Too Early for Halloween?

Methinks not! It's not too early for the holidays in craft land. You have to plan ahead to get everything made. Well I fell in love with the Anna Griffin Haunted House dies and so did everyone else! I did get mine ordered but they went like hotcakes at a lumberjack picnic! Craft day at HSN happens about once a month. They finally did arrive and I got busy.

Be advised - if you love tiny pieces and putting together many, many little parts to this set, then go for it. Handling all these tiny pieces can be tedious. You will have to poke out tiny pieces from the dies with some of the cuts. I'm probably most afraid of losing some of these little bitty pieces.

I really don't like the new big magnets the dies come on that will only fit in magazine racks but I'll make do. I saw a magazine rack set at Joann's with a see-through dust cover on sale. I might get one of those. I have a box for tall dies already so I'll find a use for the magnet.

I do wish Anna's sets were digital. Some of them are - but not all of them. This would be perfect to digitize.

I drew my own little pieces and cut them out by hand on this one before my dies got here.

I just got some beautiful new papers with foil and vellum at Joann's last week. They are a Park Lane stack called C'est La Vie. They happened to have some black and orange papers in them. Perfect!

I will be making more of these.

More Easel Cards

Another beautiful easel card.

Those Beautiful Easel Cards

Beautiful easel cards. You can cut these out with a die and either a crank press or an automatic press. I use the BigKick hand crank die cut press to cut mine out. I used to have a Cuttlebug press but I traded up. I do have a mini press called the Spellbinder's Sapphire and I love it too for smaller dies.

I cut out my own press plates from plexiglass when I can't find the ready made ones and they work just the same. The ready made ones are just plexiglass that has the edges polished but you can do that with a fine emery cloth and save some money there. They are the same thickness. Where do you think they get them from?

Another little tip, if you don't have a rubber mat for embossing, you can use cardboard or spongy placemats instead. Just cut them to fit. Be aware that they probably will get cut marks in them though and not last as long. But they are good in a pinch.