I have been invited to be a new Affiliate Partner with Scrapbook.com! This means I can include links here on my website, blog, and some of my social media posts, which take you directly to their website. If you like what you see, and make a purchase, I can earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
You can browse, shop and have goodies delivered directly to your door with super fast and brilliantly cheap international shipping. My friends and I have been very happy customers with Scrapbook.com for a few years now, they offer over 50,000 different products, including many of our favourite stamp, die, ink and paper brands.
Scrapbook.com also have their own range of exclusive stamp sets, dies, inks and tools.
I will be spending some time over the next few weeks setting up my own gallery at Scrapbook.com (this is something you can do too and share your cool creations!). I will also be learning how to share amazing coupon deals, projects and products so you can have fun creating along with me.
You can start here with 10% off your purchase, plus a free gift.
Be assured, I will still continue to share how you can shop for your crafty goodies in New Zealand – after all, supporting our local businesses is still very important to me. I have a list of New Zealand retailers here.
For information about high quality, best value supplies for your craft table, from cardstock to the handiest tools, check out my Best of the Basics series – this series is dedicated to where you can find the products I list in New Zealand, and that won’t change.
Thank you for stopping by and sharing in my exciting news!
I do A LOT of die cutting, so this is a very exciting purchase for me! I ordered this machine in through my local shop Scrapbook Central in Petone.
Exactly the same as an original BigShot machine, just electronic – no cranking!
I spent most of 2019 creating Christmas Gift Tags (Gallery below) with the main intention being well-deserved Teacher Gifts, but also, selling packs of them at craft markets at Christmas time and making enough $$$ to purchase my very first electronic die cutting machine. This has already saved much shoulder tension! I’ve found even the intricate dies only need 1-2 passes with regular cardstock yay!!
Soooo many Christmas Gift Tags! For a close up look at individual tags, check out my instagram #inkyandstampytags
Grayson carefully replacing the US plug with a New Zealand plug. He managed this in 15 minutes!
Check out the amazement on Amélie’s face!
There was ONE hiccup in setting up my new machine – the US plug. Turns out, the transformer box fits within the range of NZ electricity requirements, and all it needed was a simple change of plug by hubby (or an electrician). A step down adapter was also an option, but bulky, and apparently voids warranty.
I have owned my new machine for a month now, and I LOVE IT. It is quiet! It has the exact same ‘sandwich’ as the original BigShot and also has the same platform feature that I am used to – I can simply lay my cardstock/stamped images onto the platform and bottom plate, then my die, top plate and run through. No fussing with extra shims, lining up all the extra plates and layers, all my precision and magnetic platforms are perfectly compatible, and did I mention no loud noise???
BONUS: Suddenly my little one wants to help with die cutting……
The control button does need to be held down whilst cutting – this is great for doing the partial die cutting technique, plus reversing and coming back over those tricky and intricate dies in the middle. I like the sense of control this gives me in my cutting.
The BigShot Express packaging
What’s in the Box? Apart from the machine itself, it comes with the base platform, a plastic shim, two clear plastic cutting pads and the power adapter. Other BigShot accessories are available (and can be used with most other BigShot machines), such as the Precision Platform for intricate dies, the rubber embossing mat, the magnetic platform, the extended platform and cutting pads, plus cutting pads in various colours.
For further in-depth information about more of the best value supplies for your craft table, from cardstock to the handiest tools, check out my Best of the Basics series. I do have a page especially dedicated to Die Cutting Machines and Trimmers, so you might want to check that out.
Thank you for visiting – I hope you have found the above information helpful in your card making journey. Feel free to message me if you have any questions regarding the BigShot Express!
My littlest daughter is turning 6! She loves unicorns so much, it is mentioned in her school report (my favourite line btw). She is having a little birthday party after school with some of her school friends and she handed out these cute, albeit a little last minute, invitations.
Doodlebug have a great range of papers, brads, stickers and stamps.
The Unicorn Potbelly die set. There are other die sets available – one that creates Santa, another that creates a reindeer, and another that creates a penguin. Shapes are interchangeable, and other animals and people can be created. You’re only limited by your imagination!
The Unicorn Potbelly die set comes with lots of little dies to decorate and build a unicorn – or even other creatures, I’ve seen a walrus on Pinterest! Must give that a go someday.
We built the invitations with Stampin’ Up! pink cardstock, and used Doodlebug papers for the decorative elements. Doodlebug papers are double sided, so there are fun patterns on both the front and back of the wings.
Amélie having fun with her friends and her big brother Xavier at Awesome Bounce, Porirua
After all the partying and eating was done, we wanted to thank her guests for coming to celebrate with her, and gift them with the unicorn potbellies filled with treats – in this case, Dessert Skittles – yum!
They were built the same way as the invitations, but with two bodies to create a front and back. The front has the circle cut out to fit the plastic pouch, and I used the circular tear away tab from The Greetery on the back to make it easier for the children to open up the treats without completely dismantling the unicorn.
Amélie adding glittery details to her unicorns
We added fun details – gold glitter stickles filling in the eyes, the gold glittery horn and heart, plus some little pink flower gems from my stash in the unicorn’s hair.
If you have any questions regarding the putting together of this project, please feel free to message me – I’m only too happy to help!
My friends and I are typical crafters – our heads are easily turned with all the pretty, glittery, innovative things on offer and we often find that we shop faster than we create! There are certainly a lot of laughs and ‘ooh what did you get’, and showing off happy mail messages in our group chat!
Shipping goodies to New Zealand does take a little while, and often by the time we receive our parcels, a new bunch of things have been released, another Youtube video has gotten our creative minds excited and we ‘forget’ to make time to create that other thing we had in mind. So, we have decided to set ourselves a “use your stash challenge” and try and create three cards a month – using things we have purchased and not used before.
Wine. For sure.
I am so relieved to find I am not the only one with unused, still un-cut dies hidden away in my stash boxes!
Here are my offerings for the #craftystashchallenge for February 2020. I made a list of stamp/die sets I wanted to bust out so when I sat at my craft table during the month, I could refer it and just get started with one of the sets listed. So many fun ideas on Pinterest, I remember now why I wanted them in my stash so much in the first place!
You Crushed It
There are so many beautifully inked cards on Pinterest using the MFT Soda Bottles die set – they really convey a sense of summer, I can almost taste the fizz!
I used my Taylored Expressions Blending Brushes to blend Distress inks (Festive Berries, Carved Pumpkin and Squeezed Lemonade) on my card front, starting dark at the bottom and fading away towards the top. Blending brushes definitely made this a lot easier, especially as I was blending three different colours at the same time. I sprayed a mist of water and also Tsukineko Shimmer spray for some subtle texture and glitter.
I added ink to each of the bottle die cuts, inking dark to fade just like the background, and put a little colour on the straws too.
Distress Ink doesn’t stamp crisply, that’s not what they are designed to do, so I used Catherine Pooler inks (Rockin Red, Orange Twist and Limoncello) to stamp the fruit onto the die cut labels for each bottle.
I white heat embossed the sentiment on a wide black strip and adhered it to the bottom portion of the card with foam tape. The bottles sit nicely on top of it, also using foam tape to stick them on in a row. I added a little Nuvo Crystal Glaze to the labels for shine.
Manly Gift Tag
The MFT tool charms is something I’ve had for AAAAAAAges in my stash – one of those things I keep meaning to use, but there were always other things on my craft table taking priority. So, I chose to have these on my list for our first #craftystashchallenge.
My husband works in a government department by day, but is a very handy DIY guy when he’s not at work. He is often given gift cards to his favourite stores – Bunnings and Mitre 10 to go replenish his building supplies, and I thought a gift card holder was a fun idea for the teeny and oh so cute tool charms.
I cut the little tools from some silver mirror cardstock, and then again in red to trim where necessary, and add the red handles onto the silver tools.
I experimented with a couple of tag layouts, and settled on the Mama Elephant gift tag, cut from Bazzill Brushed Metal cardstock, which conveniently cuts little corners to perfectly hold a gift card. I used the Technique Tuesday Tools stamp set for the sentiment, added a strip to write the recipient and gifters names and decorated the tag with the tools.
Merry Kiss-Mas!
This is another of those things I purchased with the full intention to include a gift tag in last year’s collection. It just didn’t happen! Somehow, when October rolls around, so does a lot of other frenzied activity – none of which involves relaxing crafting time!
So I decided to get this little die set out and the pouches, and have a play. It helps that I have a friend who makes beautiful lip balms and other goodies from things like beeswax and kawakawa, all natural ingredients. I feel a collaboration coming on!
I cut two tags the same size and the pouch is secured between the two layers.
I fashioned a tag – turns out in my vast collection of tag dies, I do not have a tall skinny type suitable to fit a lip balm pouch! Stampin’ Up! punches to the rescue (and a quick bit of side browsing online haha).
I played with my Taylored Expressions blending brushes to get a bit of an ombre effect with my inking. I had it quite pretty at one point, but made a mistake in not leaving it alone 🙁 Do you do that too? Spraying it with a bit of shimmer helped! Shimmer always helps hahaha.
I did find a new lip balm in the house, and I peeled off the original label and created my own with the Hero Arts Candy Stripe stamp. I used 160gsm paper, but think I will go and find something a little lighter in future to get a nice curve around the barrel of the lip balm.
I used the My Favorite Things rip strip on the back, and put the tag together with the lip balm secured inside the pouch. The die set includes a die for the frame which I cut from gold glitter cardstock.
I die cut a My Favorite Things Teeny Tag and stamped Merry Kiss-Mas in red ink. This is tied to the top with gold ribbon and some thin gold cord to complete the little gift tag.
That completes my first #craftystashchallenge. I am hoping my friends will continue to do this with me and do it all again next month!
If you have any questions regarding the putting together of these projects, please feel free to message me – I’m only too happy to help!
