiblities huh? Love this card and the embossed stitching idea.

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  45. what a fun party and the inspirations were stunning. oh to have a Grand of my own...

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  46. Claire--I see why you said you have the embossing bug! What you were able to emboss is just amazing, you got the coolest results. And your card was pretty amazing too!

    Chris L.

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  47. OMG.... missed all these so am playing catch up!!!
    As a 'former' quilter I have a pretty good machine too and it would keep 'the boss' happy if I could get a little use out of it (wink). Wonder how i can sell one of these to him! Any ideas?

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  48. Claire, you are sure the creative girl: I would have never thought of embossing all the materials you tried. that's why you are the artist!! Always thinking of things in a different angle!! I love your card and all the wonderful things you did to make it!!

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  49. Claire, you are so clever!!! LOVE the idea of the string to emboss!!! Fantastic!

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  50. Thank you for sharing!! love the idea!

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  51. You are soooo clever .. loving all your ideas ... I can see you LOVE this new toy ...

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  52. LOVE LOVE LOVE this, Claire! My Grand Calibur shipped today...can't wait to play with it!! Thanks for the inspiration :)

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  53. what great textures! Thanks for the ideas and tips!

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  54. Wow, what great embossing techniques! Love them!

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Thanks for taking the time to comment, :) I read them all and I appreciate you taking time to visit!