Hi everyone, yesterday I spent the afternoon making a special card for a friend’s milestone birthday which I can’t share just yet, but I also managed to sneak in another very quick CAS card using a few bits and pieces I had lying around!
I cut a large stitched square from a large snippet of white card, and die cut an aperture using my new Craft Addiction UK dies which I had my eye on for a while - they arrived yesterday and I had them out of the packet almost before they landed on the doormat! I then created a smooshed background on a smaller snippet and stamped the floral butterfly by dabbing with various shades of Versafine Clair - my colour scheme was inspired by a current colour challenge. I attached the butterfly panel behind the aperture then stamped the sentiment and attached the finished panel to a card blank. To finish I added two teeny gems to the butterfly’s antennae - job done!
Unfortunately this card illustrates the main crafty problem I’m struggling with at the moment - my die cutting machine is a CC Gemini A4, and the plates are now so warped that they are wrecking my die cuts by causing creasing and waviness on the card. I really need new plates and shims but they are incredibly difficult to get hold of (quite apart from the price!) I’ve currently got my eye on some and hope to get them within the next week as I can’t carry on the way things are! To flatten this card out I had to place it under a heavy pile of books overnight!
Stamps: Chloe’s Creative Crafts Summer Florals (free with Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine issue 283 (May 2026));
Media: Lavinia Elements ink (Violet Chalk); Spectrum Noir Harmony dye ink (Pale Fig); Versafine Clair (Medieval Blue, Very Peri, Lilac Bloom, Monarch);
Tools: Hunkydory Moonstone Duo-Stitched square die; Craft Addiction UK Stitch Craft Fusion Frames (square).
Challenges I would like to enter:
AAA Colourful #28 - Colour Board
Addicted to Stamps & More! #518 - Birthdays
Die Cut Divas (June) - Anything Goes with a Die Cut
Double Trouble #217 - Birthday
Girlz & the Art of Letters #28 - B is for …Butterfly
Just Us Girls #826 - Use a Die
Krafty Chicks #823 - Birthday
Paper Players #788 - Tic Tac Toe
Simply Clean & Simple (June) - Anything CAS Goes
Snippets Playground #533 - Use Snippets
I’m hoping to get another craft session in this afternoon as I have to stay in for a BT Outreach engineer to survey our property for installation of full fibre broadband. Last time I stayed in for 5 hours and they never showed up, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed the visit will be more successful this time!
Take care, and thanks for visiting.
Hugs,
18 comments:
Great CAS card, love the beautiful butterfly-hope the engineer turns up today.
Carol x
Great use of your new stitched aperture die with the pretty butterfly. Cutting plates for the Gemini do seem to be difficult to get hold of and they don't seem to last that long either before they start giving problems, such a shame but we can't keep on buying new machines can we and anyway I think most of them have problems of one sort or another.
A great color scheme for the butterfly and love the CAS design of the card with your new dies. I have a Sizzix Big Shot die cutting machine and also need to replace my plates. I keep forgetting!! Hope they still make them as I've had my machine forever!
Gorgeous card, Pauline. The butterfly is beautiful in shades of purple. Sorry to hear about the problems you are having with your die cutting machine. Hope you get your new plates soon.
Liz xx
That’s a lovely butterfly card using some great stitched dies. Wishing you success locating some new plates at a fair price.
Thanks for coming to play in the Snippets Playground. See you in the treehouse later. xxx
What a gorgeous butterfly this is!
Thank you for joining our challenge at Simply Clean & Simple.
Diane
{Nellies Nest}
{Simply Clean & Simple} Co-Owner
Beautiful butterfly, lovely clean design and soft pretty colours. The new dies are gorgeous.
xx
So beautiful! Gorgeous butterfly. Thanks for playing at AAA Colourful, hope to see you join in with future challenges too. Stay safe and keep crafting!
Your card is just lovely, the shading is so perfect and love that double stitched border around your butterfly! Thanks for joining us at Double Trouble.
Truly lovely card Pauline! Like you, I adore the Maximum Crafts Stitched dies - perfect for framing images! Have you tried using the pale green plates trick with your Gemini die cutting machine? They're meant to be used for double sided dies but Jennifer McGuire posted on YT about using them and I've done so ever since, with great success. This is the link to her video - lots of info about flattening plates at the beginning. Here's the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0ZKxQLT3Gg&t=815s
For the green plates trick go to 14.10 minutes into the video. I don't tape mine as Jennifer does but it's been a gamechanger. The plate you cut into WILL score over time but you can flip them around and also over, so you actually get loads more use that way. My Gemini is A5 - not sure if they make the plates for A4 machines but lots of folk with A4 machines often use A5 plates for speed as also they're cheaper to replace of course. Good luck!
Hugs
Di xx
PS!! Just checked Amazon and they DO the A4 plates I described - HERE: Masivel long URL!!!!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gemini-Replacement-Plate-Accessories-GEMII-Acc-DSDP/dp/B0C1HG1BTZ/ref=sr_1_7?adgrpid=1180877288294888&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.RVnDzYd2p3bJY1-btKn-5XPzT6KKVQN0EVnrRoofQVFG1lb6wTTHoUTv9IjdXe72ylzkXr48OB3Gbf9kMrehJxbDOyc1UFnCk6b-1aVEvEFJTKbWJFKtLJApEl3dmzh1MIqGmdXnPEJU1H9Au-M8t98eQvO1zTFh1F0NfZ4p_8oisTROBphWTkcNqBvKPFv3F3vWfFBCz0l-8bqjk3CYjKHOrvNdsmP-pBIQpB8oyKbW3p2Zak_0sNtBIjR0Kk4sfb5gwavvaz75R83uT6-nIF3VvTwTWbMULXO7oxnyHrE.Pp7jYoSVI41OOvrXJxgWGiYUY9fbBxl3SNHa3CO3dDk&dib_tag=se&hvadid=73805053695421&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=4942&hvnetw=s&hvqmt=e&hvtargid=kwd-73805190623349%3Aloc-188&hydadcr=18455_2413155&keywords=gemini+original+cutting+plates&mcid=15519a70dd4c309aba8baf641a2d1353&qid=1780779854&sr=8-7
And the A5 green plates at https://www.amazon.co.uk/CraftFIRST-Cutting-Compatible-Embossing-Machine/dp/B0BPJS9LD4/ref=sr_1_8?adgrpid=1180877288294888&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.RVnDzYd2p3bJY1-btKn-5XPzT6KKVQN0EVnrRoofQVFG1lb6wTTHoUTv9IjdXe72ylzkXr48OB3Gbf9kMrehJxbDOyc1UFnCk6b-1aVEvEFJTKbWJFKtLJApEl3dmzh1MIqGmdXnPEJU1H9Au-M8t98eQvO1zTFh1F0NfZ4p_8oisTROBphWTkcNqBvKPFv3F3vWfFBCz0l-8bqjk3CYjKHOrvNdsmP-pBIQpB8oyKbW3p2Zak_0sNtBIjR0Kk4sfb5gwavvaz75R83uT6-nIF3VvTwTWbMULXO7oxnyHrE.Pp7jYoSVI41OOvrXJxgWGiYUY9fbBxl3SNHa3CO3dDk&dib_tag=se&hvadid=73805053695421&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=4942&hvnetw=s&hvqmt=e&hvtargid=kwd-73805190623349%3Aloc-188&hydadcr=18455_2413155&keywords=gemini+original+cutting+plates&mcid=15519a70dd4c309aba8baf641a2d1353&qid=1780779854&sr=8-8
The A5 plates are made by CraftFirst but cost a good bit less less than I think I paid for my last Gemini A5 green ones. Worth a try perhaps?
BRW, you still use the two clear plates on the outside of the sandwich. The green ones go in the middle - bit like a lettuce leaf sarnie!
Di xx
I'm sorry you're having such a problem with your plates. However, your card is just so cute. I love the dogs. So glad you joined us at Die Cut Divas for a Anything goes theme using die cuts or dry embossing.
What a beautiful, colourful butterfly, Pauline, and the die-cut frames it beautifully! Sorry to hear about the Gemini plate problem. I gave up on my Gemini machine and replaced it with an Empress from Ebay, and haven't regretted it once.
Thanks for sharing with us at ATSM.
Hugs,
Carol x
Beautiful! Thanks for sharing at Double Trouble.
Beautiful butterfly card Pauline. Love the layout. Thanks for sharing at JUGS this week.
Lovely card. Bummer about your plates. Thanks for sharing at JUGS
This card is soooo cool!!! I love that butterfly & the faux stitching details. Thank you for sharing at Double Trouble! :)
Andrea La Vigne
Double Trouble Crazy Cousin for May
Loving your smooched background colors and the butterfly stamping is gorgeous in the mix. Thank you for sharing your beautiful birthday card with us at Double Trouble's 8th Anniversary Raffle.
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