Cuttlebug Tutorial: Sanding the Embossing

CUTTLEBUG. I fell in love with this machine since I first saw cards made with it. I even managed to buy one from the USA and now, guess what: there is a Cuttlebug Challenge blog. They have weekly cuttlebug challenges and more fun stuff coming soon. Just click on the link above if you want to join this week's challenge: sanding the embossing.

Now here is what I did for the challenge:

I needed a wedding card for a friend who is getting married so I thought I could use my cuttlebug to make the card. Her colors are blue and white so I started looking through my stash for stuff that would match.

Here is my first failed attempt (click on the image to see larger).

This was some printed paper I had around but it didn't match with anything else so I decided to put it back into my stash for when I can use it. Still you should notice that you get a different look if you sand on the raised part from what you get if you sand on the other side. Therefore, I did learn something from this experiment even if I couldn't use my paper.

Lesson 1: If you want to send the embossing, you need paper with different colored core that would show up after the sanding.

Lesson 2: Make your own paper to sand.
Since I live in a country where you can't find a lot of paper crafting stuff, I try to make my own things at home. I'd like to buy all those wonderful things available online, but the shipping sometimes costs more that the actual merchandise.

The problem with the paper I tried earlier was that the blue was to strong. I needed a softer color so I decided to paint white acrylic on blue cardstock.











Let the paint dry well (that wont take long with acrylic paint) and think about embellishments in the meantime. I chose to heat emboss some white flowers on blue vellum and cut them out.




Now comes the cuttlebug fun: put your dry paper into the embossing folder paint facing up. You will also want your folder to have the Cuttlebug logo facing up if you want to sand the raised part. Put either your paper or your folder facing down if you don't want to emboss the raised part.






Now you have your card base ready to play.

Lesson 3: Mix and match until you get a design that pleases your eyes.
For me, this is when the frenzy starts. When I have an idea that I like I can come up with so many variations and the ideas come and go so quickly that I have to take photos of them before they are gone. Then I move forward, switch a few elements and when a new layout that I like "happens" I take a photo and so on till there are no more ideas or no time left.
Here are the photo-ideas from last night. Not all of the became cards because I did not have enough materials but I will adapt and transform them to make other cards, use them for inspiration or maybe even for bulk production later.



This is my first tutorial ever, so please tell me what you think. It was not easy to do all that writing and took me quite a lot of time so I would like to know if you are interested in seeing more of how I do things or not.

It is passed midnight so I cannot show you the cards I made for I have go to work tomorrow. But I will try to do that tomorrow evening when I will also have "Royal Chocolates" for you (that means blog candy).

Thanks for reading till the end,
Meda