Fancy Nesty Tutorial

Hello everyone!  Finally a few minutes to put together the other tutorial, the Spellbinder one that I promised some time back!  I started with a piece of card that measured 8 inches by 12 inches.  Make a score line in the centre so that the finished card will measure  6 " x 8" in size when folded.

Next, tape your chosen die (I'm using the Parisian Motif here) with the cutting ridge down on the inside of the left side of the scored card.  Tape the die with removable tape (I like the Scotch brand) so that it won't tear your card and get it close to the edge of the card

Next, you will need to make a score line from the die upwards to the edge of the card and from the die downwards to the edge of the card.  The score line needs to be in the centre of the die.  The Parisian die has a small notch when taped in this direction that allows you to find the centre easily.

Next, you will turn your card with the taped die upside down on your base plate so that you can no longer see the actual die, but you should still be able to see the score line that you made above and below the die.  This is the line to which  you will need to line up the cutting plate.  Normally when cutting a die you would cover the entire piece with the cutting plate, but we only want half of the die to actually cut so the other half of the die will remain uncovered as we run it through the machine.

When you finish passing it through the machine it should look like this when you remove the cutting plate.

Next step is to emboss the entire piece.  So you will cover all of it this time with the tan mat and then the pink embossing plate and run it back through the Grand Calibur.  This will bring out the detail on the cut half and leave the other half nicely embossed into your card to complete the design of the Parisian (or whatever your chosen die may be) die template.

Carefully remove your taped die now and you will find a half cut and a half embossed design.  Remove the pieces from the cut die that may still need to be poked out.  Leave the embossed side as is.

Next you are going to fold your card in half on the original centre score line.  The back of the cut die should be facing up at this point like it is in this picture.  On the score lines that are above and below the die, you are going to fold the card flap backwards but allow the cut portion of the die to swing under so that it will be facing the right side up. 

This is perhaps a better pic showing how I am folding it backwards at the score lines but I am using my hand to push the cut portion of the die outward as I fold backwards.

This is what your card should look like when you fold the scored lines (give them a nice crease with a bone folder) and you have flipped the cut section so that it is not right side up.

In this pic I am trying to show that there will usually be a piece in your die that is on the centre line.  You will have to cut by hand the fall out piece so that half of it is completely gone and on the embossed side it should remain intact so as not to disrupt the overall look of the die on that side.  You now have the entire base piece done so that you can decorate the rest of the card as desired.

Here is the same card using the Holly Motifs and Accents and I have decorated it using borders and corners and smaller dies.  You can use this tutorial for any of the fancy Spellbinder dies and it looks wonderful!  I hope you will give it a try.  All for now, Sue x