Lacy Birthday Bloom

Hi there

The card I have to share with you today was made for a friend's birthday. I used the Rich Razzleberry Blendabilities to colour the large flower from the 'Bloom with Hope' stamp set . The final colour matches really well with Perfect Plum and Elegant Eggplant card stock, rather than Rich Razzleberry in my opinion. I stamped the 'I Love Lace' background stamp in Crumb Cake on Very Vanilla card stock and sponged the edges for a vintage look. The Striped Scallop die cut was adhered to it for the lace to peek through.

This is a very fine die, so I have a few tips to make this easier to use. I initially found it very difficult to remove the die cut without it tearing. This may be affected by the calibration of your Big Shot, so try it first – you may be lucky. I found I needed to adhere ejection foam to the die to get a clean cut that pops out easily. The ejection foam (purchased from a craft store) is a very thin (1mm) layer of self adhesive foam that you adhere to the cutting side of the die. Place the die with adhered foam cutting side down and run it through the Big Shot with the normal 'sandwich'. Place a piece of wax paper over the die before adding the top cutting mat, so the excess adhesive foam sticks to the wax paper rather than your cutting plate. When you lift the die off, the foam has adhered into the fine grooves. You will find the cardstock now pops cleanly from the die.

To make adhering the die to your card easier, I used the Adhesive Sheets. I have the retired version in 12 x 12 size, but I assume it is the same as the new smaller sheets. Cut a piece the same size as the card stock you are using with the Striped Scallop die. Peel off the top layer and adhere to the cardstock. Place the die on top of the cardstock as normal and run through the Big Shot. I found I had to run it through a few times to cut through the extra layer. Peel off the backing and adhere the die cut to your card. You get a great result because the adhesive covers every scallop.

As an alternative, you can use the adhesive sheet AFTER you have die cut your card. Cut a piece of adhesive sheet the size of the die cut and peel back the top layer. Place the die cut (good side facing up) onto the adhesive. Place a piece of plastic or cling wrap over it and burnish well. I recommend you go around each scallop with your scoring tool. The adhesive between the scallops will adhere to the plastic or cling wrap and will be removed when you peel it off (similiar to how you use a Xyron). You can then lift off your die cut easily and adhere it to your card.

This is the decoration inside of the card.

Project Details
Stamps	Bloom with Hope (Hostess), I Love Lace
Card stock & Papers	Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Elegant Eggplant, Pink Pirouette, Perfect Plum, Whisper White, Adhesive Sheets
Ink	Memento Tuxedo Black, Crumb Cake, Elegant Eggplant
Accessories	Antique Brads, Gold Metallic Bakers Twine, Basic Rhinestones
Tools	Striped Scallop Thinlit Die, Finishing Touches Thinlit die, Big Shot, Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack, Blendabilities (Rich Razzleberry, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive), Dimensionals, Sponge dauber