Ooh - it has been frustrating

I have just spent a couple of hours sorting what I am going to add to those base Christmas cards & decided for some of them I would use a Spellbinder Shapeabilities die that I bought before going on holiday, along with a set of clear stamps that were designed to work with dies.  Or it might have even been the other way round.

Any way - off I went doing some stamping - trying out some different effects.  Then started to set up the dies.  Immediately I found it very difficult to set the die over the stamped image.  Thinking it was just my vision I aligned it as best I could & ran it through the Baser.  The dies cut very well as you would expect - but - not as I expected them to.

This is the die set

These are the stamps;

& here is one set of the smaller sizes stamped;

They stamp very nicely but I wouldn't want to have to cut them out.  Take a careful look at the 2 photos before this & compare the die with the stamp.  The stamp has some little diamond shapes in the centre which are not catered for by the die.  So when you cut it out you just get the larger petals & not the centres.  Very frustrating.

So! has anyone else bought this set?  Have you had problems?  I have emailed Spellbinder to ask why they do not match as is implied - so watch this space. I suspect it is JustRite (of the stamps) that say they go together.

Having got over the frustration the 2 purchases are not wasted as I can use each independent of the other.  The stamps will make nice backgrounds - or just die-cut in a circle (but I was looking forward to mounting them over each other.  The dies I can use by cutting out of decorative card or paper.

So! it's back to the drawing board.

Might be back again later - but have some domestic work to do & also sort my things for tomorrows workshop at the garden centre.