{captured} Butterfly & Roses

This just reminds me of spring. Growing up and capturing butterflies in an old Mason jar, or finding grasshoppers in the field. It's sure to bring a little happiness while it's still raining and blustering outside.

Get out your supplies and capture something in a jar that makes you happy! Check out this Flickr Gallery Search for ideas or try your hand at making these beautiful Roses by Nancy Burke. Eitherway you will have a unique specimen to enjoy all year.

Supplies:
Shabby Green Door On the Wings of a Dream: Patterned papers, stamps.
Farmers Market: Jam Jar with Lid, Chocolate Twist Bakers Twine.
Daisy Bucket Designs
Rub-ons
Jacquard Pearl Ex Powders

Someday

Someday I *WILL* go to Disney World but until then I get to live the magic through my friend Susan. I don't even have kids and I wanna go after seeing her pages!



And how cute are those pennants! Adorable! Her Lo's always inspire me. So to say thank you to her for always sharing the magic, I've got a little of my own! Here's some great ephemera I found recently. Can't wait to see what she does with it! I will be stashing mine away for the day *I* finally get to visit the most magical place on earth.

Fixing those wood dies

If you haven't heard yet JoAnn's is having a crazy clearance sale on original and Bigz dies. I got 10 on Sunday and they were marked down to $1.99 & $2.99! Of course this was perfect timing to figure out if I can alter these. The results were mixed. It seems all the frame dies the centers came out fairly easily. On the other hand these flower dies were a bit trickier. Still worth the work though (being able to cut piles of book text and sewing pattern tissue is worth it to me! not to mention the chipboard.)

So here's what I discovered. The center holes are impossible to remove LOL! they are small though and easy to cover. :) it was those center flower shapes that needed to go anyway! pulling them out proved futile. I tried for probably 1/2hr before giving up.

I decided I needed to remove the black foam to see what the next option was. I ended up going for a pair of really big wire cutters DH had in the garage. I made cuts every 1/8" around the entire shape. When that was done I used some blunt tipped needlenose pliers and twisted off each little piece until the shape was gone. (you can see in the close up the tiny pieces I removed.) It looks pretty rough but once the foam is back on you won't notice it and it cuts fine. The foam even went back on with no problems. Make sure you don't lose the tiny circles of foam that go in the center holes. These push the paper out of the holes after cutting.

***As always, proceed with caution. The dies are sharp and you can damage your die if you aren't careful. I suggest picking up one of the clearance dies at Joann's and giving it a try before you move on to more expensive dies.




EDITED: to fix the bright, reg, green, yellow, blue dies read HERE

eeeeek!! I can FIX my dies!!

Ok so you probably all have a sizzix die you wished the inner cutting shape would just disappear! you know the flowers with the holes in the centers and here is a good example. a perfectly good heart messed up by turning it into a frame :P booooo!

I have always wished I could change this and it's only taken me what 6 years?? LOL

So here is how it works

Take a die you hate, but want to *LOVE*. like this one!



Flip it over and make sure it has the holes in it on the back (I don't have my newer style original dies with the full back covering so I'm not sure if this will work on those, but once I get mine back I will be updating! UPDATE: Scroll down to the bottom of this post for the link to the newer dies) using a pair of needlenose pliers push the steel rule die out the opposite side. BE CAREFUL OF THE BLADES ON THE FRONT SIDE!!! they are sharp and you will cut yourself if you don't take precautions. Try a dishcloth or a hot pad to protect your hand.



Once it is out it will look like this


Use the pliers again and push the middle part of the die out.


Put the outer die shape back into carrier. you can do this best by pushing on the plastic rim portion of the dies frame. try not to touch the blade or chip it with the pliers. I've pulled back the foam so you can see where the plastic rim is I am talking about.



The funny part about this is that the die actually cuts BETTER now than it did before. I'd be careful about chipboard getting stuck. I haven't tried that yet. if it does you can just pop the die apart like you did when you were disassembling it in a worse case scenario. the paper I tried didn't get stuck and I was actually able to cut 8 sheets and I probably could have done more.


Now I have to go look for more dies I can "fix"! Please share if you get any cool results while reassembling them. :)

ADDED: 3/20 there is a discussion about this going on here at Two Peas in a Bucket check out what others have said about taking apart their dies. Edited: You can also learn about altering the wood dies on THIS post.

I see there are others joining in on the fun from other message boards. :) if you discover any great tips *please* share, or post a link in the comments section. THANKS!

Cricut Bag

So I have a Cricut new-users class coming up next saturday and realized I needed a way take this thing with me. It's pretty heavy and awkward! I don't know if they make a bag for them but I'm sure it was more expensive than my $5 vintage sheets LOL

I threw this together last night. It only took me a few hours and some problem solving! I've never made a bag or anything that required a liner so that was a bit of a mental challenge to figure the inside-out workings of it.

The worst part was putting the handles on. There HAS to be an easier way then I went about it. Pinning them on and sorta eyeballing it unfortunatley AFTER I had put the side pleats all in. That made it hrad to tell what was on there straight or measure anything.

Making it myself I was able to get some nice pockets in there for the power cord and the tool kit. I probably should have tried making a bag with a proven pattern the first time.

Oh and this was the first large-ish sewing project I have had a chance to do with the Kenmore Mini Ultra I got for Christmas. :) Man I love that thing!

some sneaks peeks...

of the projects I designed for Paperie Arte!
:)
I hope all of you attending enjoy making them as much as I did. :)