Having fun with my new Scan-n-Cut die cutter!

ALERT: This blog was written awhile ago.....CHRISTMAS IS OVER! :)

I have been watching Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's videos for quite some time. I became very excited about the Brother Scan-N-Cut especially since I've got a little pain in my right hand and cutting by hand is just not fun anymore. So, when Julie was on HSN (back in Oct.?) with the die cutting machine, I watched it. My husband saw me watching it and I told him all of the amazing things it could do for me. (I have 2 ETSY Shops and I teach Arts and Craft classes) I told him I was going to try to find it cheaper somewhere. Many, many weeks later I decided I couldn't afford the Brother Scan-N-Cut and found the Silhouette machine (another die cutting machine that does NOT scan). I told him I was going to get that one. He got a funny look on his face and I knew something was up. He had bought the Scan-N-Cut on HSN the day I was watching the show!!!! He asked me if I wanted it early (before Christmas) and I said, oh yeah!

Here's the very first thing I made...

MERRY CHRISTMAS PAPER MANTEL BANNER

I tried to do it Julie's way....she stitched them all together....ha! Nightmare for me, a seamstress I am NOT. So, I went with my strength....glue! I glued them on some beautiful lacy off-white ribbon. The images are all from the Brother's memory. I combined some to be more unique.

My next project was a pop-up card for each of my best crafty friends. Yeah, I should have gone with something simpler, but what's the fun in that? One of the designs was from the machine and one I had to design myself, because that's how I roll! :)  (that one, of course, took me 3 tries!)

But, I was very pleased with the results and my friends loved them!

The last thing I just did and I'm very excited about is cutting out shapes to make a bowl. I saw this bowl on Pinterest and had to try and make it. I printed out one of my Japanese Maple leaf silo stamps, then scanned it into the Scan-N-Cut. I printed out 20 leaves on leftover scraps of a heavier stock. (the die cutter did a fantastic job!) But, the stock was too heavy for the balloon method. Gluing them onto a balloon was not going to happen, so I reverted to the bowl method, which I am not fond of.

This was the result...yuck....but I learned a lot. Next time I will use thinner paper and the balloon method!