Anna Griffin Cards - Xyron tutorial

Hello blogging friends!

I have a couple of cards to share today that I created with the Anna Griffin Pretty Paintings Card Making Kit and Xyron adhesive. Not yet available for purchase, this gorgeous kit is going to be featured on HSN on September 8th. The coordinating pieces of this kit make it easy to create beautiful cards. Take a look at what I created ....

Having gold fever of late, I added a gold die cut doily to the first and ornate gold flourishes to the second. I adhered these die cuts to the cards using the new Xyron Creative Station. Let me show you the best way to adhere intricate cuts like these...

Supplies you will need:
Xyron new Creative Station with 9" and 5" permanent adhesive
Xyron Mega Runner
Xyron Adhesive Dots
Anna Griffin Pretty Paintings Card Making Kit
American Crafts Gold Foil Cardstock
Metal dies

Step 1.  I ran a piece of gold foil paper through my Xyron Creative Station with the 5" permanent adhesive loaded inside. I love being able to use the same machine with 5" and 9" adhesive rolls.

Step 2.  Peel off the top plastic sheet and arrange metal dies on foil paper. Place the die cut sandwich into your die cut machine and roll it through.

Step 3.  Do the same with the doily die.

Step 4.  Placing the adhesive on the paper first, means that when you peel off the paper backing, no adhesive residue needs to be weeded out.

Step 5.  Place the die cuts in the center of the cards. I elevated the middle panel using foam.

Step 6.  There is a separate sheet of paper with the sentiment that needs to folded in half and inserted inside the cards.

Step 7.   I used my Xyron Mega Runner to adhere the sentiment paper to the inside of the card.

Step 8.   Add other die cut pieces and ribbon from the card making kit. Xyron adhesive dots are the best way to adhere the ribbons.

Thanks for stopping by.
~Marcia

Xyron and Spellbinders Blog Hop

Hello blogging friends! Exciting things are happening this week... It's the Spellbinder's Partner Blog Hop!!!

Xyron is participating in the Spellbinders 2015 Summer Road Trip Blog Hop.  There are 11 companies and amazing tutorials that will be shared over the course of the next three days.  Our friends at Spellbinders have provided two of our Design Team members with dies and as you will see, they work so well with Xyron adhesive!  They have also come out with a new machine, Sapphire!  Sapphire is an easy to use manual die cutting machine for beginners that cuts and embosses paper and other materials.  It cuts and embosses using dies up to 2  1/4” wide with the turn of a handle. It also has coordinating Sapphire™ blue dies.  You can use the machine with the NEW blue Sapphire die templates, as well as with most Spellbinders and other leading dies.  The Sapphire™ machine and the Sapphire™ dies are sold exclusively at Jo-Ann craft stores and Joann.com. Visit www.SpellbindersCreativeArts.com/Sapphire to learn more. 

There are giveaways from Xyron and Spellbinders at the end of this post so stick with me ok!

Now let me show you what I created. I used my new Xyron Creative Station to create a mini album with the Spellbinders Sapphire Simply Tags dies.

One of the things I love is that the inner die fits perfectly on the outer tag dies. It's perfect for card sentiments or for my mini album to indicate locations. My daughter is galavanting all over Europe at the moment. It's her last summer of freedom before heading back to graduate school and then work to pay off all her college debt. She is half way through her trip now. I am selecting one photo from each location for the mini album.

So here is how I created my mini album. 

Supplies:

new Xyron Creative Station

Spellbinders Sapphire Simply Tags dies.

Imaginisce Perfect Vacation 6 x 6 Pattern Paper Pad, Die cuts

Bazzill cardstock in a navy blue

twine

Step 1.   I opened a word doc and typed up all the locations leaving enough room around them to be able to die cut them out. Then I selected the inner dies I wanted to use. To keep the dies from moving when I die cut them, I used washi tape to keep them in place. Just be careful not to put washi tape over the printed text. I used a blue cardstock with the outer dies.

Step 2.  I ran the printed text die cuts through my Xyron Creative Station and adhered them on their blue die cut counterpart. I have the 5" permanent adhesive in my Xyron Creative Station at the moment. The new Creative Station will work with both the 5" and 9" cartridges that fit the older style models. One machine that does the work that 2 machines used to! Once the text was adhered to the blue die cut tags, I ran them through my Xyron Creative Station again.

Step 3.  I trimmed some pattern papers to 4x6 size. This will closely fit the Graphic 45 chipboard mini album I am using. I swapped out the 5" cartridge for the 9" cartridge and ran my pattern papers and some photos through. With the Xyron adhesive I don't have to worry about glue ripples. I get smooth edge to edge adhesive coverage.

Step 4.  I adhered the papers or photos on the chipboard and using a scissors, trimmed away the excess. Then I cleaned up the edges with my Imaginisce d-stress tool. The d-stress tool came in handy too for cleaning up the holes as well. In this photo, you can see how little I had to trim away.

The hardest part of this project was selecting only one photo from each location! It will be easy for my daughter to add more photos later if she wants.

Now for the fun part!  
Spellbinders is hosting a giveaway to celebrate the festivities.   To enter the contest, please click on this link .

For this hop there will be 3 daily winners chosen and 1 Grand Prize winner:

The daily winners will receive product from each of the companies featured on that day. For example, the Day 2 winner will receive the products from May Arts, DecoArt, Chameleon, AND Xyron, AND the Spellbinders Sapphire dies. Since I featured the new Xyron Creative Station, that is what Xyron is giving away!

The Grand Prize winner will receive product from companies from all 3 days + a Sapphire machine. 

Be sure to check out the other partners participating today to see their creations and enter their giveaways!

May Arts
DecoArt
Chameleon
Karen Jiles (designing for Xyron) 

For the contest rules please click here.

Thanks for stopping by!
~Marcia

Happy Spring - Clique Kits Spring Limited Edition Card Kit

Hello blogging friends. Happy Easter!!

I wanted to share some cards today that I made with the Clique Kits Spring Limited Edition Card Kit. It is such a gorgeous kit featuring the My Mind's Eye On Trend papers and lots of gold embellishes. I am tripping on all things gold right now and this kit with the My Mind’s Eye On Trend papers is just a delight. I think you are all going to love it too. Take a look...

All that elegance and gold is perfect for weddings. Do you know of a June bride? Since my daughter was recently married, I thought a wedding announcement would be just as perfect. Of course an announcement needs a photo ….

Being a photographer and a scrapbooker, I love including photos on my cards! Banners like this under the photo are a great way to use up your scraps.

There are lots of embellishments in this kit that work for birthday cards as well, and who doesn’t need birthday cards! The Celebrate sentiment came from the digital downloads exclusive for the card kit.

This last card could be used for a birthday or just a card to say hello to someone special. I used a Spellbinders die on the cardstock included in the kit and layered to pattern paper with the die cut cardstock. I just love that shaped enamel heart.

 I think the receiver of this card will be instantly happy when they see this.

I hope you enjoyed my cards today. I promise to have some cards using the stamp in my next post. This kit is still available for purchase in the Clique Store, look under the Limited Edition Kits. Even though monthly subscriptions are sold out, anyone can still get their hands on these beauties. These are going to sell fast though so don’t wait too long. Use coupon code Marcia10 and save 10%!

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy the rest of your holiday.

~Marcia

Merry & Bright - Clique Kits Blog Share

Hello blogging friends. It's time for another Clique Kits Pep Rally!!!

Here is the awesome line-up this month.... Hop along and be sure to enter to win a prize on the Clique Kits blog.

Clique Kits

Gia

Jody 

Erica

Lacey

Mariah

Alisha

Stephanie

Kat

Charity

Nicole

Marcia

Tyra 

Danielle

Sophie

Our prompt this month ...

I should have looked at the prompt before last night, lol. I shared 3 diamond cards on the Clique Blog last week. I have really been wanting to play with my Clique Kit Card Kit before Christmas is over, so I made a Christmas card. I am way behind in my Christmas card making. It does have "bright" in the sentiment...

The Elle's Studio Fa la la stamp was an add on and may still be available in the Clique Store. I LOVE it.

Next up is Tyra .

Thanks for stopping by
~Marcia

Happily Ever After - Xyron and Spellbinders

Hello blogging friends! I had a jam packed weekend. My daughter's bridal shower was on Sunday. We had such fun. It was a Breakfast at Tiffany's theme, so everyone came dressed in black dresses and pearls. It was great! So now that the shower is over, I am thinking wedding. Less than a month to go!! So of course I had to make a wedding card with the beautiful Spellbinders Mystical Embrace Card Creator dies and Xyron adhesive.

I am using some scraps and stickers from the Little Yellow Bicycle wedding collection. Yeah for scrapping my stash! That front piece is foil paper (so hard to photograph but so beautiful embossed!) These gorgeous Spellbinder dies make creating a beautiful card a piece of cake.

There are three dies in this set and I used all three on this card. You can see that it embosses as well as makes intricate cuts. 

My 9" Creative Station  made it easy to adhere the die cuts to my paper.

I also created a birthday card using some papers from Anna Griffin. I only used the larger two dies on this card so I would have room for stamping my sentiment.

Supplies:

Xyron Tape Runner

Xyron 9" Creative Station

Xyron Adhesive Dots

Spellbinders Mystical Embrace Card Creator

Pattern Papers: Anna Griffin and Little Yellow Bicycle

Stickers: Little Yellow Bicycle

Flowers: Prima and Petaloo

Ribbon, pins, pearls

I am linking up the Clique Kits October challenge. Have you heard about Clique Kits? It's a new kit subscription and a store that has awesome scrapbook and card making kits. You can preorder the Holiday Card kit ...

or the Clique into the Holidays kit now! 

and if you use Marcia10, you save 10% on store purchases! 

Here are the rules for the challenge....

• You may combine our challenge with other challenges
• You may enter our challenge up to 3 times
• Link up your projects by October 31st, 11:55 pm CST
• You are not required to use a Clique Kit to link up
• You are not required to use Fancy Pants Designs Product to link up but doing so does give you an extra entry
• Create any type of project
• Link directly to your challenge project entry post

I hope to see your creations linked up!

~Marcia

With Sympathy + Mason Jar Decor - Anna Griffin and Xyron

Hello blogging friends! Sometimes paper is so beautiful you are afraid to cut into it. I could have wallpapered my scrapbook room walls with the gorgeous papers I received from Anna Griffin; beautiful flocked papers with fabulous patterns, gorgeous layered flowers and sentiment quotes. When you combine Xyron and Anna Griffin you get incredibly beautiful projects. Let me show you what I created ...

I found a tri-fold card in the Silhouette store with an ornate window on the front. It is basically three layers. With the dimesional flowers from Anna Griffin, I thought the layered panels would be the perfect way to set the flowers off. 

Those pretty papers are just so gorgeous together. :)

For my second project, I created a mason jar for my daughter's upcoming wedding....

I used the cut out parts of my card for my jar. Added a Spellbinders fancy label with some Want 2 Scrap bling and more of those gorgeous dimensional flowers. Do you see the twine wrapped around the jar? Here is how I did that..

I cut a strip of kraft cardstock and ran it through my 1" sticker maker. Then I just layered my twine on top. To make sure it would all stay stuck together, I applied a light coat of decoupage over the top of the twine. When it was dry I ran it through my sticker maker again.

Then I just wrapped the twine cardstock around my jar. The Mr & Mrs label covered up my seam. I found some high tack double stick tape worked best for adhering my label to the jar. I love how it turned out...

One more month til the wedding!! So many things to do yet. At least I have a dress to wear now though.

Supplies Used:
Xyron: 1.5" Sticker Maker, 9" Creative Station,  Double-Sided High Tack 1/2" Tape
Anna Griffin papers and die cuts    Anna Griffin® Grace Papercrafting Kit, 
Anna Griffin® Perfect Palette Cardstock Kit, Anna Griffin® All About Her Cardmaking Kit, Anna Griffin® 60-piece Flocked Paper Collection
Spellbinders Fancy Tags 2 with coordinating bling from Want 2 Scrap
twine, ribbon

Thanks for stopping by,
Marcia

Prom Night - Mixed Media Layout for Love My Tapes

Hello blogging friends!  I am sharing a washi tape mixed media layout on the Love My Tapes blog today. Did you know that washi tape is a fabulous way to add layers on a mixed media background. On my layout I layered pieces of torn paper and washi tape, then added some gesso, modeling paste, and inks. Take a look ...

That's my niece in the photo. Isn't she gorgeous!! I couldn't wait to scrap this fabulous picture. 

Here is a closer look at my background. The washi tape I used had text on it. Do you see it? The torn paper and torn edges of the tape give my layout a grungy feel. That chipboard piece is from Creative Embellishments. I LOVE their chipboard. I painted it with gesso then inked it with VersaMark ink and added some shabby blue embossing powder. The embossing powder was heat set until it melted, giving it a little shimmer, perfect for Prom.

I am linking up with the July Creative Embellishments and the Paper Wings Productions joint challenge. Here is the July photo prompt ...

My inspiration was those gorgeous blues and those flowers. The other rule is that you must emboss something (dry or heat). I chose to emboss my chipboard piece.

Have a great week!
~Marcia