100th birthday card

Good morning everyone.

Well yesterday I apologised for the lateness of posting the second set of photos from the CWNW meeting - due - I said - to frustration.

It was frustration over getting the above card made successfully.

I had sat & thought about the design - what I needed for it, what colours I would use, what embellishments I might need & what size to make the card.  So! I got everything out ready to start.

Next Bob & I popped along to Sealand Road for some shopping.  That wasn't what got me frustrated - that was OK.  Back from our shopping, we had lunch & then I settled down to make the card.

The first thing to do was to die cut the panels I was going to use on - or rather in - the card.  I have an E-bosser for this task.  Would it cut into the card?  No it wouldn't.  After many tries & getting the card a bit bent I decided that it was possible the card may be too thick.  So I changed the base card - still it wouldn't cut.  So I turned to my stand in die cutting machine- my Cuttlebug.  It still took several runs through the machine to cut it out fully but at least I did it.  Having found the solution I then had to cut another panel - again it took several passes.

Next part was to cut the coloured backing for the panels.  As that was paper there was no problem.

Then its time to die-cut the "Happy Birthday".  I decided I would cut 2 of these one in card & one in the coloured paper. As the coloured paper was thin I decided to cut the 2 together.  It worked fine until it came to getting the 2 pieces apart.  I had to be very careful due to the thin paper.  Anyway care created success.  I had the idea to have the colour as a shadow to the card version.  When I played with it - I wasn't too keen & also felt it would be very fiddly to stick together.  So I went with just the card piece. Now came the part about the "100". Would I stamp it, or diecut it, or use a peeloff. It ended up being a peel off as I did not have stamp or diecut the right size.

Now I finally had everything made or chosen & could put the card together.  A dry run on the layout showed me that the "Happy Birthday" being in white the same as the base card didn't show up very well. So I decided to heat emboss it in silver - that was fun due to the difficulty in holding it down without knocking the powder off with my fingers.  Still, once again care paid off.

The "100" took a bit of placing down straight - but everything else - the panels, flowers, pearls & "HB"went well & here it is;

My original idea was an offset gatefold card with the panels cut out of the card & the coloured paper behind them. The "getting bent" issue was because I had to put the whole card into the machine & so when it came through the other side it hit the wall & started to bend it.  This is in my mind is the man problem with an electronic die-cutting machine - you cannot put the work part of the way through like you can with a manual machine. Perhaps they need a reverse button on it?  Mind you, you would have to be quick to stop it in the right place.

I have decided that my E-bosser is most probably tired now. Bob & I worked out it is 5 -6 years old & we did - sorry, I did - get it stuck on 2 occasions & Bob took it apart & repaired it.  So perhaps the rollers are not pressing as well as they should.

Anyway before I rush out & buy a new one I am going to have a play tomorrow & see if it just had a bad day yesterday, giving me quite a frustrating day.

I cheered myself up by taking Bob out for a meal in the evening - so by the time we had returned from that I had run out of time to do the Friday post & that's how it became Saturday's post.

Wow! that was a long explanation.  

But after all that - I was very pleased with the card & hope the lady who it is for likes it too.

That's me! 'Bye for now.