Fixing the Grand Calibur

I'm sorry I haven't updated this blog in a very long time. I'm still making cards and albums, but I have stage four cancer. Between not feeling well at times, and long hospital stays, I haven't posted on here. Anyway, I wanted to post this, for those of you who have a Spellbinders Grand Calibur, which may not be working.

This is not a complaint about the quality of the older raspberry colored Grand Calibur, rather, it shows you just how well made this workhorse really is. I bought mine when they very first came out. It was so long ago, that I have no idea of how many years I have used it, but it has had a real workout from me.

A number of years ago, I heard something fall inside my GC, and it rattled. I was devastated. I couldn't afford a new one, and I couldn't imagine making cards without it, so I decided to take it apart and see if I could fix it. It was really easy, but unfortunately, I didn't take photos, so I couldn't post a tutorial, and I never got around to taking it apart again until tonight.

A few days ago, I heard the dreaded clunk again, and something was rattling around in there again. This time, I wasn't as devastated, since I had high hopes of it being the same problem, and it was. It was a couple of screws which had worked themselves loose over time. Years of use on thousands of cards take their toll.

Here is how to fix it if yours suffered from the same problem. You will need a phillips head screwdriver, and a set of allen wrenches.

Begin by taking out the four rubber plugs near the top of your GC. You can see where mine were by the holes in the photo. Next, unscrew the screws inside the holes.

Turn your GC over, and remove the four screws you will see on the bottom. Place these into a separate container from the top ones, they are a tiny bit smaller.

Now you will be able to separate the two halves of the GC. Do this carefully, because if you are lucky, you may have one or more black allen wrench screws rattling around inside. You don't want to lose those.

Turn your GC over again, and lift up the edges of the suction thing on the bottom, and you will see four more screws. You can remove those without taking off the rubber thing. I kept those separate from the other screws as well, in case there was a difference in size. Those screws hold the roller mechanism in, so be careful not to drop it on your foot!

You will now see the roller mechanism as in the above photo. Now would be a great time to clean any crud that has accumulated on your rollers!

This photo shows the end of the mechanism near where the handle attaches. See the four holes there on the flat black part? That's where the screws came from.

Use a flashlight to see which holes the screws fell out of, and put them back in with the allen wrench. Tighten the others as well. Mine were all loose.

Now just reassemble your GC. It's a bit difficult to line up the holes under the suction thing with the holes in the roller mechanism. I placed the two outside bottom screws back into the side of the GC where the suction adjustment knob is to keep the base from wiggling around while I was trying to line things up.

I was still having problems getting everything lined up, so I also put the two upper screws into the top, lining them up with the the holes in the green part of the roller thing. This made it easier to put the four screws back into the holes under the suction thing. Once those are all in and tightened up, it is pretty easy to put the remaining screws in.

Next, put your rubber plugs back into the holes. There are two which are a tiny bit wider, and two which are narrower, so if they either look too big, or they fall down into the hole, just reverse them until you see where they fit.

I sure hope your Grand Calibur is as easy to fix as mine was!

Altered Cigar Box with Compartments

I decided I wanted to make this cigar box with a nautical theme, so I used some JustRite stamps on some pale gold Core'dinations Pearl CS and gold embossing powder. I shaded the edges with gold ink, then cut some gold mirror card with some Spellbinders dies.

When I went to do the inside, it looked too fancy to cover up the design. The label was quite interesting, and it had raised sides which were covered with silk like red cloth.

It's difficult to think of different ways to finish the insides of the boxes, so for this one, I decided to make four compartments out of bass wood, and make red painted covers for each section. Red ribbon was used to attach the compartments and act as hinges.

Each cover has a little knob made from jewelry findings to lift them up. I think this one would work well for a man.

Pink and White Majestic Labels Card

I'm giving you a break from Christmas cards, and posting another of the Spellbinders cards I made last fall. This one is made from Majestic Labels Twenty Five.

All the dies were cut on white CS and shaded with a Brilliance pink color, and it was matted with pink and white CS. After I finished the card, it needed something, so I added a flower I had made with a punch to the center, and some Liquid Pearls.

I love these dies, they make it so easy to make a beautiful and intricate looking card!

This one also reminds me of my blog friend Jill, because she likes pink.

Myrna, Antoinette, and Marie-Louise, I will be making plenty more blue cards! Thanks to all of you for being such faithful followers!

PSX Midnight Christmas Card

This card reminds me of those Christmas services we used to go to on Christmas eve when I was a child. Those services were magical!

The card was done with an old PSX stamp, some dark blue CS, watercolors I made from PearlEx, silver EP, silver mirror card, and several Spellbinders dies. I photographed it two ways, one to show the depth, and one to show the shimmer.

I really liked this card on the diagonal, but it posed two problems. One was how to make it so it opens right, and the other is that it won't stand up without an easel. I solved the opening issue by making a blank rectangular card the same size as the church image part and attaching it behind the card, but it still needs an easel. I suppose I really should invest in some easel dies. :-)

Pink and Gold Altered Cigar Box

I bought this embossed paper at an art supply store a while ago, and last summer I decided to do an altered cigar box with it. The paper was shaded with Delicata Golden Glitz, and outlined with a metallic gold pen, after trimming to size, or cutting with Spellbinders. All the paper was matted with white CS, which was also outlined in gold.

The outside was decorated with flowers, butterflies and Liquid Pearls.

On the inside, I cut some dividers out of basswood and painted them with pink acrylic paint. The latches on the front have pink Liquid Pearls on them, to make them match the box better.

Embossed Wreath Card

It was really difficult to get a photo of this card. One shows the detail, and the other shows the shimmer.

I used the Spellbinders 3D M-Bossabilities Rustic Wreath Folder on dark green CS, then used one of those square foam shading things with Delicata Golden Glitz to shade it.

The sentiment was done with the same ink and a JustRite stamp. The gold behind it was done with gold mirror card and a Spelllbinders tag die. I fussy cut the green paper to fit inside it.

The card was matted with gold mirror card, and gold pearls were added as accents. It looks much prettier in person.

I'm sort of depressed this year. Usually we have a big Christmas Craft show, and I count on it to make money for Christmas, but this year they aren't having it, so any Christmas cards I make that I don't send myself will have to wait until next summer before I get a chance to sell them. I've tried both eBay and Etsy, but I always spend more money selling than I actually make. I sure wish we were in a bigger area where there are lots of shows.

More flowers I made

These are some more flowers I made. Most of them are from McGill punches, but the three little roses are from Spellbinders Bitty Blossoms.

The yellow on the roses is much paler than it looks in the photo, and the greens in the leaves aren't as bright either, but I took this photo at night.

I was pretty happy with the McGill flowers, especially since it was my first try, but I think I need more practice with the Bitty Blossoms. I'm not at all happy with them. I have wanted those dies for a long time because of the beautiful flowers Marisa Job has made with them, but mine don't look at all like hers. I will practice some more though, and I'm sure they will get better! I also wish I had shaded the outside of the yellow petals on the pansy with purple. I think it would have looked more real that way. The center of the pansy and the stamen on the Calla Lilly are the ultrafine orange crush Flower Soft.

I also played around with some premade roses I got on clearance at Michaels last year. All of these were white, but I used some Brilliance stamp pads, and different brands of glitter sprays to color them. Some of the flowers were colored with more than one shade of spray. The ones which still look white have pearl shades on them so they shimmer in real life. I've found that I like buying white flowers best, because then I can color them to match my projects.

Lace and Gold Card

I made this card about a month ago when I got my new Spellbinders. It was done using Elegant Labels Four and Opulent Ovals. The paper is white CS and a pale gold Core'dinations Pearl CS, and all shading was done using Viva Decor Inka Gold Metallic Rub. Most of the layers were mounted with dimensional tape, and Liquid Pearl accents were added.

I photographed it twice, once to show the shimmer, and once to show the depth.

I love these elegant new Spellbinders dies. They make it so easy to create an intricate card with just a few die cuts!

Thanksgiving Blessings Card

Last September I made a card from an old JustRite stamp set I had. When one of my best customers saw it, she commissioned me to make two more cards with the other two stamps in the set. This is the second one.

The CS is a generic ivory, and metallic copper and green CS. The DP is some very old Anna Griffin CS.

The sentiment and frames were stamped with VersaMark, and embossed with gold EP, then cut with the matching JustRite dies by Spellbinders. I don't remember what color I used for the shading. All layers were outlined in gold, and some were mounted dimensionally. Green pearls were added as accents.

Elegant Angel Card

I finally got internet back again. It's been about two weeks since I could actually get a whole page to load, but now it is working again. It's still slow, but it's better than nothing!

Last year I bought this angel stamp on clearance at Michaels when we were in New York. I thought she was so cute, and would be fun to color, but since I bought the stamp right after Christmas, and I was tired of Christmas cards, I had to wait almost a whole year to make a card with her.

She was colored with a combination of Copics, Brilliance inks, and Viva Decor Inka Gold Metallic Rub, after stamping her with VersaMark and embossing her in gold.

The fame surrounding her was done with Spellbinders Elegant Labels Four, from gold mirror card. This was mounted on a piece of Core'dinations Pearl CS, which I embossed with the same die, and cut a little larger than the frame. I ran a gold ink pad around the edge of this, and mounted it onto a slightly larger card made from the same CS.

The panel she is on was cut from Labels Four, and Liquid Pearls were added as accents.

Embossed Pink Friendship Card

This card uses the Spellbinders 3D M-Bossabilities Folder Framed Labels Eighteen. I thought pink would be a very pretty color for it, and also put a smile on the face of my blog friend Jill. The embossing folder reminds me of wallpaper and wainscotting in a house. Originally I tried to use white CS and use the letterpress technique to make the bottom pink with white on the raised edges, then I was going to go over the white embossing on top, and make it white with pink embossing, but my letterpress techniques don't always work out very well. That went into a scrap drawer until I could see if I could salvage it.

For the second try, I embossed pink CS and used white ink to go over the raised portions. Next, I cut and embossed two sizes of Labels Eighteen, shaded them with white, and used a white Gellyroll pen to outline inside the die. The sentiment is from JustRite, and was stamped and embossed with white ink and EP.

The labels were mounted dimensionally, and the card was accented with pearls and a bow.

Pearlized Iris Card JRC#108

I haven't had a chance to enter a challenge in months. I still don't have a lot of time, but I miss doing challenges, and decided to make one for JustRite Friday Challenge #108 - Sketch.

This week's challenge was a sketch. I think JustRite's Botanical Medallions & Banners Clear Stamps must be my favorite, because I seem to use it over and over.

For this card, I used lots of layers of Core'dinations pearl CS in white and pale gold. I love the heavy weight of this CS, and the shimmer is beautiful. It was stamped with VersaMark, and embossed with gold EP, then cut and embossed with JustRite's Nested Oval Medallion Labels Dies for the frame, and a Spellbinders oval die for the flower layer.

The frame and the flowers were painted with some watercolors I made from Pearl EX micro pearl. The top photo shows the shimmer of the paints and paper, and the bottom photo shows the detail.

Delicata Golden Glitz was used to shade inside the oval to add more contrast to the flower layer, and both layers, plus the pale gold layer underneath were edged with the same ink, then I used a gold Gellyroll pen to trace inside the oval die.

Next I cut four medallions from Spellbinders Fleur De Lis Pendants, which were shaded while still in the die with more Golden Glitz. These were layered over the background paper, and the medallions were mounted dimensionally on top of that.

Tiny fabric flowers were added to each corner, and liquid Pearls and a bow were added as accents.

Reflection Technique and Acetate Card

Even though I sold this card less than five minutes after I made it, I don't really like it. I thought I'd put it on here anyway, to show how I did the reflection.

I had seen a lot of posts about stamping onto plastic and pressing the plastic on the card to make the reflection, but I thought there was less room to mess it up if I just stamped it onto vellum and mounted the vellum so the image was reversed.

First, I shaded a piece of white CS and a piece of vellum using VersaMagic Aegean Blue. next, I stamped my trees onto the CS and the vellum, and cut the vellum just below the stamping.

To attach the vellum, I put some Usartquest Perfect Paper Adhesive over the black base of the trees on the stamped side, then turned it over and put it under the CS image so the backside of the stamping showed through the vellum, and the trees were reversed to match the ones on top. I liked the effect of how the vellum image was a bit lighter than the image on the CS.

Then I wasn't sure how I wanted to finish the card. I was planning on it being a rectangular card, but when I held this Spellbinders Grand Label over it, it was the perfect shape to outline the shape of the stamping, so I cut and embossed it. The mat was shaded with the same Aegean Blue, only darker, and I used a blue Gellyroll pen to outline the shapes.

Rather than make the whole card in this shape, I wanted it to stand up, so I decided to mount it onto acetate. I thought the acetate would be sort of like water, and would work well with the reflection. Then I cut, embossed, shaded and outlined a matching piece for the inside of the card and added some pearls.

It's not my favorite card, but it did use some new techniques I had never tried before. I hope it inspires you to try your own reflection, or to use some acetate on a card.

Majestic Blue and White Card

I'm calling this one majestic because it is made with Spellbinders Majestic Labels Twenty Five and Gold Majesty Circles. It uses a shimmery blue CS from my stash, white CS, and the matting layer is actually gold mirror card, but this photo was taken outside on a dreary dark day, and the gold didn't reflect.

One of the things I miss about this die is there are some places I wish it was cut out rather than debossed so the background paper would show up. I decided to use Copics to shade some of the areas, but they are so fine that my coloring is a bit messy in some places. The card was also shaded through the dies with VersaMagic Aegean Blue, and I added Liquid Pearls as accents.

This week, I have been moving everything out of my shop to my house for the winter. I didn't realize how many wonderful things I have for card making until I had to move them all. It was a lot of work, but I feel thankful to have so much! My husband is saying once again that this is like living in a submarine. The house is really small, and with all my storage things, it leaves little room for getting around. I miss all the counters and space I had at the shop, as well as seeing so many people, but it will be fun having internet when I work on my cards again. (We don't have internet at the shop).

3D Christmas Pop Up Scene

This card was kind of an experiment. I decided I wanted to do a 3D scene with Marianne Creatables on hills of snow. The top photo shows the card open.

This picture shows the card closed. I wanted the inside to show when the card was closed, so I made the bottom half smaller. It isn't as pretty as I wanted it to be, but it's kind of neat anyway.

It was kind of difficult figuring how to do it so it would pop up right. Each layer is one quarter of an inch in front of the one behind it, and was done with strips of CS scored and folded into little open boxes between each layer.

All the paper is Core'dinations Pearl, in white and gold. The die cuts were colored with a Viva Decor Inka Gold Metallic Rub, and the Sentiments were embossed with gold EP and shaded with the gold ink. The sentiment panels were cut with Spellbinders. The inside sentiments are from JustRite, and the one on the front is from Our Daily Bread Designs.

Shell Beauty Embossed Card

I made this card with my new Spellbinders 3D M-bossibility folder Shell Beauty. The shading isn't as messy in person as it looks in the photos.

For this one, I didn't want to cover up too much of the gorgeous embossing on this folder, so I kept the embellishments to a minimum.

I began by using an ink blending tool to shade the embossing and give it more dimension. The ink is Delicata Golden Glitz. Next, I ran the ink pad around the edges of the panel to add a hint of a darker border. The card it is mounted on is an ordinary white CS card, but I also shaded the border of that with the same ink because it looked better mounted onto a shaded card than a plain white one. The shading is much smoother in person. I think the shimmery ink didn't work very well with the camera.

Both sentiments are from different stamp sets by JustRite, and were cut and embossed with Spellbinders dies, and shaded to match the card, then mounted dimensionally. I really wanted the card to say "Best Wishes", but the only sentiment I have that fits this die and would work with this card is "Happy Birthday". I think I need to look for some simple sentiments that are this size, because I use the die a lot.

I also wanted to use this ribbon, but it is too stiff to look good as a small bow. The ends don't like to lie gracefully, so I cut them shorter, and added the ends underneath the bow. I kind of like the effect, they make it look a little more interesting this way. Then I added a few pearls to finish it up.

Cardinal and Chickadee Card

Today I tried my Spellbinders Bracket Borders One die set for the first time. I wish they were a little longer like the other border sets I have from Spellbinders, because it means they can't be used easily on a 5x7 card, but they worked nicely on this 5.5 x 5.5 card.

I used an old PSX stamp for this card, and stamped it with VersaMark, and embossed it with gold EP. After cutting and embossing all the layers, and putting the card together, I decided it needed some shading. All the gold shading was done with Delicata Golden Glitz, then I did some outlining of the die cuts with a gold Gellyroll pen and added a few pearls. The gold shading gave some shimmer to this card, even though you can't see it in the photo.

Radiant Rectangles Card

This is another card made with some of my new Dies. I really like the blue Wedgewood Jasperware, so I decided to make this card blue and white, reminiscent of my favorite dishes.

All of the blue is VersaMagic Aegean Blue, which was added by placing the dies back on the die cuts and using sponge daubers and fantastix to shade with.

I didn't layer this card dimensionally because I liked the effect of having some parts of the card in relief, and some parts embedded into the background.

The only embellishments needed on this card were some Liquid Pearls.

Adorning Squares Card

I have been taking parts from all the die cuts I made with my new dies. I decided to do them using nothing but die cuts, shading and pearls.

This is the one I made with the Adorning Squares set. It needed something in the corners, so I used some of my Noor! dies for those, since they fit the best of any corners I have. It was really dark today, so I took two photos. One, straight on, and another at a sharp angle to show some dimension.

The die cuts were all layered onto a square which I embossed with the outside die. I added shading to everything on the background except the embossing using Brilliance Rocket Red Gold, and matted it with gold mirror card, then mounted it onto the card.

All the layers were shaded with the same ink, then Liquid Pearls were added.

I almost didn't buy this set, because I wasn't sure whether I liked it or not, but it really is beautiful when you cut and emboss with it!

New Spellbinders

It's been a really long time since I have bought anything really interesting. Most of the money I made this summer has gone to pay bills, but a few weeks ago I decided to treat myself to a bunch of the newer Spellbinders I have been drooling over, and they arrived today.

I got these three 3D M-bossabilities, plus the regular M-bossalility folder above. I love the new 3D ones, they really have a lot of depth to them, and are beautiful when embossed. I embossed them all on plain white cardstock just to see what they looked like, and I was impressed. I can't wait to see what they look like when I add color to them.

These are the dies I got. I feel very lucky to have gotten so many of the really beautiful ones.

I also got the junior magnetic spacer thing it says you need for the Imperial Gold ones. I've got to find out what I was doing wrong with that though. I followed the directions exactly, and double checked to make sure I was doing it right. It was almost impossible to turn the crank on my Grand Calibur using the cutting sandwich it said to use on the package. I ended up backing my dies out, because I was afraid I was going to break the grand Calibur. The magnetic spacer things are really mangled now. Anyway, I found out that the Imperial Gold ones come out perfectly well without the magnet. I taped them the same way as you tape any other die to keep them from moving when you cut them together, and ran them through once, then ran them through again sideways if they needed it, just like with any other intricate die. The magnet would have been great for holding everything in place, but after trying two different gold dies with it, my Grand Calibur sounds kind of funny now. I hope I didn't break anything. The instructions said to use the A and C plates with the magnet, which is what I did. I was just trying different combinations of the dies to see what they look like, and only used cheap, lightweight CS, so it wasn't like I was trying to cut the good stuff.

I spent all afternoon trying different combinations of the dies to see the different ways to use them, and I still haven't cut them all yet. It was really fun, and they are so beautiful. All these new dies are so lacy and intricate, and I am really excited to play with them some more!

I also like the fact that so may of the newer Spellbinders products are larger. My cards are almost always 5x7 or larger, and if they are square, they are usually either 6 or 7 inches. In my shop, people barely look at anything smaller. They really like the larger ones, and the larger sizes of the dies and embossing folders makes it much easier to make the cards bigger.