Old Bicycle Card

Well, the warm temperature and rain earlier in the week got rid of most of the snow but, as usual, another cycle has started. It started to snow about 4:30 yesterday afternoon and didn't end for a few hours. The streets are still slippery looking this morning and not much traffic so I guess people are staying in today. Joe's cold is a doozy so he's not going anywhere either and I still have no voice. I told him I was aiming to go to Aqua Fit tomorrow but he thinks I should wait until my voice comes back. I just have a bit of a dry cough left so I think I'm over it - well almost!

Another blog I like is www.freshlymadesketches.blogspot.ca. There is no manufacturer's stamp you have to use - just follow their sketch. I stopped in at our local scrapbooking store, The Paper Pickle (which downsized a few months ago but is now expanding - LOL), to get some more Zip Dry glue (my favorite glue) and saw a Memory Box die of one of those old fashioned bicycles and just had to have it. Kim also talked me into buying a thin metal sheet to use with these intricate dies. I've been using old greeting cards but some still don't cut all the way thru but she assured me it would with this shim. She was right. I love it...cuts like buttah! I also talked myself into a couple of other things too and order something else - oh well, she had a sale on and we got to pick a piece of paper and what ever we pulled was our discount - I got 25% off!
If you get one of these metal shims, do not place it above or below your die. Here's what I used on my Cuttlebug. A plate, metal shim, B plate, cardstock, die (face down), C plate. So regardless of which die cutting machine you have, place the metal shim between two of the plates. Speaking of the Cuttlebug, I think they may be using a lesser quality Plexiglas in their plates. The first ones I had that came with Bug lasted about 3 years. Now I'm lucky if I get 4 or 5 months out of them. I cracked one yesterday but luckily I had an extra set on hand...almost a necessity it seems.

 Here's my card. This one is a birthday card but this image could be used for other occasions too.



Every little piece of this die fell right out using that metal shim. I die cut the image twice; once on the dark brown and once on a multi-coloured dark gray. I off-set the brown on the gray so it looks like a shadow. Only trouble was I forgot to run the paper thru my Xyron to put the glue on the back first so I had to use my mini glue pen. It worked but it took a little longer. All the paper is from my stash. Circles were cut with Spellbinders. I wanted the small wheel to stick out on top of the small circle so I guess its a good think I didn't have the Xyron glue all over the back of it. The sentiment started out silver but I sponged some Ginger alcohol ink over it to distress it a bit. I didn't have any gems that look like gold brads so I had to use some gold stickles. I will have to get some of those but I'm not sure Kim carries them. The hunt is on!