Countdown to CHA star folder-embossing textured paper

Hi I'm Shantaie, and I'm thrilled to be one of the new design team members here at cuttlebug challenge. I know I speak for everyone when I say we are excited about our countdown to CHA and we are so happy to share with you the samples from all of the new folders .

Here is my first project using the amazing star folder, this embossing folder is so versatile and is sure to become one of my favorites!

To make this gift box you will need:

1 chipboard box mine is 5x5

velvet paper, card stock

1 yard of ribbon, 46 brads

embossing folders, sizzix star die or a pattern for a star to cut out.

I started with the velvet textured paper and embossed it with the star folder. I found this paper at a chain craft store, and is readily available in several colors.I cut my star embossed pieces to size after it was embossed, due to the thick texture of this paper it does "shrink" a little after its run through the folder. To adhere the paper to the box I used sticky strip, you will want to use a strong tape so your project will be durable for handling,the incredible texture begs to be touched!
This box features a gold brad at each scallop, the cropodile was used here to easily punch through the chipboard box.I finished this gift box lid with paper embossed with the paisley folder, don't you love the way it works so well with the star folder!? To top it off I cut out the star using the sizzix stars die, and stamped my sentiment from oval all by Stampin' Up! and punched it out with the oval scallop punch.
Textured papers are perfect for embossing, I invite you to experiment with many different types of papers, the visual and tactile combinations are endless!

Please remember to follow the blog and check back with us daily, you won't want to miss a minute of our countdown to CHA or all the fantastic projects all of the design team has to show you.
As always leave a comment letting us know what you think of the folders and don' forget to add us to your blog roll.
Have a wonderful day,
Shantaie

Countdown to CHA with the Stars Folder!

Good Morning everyone! We are very excited to debut the new folders from Provo Craft being released at CHA this July.

Our goal is to inspire you with fun, simple projects for gift ideas, cards, altered items and even home decor. In addition to all the fun inspiration we have planned for you, we want to also give you a chance to win the brand new folders all month long (in July) as we countdown to CHA.


How can you win the new folders?

1. Participate in all 4 of the Be Inspired challenges this month and you will be entered to win. It's that easy!
   
   
2. Be sure to visit our Design team as they debut the Stars Folder in the new release from Provo Craft!
   

Also, this afternoon we will be announcing the winners of the "Shout Out" contest. Woohoo!!! Are you excited?? We certainly are!

Don't forget to watch HSN on July 9th for a fantastic day with Cuttlebug.

The hours are as followed.

HSN July 9th, 2009

The launch will start at 01:00 AM.

2nd segment 08:00 AM

3rd segment 12:00 PM

4th segment 19:00 PM

Happy Shopping :) Don't forget to let all your friends about this schedule!

Maggie

Monday Rendevous

Good Morning Crafters everywhere!! It's Jenn K here and I am so excited to be starting the week with such a fun folder! The timing couldn't be more perfect!! With the 4th of July just around the corner it seems like the perfect time to introduce to you the STARS embossing folder.

We are grateful to Provo Craft for supplying the Design team the folders to give you a taste of how wonderful they are.

First thing I noticed is that the embossing is deeper than the other folders AND there's less of a lip on the top and more design to the top of the folder, making it so much easier to create with.

I gotta tell you, this embossing folder is awesome! It will be available after CHA...but until then, come by and get tons of inspiration on how to use it and others!!

We will be sharing 2 projects with you today using this folder. One I created and the other by my partner.

Here is the Star folder we are featuring this week!


Here is a picture of the Stars folder, notice all the dimension to the stars? Love it! The first project I made was a Photo album. You can make this project yourself ..and it is so easy!

Supplies you will need:

• 5" X 9 1/4" piece of cardstock (for back and side of book)
• 5 X 6 1/4" piece of cardstock (for front of book)
• Other papers and supplies to decorate the book with
• Paper cutter and scoring tool
• clear envelopes
• brads/eyelets
• adhesive
  

Step 1:

Score your 5" x 9 1/4" piece of cardstock at 1", 2" on the long side. Then fold the cardstock along the scored lines to create a spine. Attach the front of the book (the 5" x 6 1/4" piece of cardstock) to the front portion of the scored area.

Step 2:

Next you want to attach the clear envelopes to the book binding. Peel the adhesive from the envelopes and stick them down in the spine area. Continue to layer the envelopes on top of each other until you have all the pages you want in your book. Next punch holes in the spine. I used eyelets in them but you could also use brads.

Here you can see the inside of my book with all the pages. I took cardstock and embossed it then slipped it into the envelopes. This will serve as a mat for my photos.

Step 3:

Next, you will want to decorate your album as you please. I used ribbons in the spine and added some more cardstock embossed with the stars folder to the front cover. Then I added a sentiment and a few more embellishments.

Here is my completed book. I just love it! It was quick and easy to make and is a cute little book for a gift or small theme brag book etc.

Introducing our newest design team member Sonia !

Hello there! This is Sonia here!I am very happy to share my first posting at CUTTLEBUG CHALLENGE BLOG with Jenn K, a very talented teammate. I am also excited not only because this is my first posting, but because I have the opportunity to work and showcase the NEW not-yet-released Cuttlebug A2 Stars embossing folder!!! I hope you enjoy my tutorial.

Supplies needed:

• 1 sheet of acrylic 8” x 8” (if you do not have acrylic, you an use a thick cardstock)
• 1 piece of cardstock 7.7” x 7.7” (black)
• 1 piece of cardstock 7.5” x 7.5”. (white)
• 1 piece of pattern paper 7" x 7". (checkered)
• 1 piece of cardstock 5.5" x 4.25" (black)
• 1 piece of cardstock 5.25" x 4" (white)
• 1 A2 Cuttlebug Embossing Folder. (Any A2 embossing folder will do)
• Any other stamps and embellishments to decorate the frame
• 1 10" piece of ribbon

STEP 1:

Since the acrylic frame is clear, glue the bigger piece of cardstock first (Black). Machine stitch the pattern paper (checkered) on top of the cardstock (white.) After it is stitched, glue it to the black one.

STEP 2:

Emboss the smaller piece of cardstock (white) using the STARS embossing folder and glue it to the small piece of cardstock (black). This piece goes on top of the pattern paper (checkered). Attach any embellishments you want. In this case, I used one of my Peachy Keen Stamps and colored it using Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. I added some Kaiser Pearls to the center of the embossed stars also. The title letters are from Cricut's All Mixed Up Cartridge cut at 1 inch.

STEP 3:

Finally, attach the ribbon to the frame and it will be ready to hang...

Here is my final project. I hope to see your acrylic frame soon using any other embossing folder or the STARS when it becomes available.…

Hugs to all....

Sonia Kertznus

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Thank you for stopping by today. Be sure to let us know what you think of today's tutorials. We love to hear from you! Also come back on Tuesday for another full day's inspiration from the design team!

If you haven't already, please sign up to follow the blog. You don't want to miss anything, right?

Have a wonderful day!!
Jenn K

PS. Today is the last day to enter the Giveaway! Click here.

Please Welcome our Fabulous Fall Team!

Happy Sunday! We are beyond excited to introduce our fabulous Fall team. You are very familiar with most of them from winning our challenges or by simply being on our other team or maybe even by seeing them in Magazines such as Scrapbook Trends, Cards etc..

It is our pleasure to have such a talented group of ladies here with us to inspire you! Our team is truly international spanning from England to Sweden and even the Caribbean! Please help us welcome:

• Ingrid Danvers from the Netherlands
• Hanneke van Dalen from the Netherlands
• Ewonne Ek from Sweden
• Jackie Gallagher from the USA
• Beth Ullman from the USA
• Sonia Kertznus from the USA
• Terrie Bailey from England
• June Houck from the USA
• Angie Tieman from the USA
• Shantaie Fowler from the USA
• Michelle Borsack from the USA
• Mel Mccarthy from Canada

Our Returning Design team members!

• Jenyfur Pohl from the USA
• Heidi Van Laar from the USA
• Nathalia Castellon from the USA
• Sarah Johnson (Mrs J) from Scotland
  
• Danni Reid (dannisnoodle) from the USA
• Karen Maldonado from the USA
• Rosemary Zuba from the USA

Special Projects!

• Kirsty Brown from Australia
• Jay VAUGHN from the USA

Staff Members!

• Betty Brett from the USA - Event Coordinator
• Spike Ablog from the USA - Marketing Coordinator
• Tracy Pounds from the USA - Design Team Coordinator
• Cassie Larson from the USA - Brand Coordinator
• Jenn Koss from the USA - Sponsorship Coordinator
• Amber Goble from the USA - Marketing Assistant
• Meda Halmaciu from Romania - Blog Administrator
• Michele Ciola from the USA-Community Leader
  
• Maggie Lamarre from the USA – Owner

These are the team members that make this blog look so easy to create 6 days a week in addition to our special events. Thank you for all the hard work!

Please be sure you come back tomorrow as we debut all the folders that will be at CHA at the end of the month. There is also a chance to win some of the folders before they hit the stores :) How kewl is that???!!!

Maggie

Announcing Our Countdown to CHA!

ETA: This post is going to stay on top until Monday please scroll down for recent post :)

Remember when we gave you a sneak peek of the new Cuttlebug embossing folders? Wouldn't you like to see them in FULL DETAIL in PERSON?

At the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog, we're having a Countdown to the Summer CHA '09 CELEBRATION!!!! Beginning June 29th - July 31st, we will be having a FULL month of new folder previews as well as really fun ideas from the design team!! Plus, there will be challenges and prizes where you could win some of the NEW folders not yet released to the public!! How COOL is that???

Help us spread the word! In doing so, our lucky readers will be entered to win one of our wonderful kits. . . FULL of embellishments and papers from the Anna Griffin Collection . . . including an Acrylic album.

How can you win????

1. Be sure that you’re registered as a Follower on the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog
   
2. Give a shout out in a forum and CREATE A POST ON YOUR BLOG about the Countdown to CHA event!
   
3. Leave a comment on THIS post on the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog with the link to your blog and forum post(s) you have created with the shout out(s)!

Winners will be notified on June 29^th, 2009.

Please post this ad when doing your Shout Out!! We have created this ad for you to make it easier to spread the word. Simply use it on your blog or anywhere else :)

Here are some pictures of our prize kits from Anna Griffin and others. Yep, we are giving ALL of this away to 2 Lucky readers!!

(Not all items are pictured)

**** Major Announcement from PROVO CRAFT****

If you are unable to wait. Provo Craft will be having a Cuttlebug Hour on HSN on July 9th, with previews of some of the folders, before CHA. We will update you as we get more info.

**** CROPSTOP.COM ****

One of our sponsors is currently taking pre-orders and offering our readers 10% off their $35.00 order. Coupon Code is CC6.

Have fun and spread the word! Don't forget to follow us on twitter also :)

Thank you,
Maggie

Guest Design Spot: flower pounding

Hello everyone! This is Jay from IndigoInklings dropping by for another visit this month at Maggie's request. Recently I read about a technique that was done using the Wizard by Spellbinders. It's called flower pounding. Flower pounding itself isn't new. As you might guess, it's been done using a hammer or a mallet and a nice flat solid surface. Flowers were placed atop paper and pounded to release and transfer the pigment. What was different was that this was done with less effort (and noise!) by using a die cutting machine. I decided to adapt this technique for the Cuttlebug and share it here.

Now thankfully, this time of year there are lots of flowers in my backyard. These are a few that I picked just for this project. Love the wonderful variety of shapes, textures, and colors!

What you need to have on hand for flower pounding, besides some fresh flowers, are your Cuttlebug machine and plates and some card stock or water color paper. What I did was cut the sheets in half and then fold each half in half to make a folder. There's no need to be neat about this. I know my Scor-It is in the photo, but it was there primarily to be a nice backdrop.

Here is the sandwich that I used for flower pounding: A, B, and C plates, with the flowers placed inside the folder. I've found that the side that releases most of the pigment is the face of the flower, so if you don't use a folder, then put the bloom face down onto your card stock, then cover it with a layer of scrap paper before sandwiching it and putting it through.

Here you can see that I did place the folder between the plates before rolling it through. You can also see why I used a folder. This can be a juicy project. Depending on what type of flower you use, it can be really juicy! This is why I mentioned that water color paper would also be a good option.

This is what it looked like when I opened up the folder. You can see that pigment has been transferred from these shrub rose blooms to the card stock.

This is how it looked after I peeled the flower petals etc away. Both sides of the folder are potentially usable, so that's another neat thing.

Here is the same sandwich, different flowers. These were much thinner than the first blooms. I had a shim handy, just in case it looked like the blooms needed to be squeezed harder, but I didn't need it. It's a good idea to have at least one or two of them close by though.

Again, here is the folder opened up.

And this is the design that's left once the flowers are removed. You can gently rub the flowers off with a finger. Often you can peel up an edge of a petal with a fingernail then pull it off the rest of the way. I found that using a scrap piece of card stock as a scraper worked nicely, too.

This is one more example with a Bachelor Button. I used watercolor paper for this one. I've had a lot of moisture get forced out of this type of flower before, so I learned from that!

This is one side of the outside of the folder after rolling it through.

This is the other side. I really liked the colors and the delicate look.

Here is the folder opened up. The flower was squeezed from the top then down toward the stem. This is why I also tended to place my flowers near the edge of the folder that would be going through the machine first. Think of the Cuttlebug as a wringer with all of the pigment and moisture getting squeezed out and forced along as the bloom moves between the rollers. It's much less messy to have excess folder at the trailing edge to catch all of that. Yes, as you might guess, that's the voice of experience. :-)

This is one side with the flower parts removed.

This is the other side. The amount of pigment left by the flowers can be impressive. And don't discount the stems and leaves, or the stamen and the pollen. They can all leave color, shapes, and texture behind.

This is a card made with flower pounded shrub roses. Notice the bright yellow that was transferred from the pollen. You might recognize the scalloped QuicKutz border embossing folder that I used as the background for their layer. The sentiment is by Hero Arts and was stamped using Memento dye ink.

Since the pounded Yellow Loosestrife blooms left behind an image so reminiscent of stars, I paired them with the above sentiment from The Little Prince made by Silver Crow Creations, and I added some QuicKutz die cut flourishes.

The focus of this card is that Bachelor Button "image" that was on the outside of the folder. As I said, the delicate look appealed to me and I wanted to go with something more subtle. The stamped sentiment is by Hampton Art Stamps and I added the score lines using my Scor-It.

I made this last card using one of the images made with a shrub rose bloom. I cut and embossed it using Spellbinders Nestabilities dies and layered it on top of white card stock with some decorative scoring that I again made using my Scor-It. The decorative edges were made using the Fiskars Upper Crest border punch. The sentiment is by Hero Arts and was stamped using white craft ink.

So, no tips or tricks using embossing folders this time, but I hope that I've inspired you to try a technique that doesn't get much more complicated than going outside and picking some flowers. I've found that fresh blooms work better, by the way. Again, it's that voice of experience. :-) And for those of you who are Big Shot users, or even owners of the original red Sizzix machine, click on over to my blog where I've described how to flower pound using those die cutters.

Have a good day everyone! Enjoy your weekends! And be sure to have fun checking out all of the special features that will be published on this blog in the upcoming days. :-)

This Just in!!!

Hi everyone!! We have this MAJOR announcement for you! The news you have been waiting for is here! So you don’t have to wait any longer.

Drum roll please . . . . . . . . (that’s my drum roll)

PROVO CRAFT, the maker of the Cuttlebug has announced new

5X7 Cuttlebug embossing Christmas folders!

Yes you’ve heard it right! They have listened to YOU the consumer. A little while ago Provocraft conducted a survey and our readers took part in the feedback process. From the survey, Provocraft is developing product that you want! How sweet is that??

During CHA, they will be releasing three 5x7 folders and one 7” border set. In addition they will be bringing back the Lace tree folder due to popular demand. Isn’t this great news???

So without further ado . . here are the new folders.

holly-ribbons 5x7	winter-borders 7 inch	seasons-greetings A2
candy-cane-stripe A2	winter-trees A2	christmas-countdown 5x7
	Lacetree A2 Back by popular demand

Tell all your friends the wonderful news. And for being such loyal followers of our Cuttlebug Challenge blog, we have a 10% off coupon for all pre-ordered folders from Cropstop.com!! Simply use code CC6 at checkout to take advantage of this great deal. :)

July 9th you will be able to get great deals on

Home Shopping Network on Cuttlebug products!

HSN July 9th for a fantastic day with Cuttlebug.

The hours are as followed.

HSN July 9th, 2009

The launch will start at 01:00 AM.

2nd segment 08:00 AM

3rd segment 12:00 PM

4th segment 19:00 PM

Don't forget. . . we will be giving away 2 wonderful kits to our readers just for telling their friends, family and neighbors all about the Cuttlebug new folder debut celebration beginning June 28th on the blog!!

Also, we will be at CHA in July. I will be making some fantastic MAKE & TAKES in the Provo Craft booth. Come by and say hello and what you think about the blog. We would love to chat with you about our obsession. . . or I mean hobby. :)

Have a great day everyone. Don’t forget to let your friends know we are giving away new folders not yet released to the public :)

Maggie