Spellbinders Sapphire Butterfly Die Update II

A package from Spellbinders finally arrived at my doorstep.

I saw it was a biggish box, "Oooh" I thought, "this could be interesting"! That thought last but a nanosecond when the postie handed it to me and it was as light as a feather!

 

No wonder it was so light, when I opened the box all it contained was a lot of screwed up kraft paper and a sheet of bubble wrap (have they never heard of "Jiffy" bags?) bundled around a tiny cello bag containing the new die! Yep that was it, no letter of apology, not even a compliments slip and certainly no sign of any goodwill gesture for alerting them to problem in the first place!!! I think they probably spent more on the packaging than they did to make the die, the customs slip gave the die's value as $1 or around 65p!
 

Here are the two butterfly die together to show how it's been modified with a rounder interior to the wings:

 



 

 

As for Create and Craft, the company who sold the Spellbinders Sapphire with the die set, I've heard nothing since I was contacted on 27 May 2015. The person from the Customer Service Escalation Team told me they would keep me informed of the progress of my complaint - mind you, there are a lot of unhappy people posting to their Facebook page at the moment so maybe they're busy sorting them out first!!!

Neither company seem anxious to make the problem known and it would appear that if you have one of the sharp dies it will only be replaced if you contact Karen Haas Spellbinders' Care & Customer Support Manager with a photo of the offending item.  (Karen was also the contact who arranged a replacement handle for my original GC when it snapped off.)  

Moroccan Squares - FMS 188

 I recently spotted a Tim Holtz stamp which says "One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting new discoveries" and thought that just about sums up my craft cupboard! I'd been having a bit of a clear out and came across a couple of punches I've had for years which have a Moroccan design (I think they might be X-Cut) so thought I'd try using them for this week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge No 188. 

Before rediscovering the punches I had been considering making a window card - I'd been playing with a couple of ideas for this but decided to try something a wee bit different instead.

I'm really not sure if it's allowed to change the style of card away from a standard single fold in the challenge but I wanted to experiment with an idea I had for an interlocking gate fold card.

Using a couple of Spellbinders Label 4 dies nested inside each other I created a central panel with a frame, cut from matt bronze metallic cardstock, which that also doubles up as a closure for the gate fold.

I've used a pearlised card as the background and embossed the side panels with a Couture Creations "Wild Holly" embossing folder. I punched out some of the Moroccan designs and cut them into shape using the small square dies from my new Spellbinders Sapphire. These were then mounted as diamond shapes onto pieces of the pearlised card which had been coloured with a Leaf Green Promarker to add a "pop" of colour. The central punched square was mounted with DS foam tape onto the green card which was also foam mounted to raise it above the outer two.
 

The design is finished off with an X-Cut Fleur-de-Lis die and pearls coloured with Promarkers.

The corners of the gatefold edges were rounded with a deco styled corner punch while the top and bottom of the back panel inside the card were trimmed with green strips to match the exterior colour.

To create the closure the right hand side of the frame is glued to the right hand flap of the gatefold whilst the left hand side of the centre panel is glued to the left hand flap.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

  

Cardstock:
PayPer Box - Matt Bronze, Pearlised White

Dies, Punches :
Spellbinders Labels 4, Sapphire Basic Set A Squares,
X-Cut Fleur-de-Lis,
Moroccan Punch,

Embossing Folder:
Couture Creations Wild Holly,

Inks:
Letraset Promarkers - Leaf Green, Purple

The wooden box in the photos is one I picked up in Gibraltar many, many moons ago & I believe it shows some Moorish influence.