The last few weeks have been spent making Christmas cards, favors, wrapping gifts and enjoying this time of the year. We have many dreary, rainy days, but they are sweater temperature days so I am not complaining!
I have purchased two new tools for my scrap room and both have made card-making so much easier. The first and most appreciated item is the Tim Holtz version of the Big Shot Switch Plus. I have looked at it for awhile. Scrapbooking Made Simple had it on sale for $199, so I broke down and purchased it. The machine has made card-making much better on my hands. I do not miss turning the handle on my original Big Shot at all!
Then I was in Hobby Lobby and they had Spellbinders Hot Glimmer Machine for $75. I had a gift card and decided to purchase it and some of the foils and hot foil plates. At first, I was not impressed. I felt like it was a lot of work to hot foil. After playing with it for more than a few times, I found it to be very useful. Granted, the hot foil plates are expensive but finding them on sale or by using one plate for 40 cards, it is more than worth the cost. Not a needed tool by any means, but my Christmas cards turned out to be very pretty with the foil. Following are two pretty cards I created using the Big Shot Switch Plus for all of the cutting and the Glimmer Hot Foil machine for the area surrounding the word "JOY" on the card to the right.
Have a great Christmas week!