Card Party Makes and Rants in My Pants

Good Day!

I thought you might like to see the great makes from the card party I went to Thursday afternoon.  We are a mixture of long-time friends and new friends.  Some of us were invited to join an existing group and then we've brought our friends who've brought their friends.  Card makers are a singularly welcoming and generous community and whether one is new to the art or an old-timer, everyone walks away having learned something new and with cool new cards in their stash!

 

Rather than have one "teacher," we all brought a card and enough card kits for the other ladies to make and take.  In Alpha Betty order, please enjoy!

I made a simple classic embossed card with a ribbon treatment twist:

Darnell

~~~

 

Gladys made this adorable ice cream card in ice cream colors ~ yummo!  The scoops of ice cream were made from the frosting part of a cupcake die and the cone is a simple triangle.

Gladys

On the inside of Gladys's card, she added an embossed strip.  Cute and clever and something I've never thought to do before.

Gladys

~~~

 

Harriet gave us all a great lesson in masking, both positive and negative.  As a lot of the ladies had never seen it done before, Harriet's presentation was the most magical.  In addition to masking and sponging, we overstamped our negative space, like this:

Harriet

~~~

Kathy made this fab instruction sheet for us showing how to make one-dimensional bows from paper and punches!  It has the impact of a ribbon bow, but is much easier to mail.  I popped Kathy's and my finished bows on the page so  you could see how fantastic they look finished:

Kathy

~~~

Nancy made this stunning card out of co'ordinations paper.  It has wonderful texture, looks great sanded ...

Nancy

. . . and, since the paper is double-side, is cool on the inside: 

~~~

 

Nancy also made me these incredible butterflies I ordered.  Aren't they breathtaking?! 

~~~

Sara made this jaw-dropping card!  The flower is made from an ornament die!  Don't you think it would make an extraordinary package decoration?  In fact, Sara found the original idea (which was for a package topper) from Liz at Stamper's Bliss.

 

And there you have it, lots of card inspiration for you in one post-toasty!  If you'd like any of the specific details for any card, just let me know.

 

~~~

 

Rant

 

Speaking of mail, I have seen other rants about the postal service both here and abroad so I think it's a pretty universal issue.  Here we are, as card senders, singlehandedly trying to keep the postal service in business and they are making it very difficult!  The prices are bordering on extortion and the service is often discussting.

 

When I mail a card that might be squished, I place it in a small square padded envelope with thin cardboard on each side.  According to the online instructions, it is a "Large Envelope," it takes two stamps to mail it, and no customs form is required.  I have successfully mailed it, thus, to other states, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.  Last week I sent one off and it came back to me two days later saying it was $6.55 to mail, not $2.10, and it required a customs form.  Seven dollars to mail a card.  Sigh.  No explanation was attached.

 

Insert cussing.

 

The thing is, it's not just the cost or the need for the form, it's the lack of consistency that crawls up the back of my neck.  Just make up your mind and make it universal, city-upon-city and day-upon-day.  And for the love of God, please don't have one set of rules in your USPS online instructions and another set of rules in our local post office!  So I got my big girl panties out of the hamper and went to stand on line, hoping to find E. Lucy Dation.

 

When it was my turn, I calmly explained to the nice lady just what I told you above.  I looked deeply into her disinterested eyes and made my plea for explanation with lots of shrugging of my shoulders, cocking of my head, and splaying of my hands. 

 

She took the envelope.  She weighed it.  She measured it.  She weighed it again.  She thrust it through the Thickness Testing Slot.  It passed all those tests.  Then it was her turn to shrug.  She said, "Maybe all the others just slipped by without anyone noticing."

 

Really?  Are these the same people who are checking our packages carefully for poisonous powders and things that go boom?  Really?  A dozen times no one noticed before?  What day will I find Noone and Anyone working, so I can mail my Large Envelope on that day?

 

And then, before I could respond, she took my package containing my beautiful card and she kneaded it all the way around between her thumbs and her forefingers and then she tried to BEND.IT.COMPLETELY.IN.HALF. 

 

It makes me sweat just remembering.  I'm pretty sure I shrieked like a caught mouse and there may have been spittle.

 

Totally unfazed by my hysterical face she sternly said, "It's too stiff.  Now it's a 'Small Parcel.'  It costs more and needs a form."

 

Seriously?  This is what they do to our cards?  They bend them in half to determine if the exact same envelope is a "Large Envelope" or a "Small Parcel?!"  They bend them in half?!

Eye Yie Yie.  Having said all that, in the bigger picture, I know it's amazing that we get our mail to and from destinations with such speed and accuracy and I think carriers work extremely hard, so please don't hate on me for complaining.  This really did happen and it really is ridiculous.

~~~

 

So now you know what the deal is.  Don't be putting in extra cardboard if the padding of the envelope is enough.  Especially since they are going to bend the crap out of your card anyway.  That way you can send three limp "Large Envelopes" for the same price as one stiff "Small Parcel." 

Please know that if you send me a card, I will always appreciate the time and effort and money you spent to do so!  And if a piece of your card is loose in the envelope, I'll understand why!

 

~~~

 

Thank you for letting me rant.  Now let's all shake it off and go enjoy our day!  No, seriously, enjoy.  LITS*

 

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse and special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment and/or join as a follower! 

 

*Life Is Too Short!  

DD#39; Tuesday Trigger ~ Cross My Heart and Cakes in Jars by Nota Baker

Ah, the blessing of a new week.  Hello, Monday!

 

Did  you miss me yesterday?  I was pretending to be something I'm not, which is a world-rewound baker and Food Network cooking show hostess.  We'll get to all that, if you have time to sit back with a tall Bev.  This is a VERY long post, photo-heavy.

 

But first, after the frivolity in the kitchen, I made a card.  Since you are prolly here for the card and not the baking since this is a card blog and not a baking blog, then I'll start with how my day ended.

 

I happened to see the current Tuesday Trigger over at Moxie Fab World when I was over there reading the wonderful interview featuring my friend, Geri (Manitoba Stamper), who is the current Moxie Fabber!  Oh, yes she dii-idd!  And so fabulously well she did ~ high five, Geri!

~~~

The Tuesday Trigger is thus: 

It's so cute.  I used the dipity fitting colors from this week's Dynamic Duos challenge of pool party and pink pirouette.

And made this:
 

It ended looking more like a billboard than a chair, but that's okay.  It's an advertisement for love and it's what my trigger trigged, so thaz whah happened.

 

~~~

 

Next, in case you want to click out, please let me introduce you to our two new friends standing over by the background papers.  We are so, so fortunate to have Barb Murphy from Barbles (Kinsale Creations) and Jill (JD) from Ribbon Inspired.  It is a delight for me to bring you two more wonderful blogs!  You will see lots of incredible inspiration when you visit them!  Thank you, Barb and Jill, and welcome on board the cray-cray crafting train!

 

~~~

 

So, okay.  Last Christmas I made yummy Cranberry Hootycreek cookies and put them in Mason jars as gifts.  It was really fun and in that link is a link to an awesome food site.  Well then, my friend, Kim of Cupcakes, Cards, and Kim told me about this fun cupcake you make in Mason jars.  Even though the original recipe idea is for making peppermint cupcakes as Christmas gifts, Kim made them last year as little Valentine gifts.  Well, I was all over that.

 

Kim sent me the link, which I patiently waited until yesterday to try, just in time for Valentine's Day.  The recipe is from the sensational Our Best Bites website.  Here is a picture of them from their website: 

Aren't they lip-smackin' adorable?

Mine, not so much.

Here we have the ingredients all lined up because after several years of cooking, I decided 14 times was one time too many to get half-way through making something and find out I didn't have all the greedy ants.

You can also see my little jars greased and floured, although the recipe says you don't have to do that.  I'm old school and I got an A+ in "Don't Take Chances."  Next to the jars is the chocolate sauce.  Bottom left is the batter.  Bottom right is the batter poured into the jars.

Happily, I put the pan in the oven.  Immediately, I realized I hadn't added the melted chocolate to the batter and I whirled around and whipped open the oven door to pull out the cookie sheet only to realize, additionally, that a cookie sheet gets boiling hot after only TWO SECONDS in the oven and who needs fingertips on their right hand anyway?

(Too bad I forgot how grateful I was for pot holders just last Thursday!)

BTW, here I am just before all that came down, with photographic evidence of how happy I was that my little jars were all ready for the oven.  See, behind the green colander full of lids, that bowl of chocolate and beside my right elbow that tray of jars all battered up and ready for the oven?  What a dope. 

And, yes, I'm a dope without a stitch of makeup on, which should tell you right there that I'm no TV food show hostess.  So what?  Who cares?  LITS!  Oh, but, girl, you better believe I was holding that right hand in a towel for a whole different reason two minutes after that picture was taken! 

Moving on.  Mister jumped in to help, adding the chocolate to the jars,

coz he's a chemist and a pro at measuring and pouring and doesn't have shakey hands like some of us.  I stirred it in with the end of a wooden spoon and it was all good. 

~~~

After you bake them and cool them, you add a layer of chocolate ganache, so these are really choco choco latte cupcakes!

~~~

On to the frosting.  This type of frosting was completely new to me.  Following directions, I started the process by cooking flour and milk on the stove, just like a roue for a white sauce.  It ends up like this:

Then, if you're lucky like me, you have your Mister reach up to that top shelf you rarely use and you bring down the electric mixer you own.  The mixer you got for a wedding present 42 years ago.  The mixer someone left the price tag on and you can see it cost a whopping $12.97 and it still runs like it's brand new!

Then what I did was, I took the bottle of food coloring that is colored red and I poured it into my fluffy sugar and butter mixture.  I also dropped the top in the bowl.  Little Miss Perfect in the back of my head whispered, "Why is the top of the red food coloring bottle yellow?"  I completely ignored the little pest and charged up the beaters. 

YELLOW?!  Shizazz!  Well never mind, back into the cupboard I went, grabbing the bottle of RED food coloring and in the end the frosting was a beautiful bright rose color, even though it looks like a disgusting orangey coral in the pictures.  You have to trust me on that.  Doing the cooking thing first and then mixing that in with the butter/sugar?  YU-UM.  It ends up like whipped cream, not that cloying sweet you sometimes get with frosting.

Of course we had to try it, just to make sure it wasn't poison!

~~~

Then I went and made a card, but first I noticed something cool.  I know a lot of people are suffering with Mother Nature's antics and I'm sorry about that.  I know we are blessed to live here, but we have had lots of freezing temps, which is unusual for us. 

So in the morning the birdbath is frozen solid, as evidenced by the dinosaur egg placed on top.  (Just kidding, I wanted to see if you were still reading.)

and, yet, look at the joy the afternoon brings!

~~~

And so it goes.

Here is the link again for the recipe from the Our Best Bites website. I would love it so much if my friend Kim, whose website banner includes the word "cupcakes" for heaven's sake, will make them again this year and post pictures of how they are supposed  to look!!  Or you!  Give them a try and let me know how it went for you, please.

As for me, I'm pretty sure that our local bakery needs my business!

~~~

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy your day. LITS!

Thank you so much for stopping by the Playhouse. Special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment or join as a follower!

 Paper:  PTI white, SU! pool
  party and pink pirouette
Stamp: Azad Earles B029
Netting and flowers from
  snippets drawer

 



Happy Wedding Anniversary, Mister! ~~ Retrosketches and A Fun Wedding Photo Link!

Howdy, Friends! 

Today me and the Mister have been married 42 years!  It is occasions like this that make me nag you to enjoy each and every day.  They whoosh by in the blink of an eye! 

(If you're just here for a card, today it's taking second fiddle and it's all the way at the bottom.)

Last week I posted a couple of pictures of me and the Mister in our early days.  Here is another one of us together, taken in one of those popular (at the time) photo booths where you got a strip of photos for (prolly) a nickel.  I always liked this one.  We were 20 years old.

We met in September 1969, got engaged in July 1970, and got married in January 1971.  Mister was in his senior year at Iowa State University.  After graduation, he was going to graduate school at USC in southern California where I had found a job.  Since we were moving out to California right after he graduated, we got married during winter break and splurged on a 2-night honeymoon at the Holiday Inn in the big city of Chicago, which was within driving distance.

Some of you know from earlier posts that I had no family at the time, except for a sister I had just reunited with shortly before, so it was a very small wedding.  We lived on pennies, so I made my wedding gown and two bridesmaid gowns.  I still can't believe I did that.  At the time, however, everyone we knew lived on pennies so we didn't think it was any big whoop.  We were so happy. 

Fast forward 42 years and, while Mister has aged, he is still strikingly handsome.

Here is a darling picture of him taken with the twins, Henry and Adam, just this past Sunday on a beautiful day with the San Francisco skyline on the horizon.

 Now, look closer.  Here, I'll blow it up for you:

I know it's hard to draw your eyes away from those adorable twins, but 42 years later and I ended up with a handsome guy who can't button his shirt right.

It's okay.  I'm sure there are any number of times when I no longer button my shirt right.  I'm just too smart to get caught by a camera.  The above picture now ranks up there with my top ten favorites photos because it makes me laugh out loud.  And, wildly, I love my Mister more now than I did when we were so impossibly young, in what seems like 15 minutes ago.

~~~

I've brought you up to date on my wedding story and now I'd like to see a photo of YOUR wedding day!  My friend Ardyth and I got to talking that just for fun she should set up a special link on her website, MASKerade, so that you can link up YOUR wedding photo!  I hope you will join in the fun by clicking on her link and I wish you a Happy Anniversary, too, whenever it is!

ETA:  After drafting this last night and just as I was getting set to schedule the post for after midnight and go to bed, a number of anniversary wishes to us, on your posts, started hitting the Blogwaves. Thank you all so much! I knew Ardyth was doing the wedding photo link, but I had no idea that she was spreading the word, as well. In fact, I emailed her yesterday afternoon about what a surprise our link would be for everyone!  Hoot!  She must have fallen off her chair laughing at my innocence!!  Thank you, Di! Thank you, Annie! Thank you, Vicky. Thank you to all the other "ring-leaders" I don't know about yet, who spread the word, and to all of you who have sent us virtual cards, congratulations, and well-wishes! 

Mostly, thank you, dear Ardy, for this most wonderful tribute for me and the Mister!! It is such a treat!  I am so, so blessed.

~~~

Finally, (geez) here's the anniversary card I made for Mister!  I found a cute graphic from cowboychuck on the Intertube of a couple on a motorcycle and it just so happens to be perfect for the really delightful sketch this week at Retrosketches by Arielle.  It's another CAS card sketch that I'll return to again and again.

Here's my card:

Enjoy your day!  No, seriously, enjoy your day.  LITS*!

As always, thank you so much for stopping by to visit the Playhouse.  Special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower or leave a comment!

Don't forget to link your wedding photo HERE!

Paper:  PTI vintage cream
Stamp:  SU!
Ink:  PTI black
Corner Chomper
Graphic: CowboyChuck.com

*Life Is Too Short!

A Mason Jar Recipe, a Cool Food Website, and Ramblings

Hi There!

 

You are either up to your eyeballs in alligators still prepping and preening and fretting and fussing to get everything done for Christmas and you'll never see this post, or you are taking a break, or you are calling it quits, game over, good enough, and you're putting your feet up and blog-hopping.  Hello!

 

Food Matters

 

I wrapped the last present yesterday, the cards are sent, and I actually got some baking done for the neighbors!  (Truth be told, I baked several times in the last week, but Mister has eaten all the treats as fast as I can bake them!  Not counting the twenty two I had to eat strictly in the interest of poison prevention science.) 

 

I wanted to find a recipe to make up some cute mason jars and I came across Cranberry Hootycreek Cookies In a Jar.  Here is one of my cute finished quart jars.

 

Since that recipe only makes 18-24 cookies, I went to find a website with a full-size recipe because I flunked math.  Well, girl, I have to share the remarkable website where I found my recipe!  It's called Beth's Favorite Recipes and oh my chowder and crumpets, she is quite the proliftic cook!!  You'll want to visit!

 

So here are my "Cranberry Hootycreek Cookies."

 

Seriously, Hootycreek!  Not named by me, it already existed.  I don't know where it came from, although it probably has some meaning.  If I didn't already want to talk about other things today, you know I would make up an exciting background history!  They are sooo yummo!  You can click on the link above to get the recipe.

 

~~~

 

Help Out If You Can

 

I've been working on cards for children to send to Amber's Damask Love "Drawn Together" love-raiser mentioned in my post here.  Some may feel that sending cards is just a burden to the town, because the cards all have to be surveiled.  The Drawn Together program will amass the cards and Amber will take care of sending them to Newtown in a large package. I was really moved by the underlying idea Amber had when she formulated her Drawn Together program. 

This program is not about sending sympathy cards to the families of the slain children (which, please, can be nothing more than a blessing to them).  This program is about the surviving children of the town~the other elementary school children who went to Sandy Hook Elementary School and survived the massacre, but whose friends were killed.  If there is enough participation, the program will reach out to other impacted children in the surrounding Newtown school districts.  All of these surviving children will live with this trauma for the rest of their lives.  It cannot be a burden to send cards and art kits to these children to help them articulate their feelings and to let them know that they are special, too, and that they are in our thoughts and prayers as they struggle in the months to come.  IMHO.

Here are a couple of the cards I've made so far.  I'm making four of each card.

 

 

I think some little girls like froggies, but I am going to make a few non-froggie ones as well.

~~~
 

Helping Our Package Employees (HOPE)

 

Besides baking, and making cards, and other random acts of kindness, I am starting an international program of HOPE to help our package delivery personnel.  Over the years, I have become more and more aware of a need for a fund-raiser to supply our Postal, UPS, and Fed-Ex workers with sports equipment.  Day-in and night-out, these hardworking people move our packages so that they arrive safely at our homes or places of business.  These workers spend their breaks on loading docks or in windowless rooms in the backs of buildings.  As such, is it any wonder that they recourse to using our packages as sports projectiles as a way to blow off steam and get some exercise?  To wit:

 

 

Whoot can blame them?  Please click on this stink to send money or new or used hard balls, soft balls, soccer balls, footballs, foosballs, and yarn balls.  Your support is appreciated!  Your fragile purchases will henceforth arrive in tacked. 

 

As time and volunteers allow, there are future plans for a subchapter to be formed focusing on "Front Door Accuracy," in the hope that you will no longer have to dive into the nettle bushes to retrieve your packages.  We will be looking for experts in DRT (Doorknob-Recognition Therapy) as evidence is wide-spread that all doors have some kind of doorknob / handle.  It is unclear in the medical community why delivery persons are lacking this normally innate knowledge and eyeball-focus recognition.  I will provide further updates in the new year and, again, thank you for your support.

~~~

 

Madge

 

Our friend Madge never fails to rock the "What It IS, Man" humor!  And I'd like to thank my friend, Sandee, from In The Hills of North Carolina for posting this funny, which I have lifted to share with you in the event you didn't see it at her place:

 

 

Of course, IRL, Christmas is not weird when we pause to remember the true meaning.

~~~

 

Okee-doodle, poodle!  That's quite enough ranting and rambling for today.  I'm going to go finish off my kid cards on this rainy day and be thankful that the Mayans got it wrong!!  They got it so wrong, I just looked out the window to find a faint rainbow arcing from sill to sill.  Awwwwww.

 

I hope you, in whatever level of chaos you are in, will enjoy your day.  No, seriously, enjoy your day!

 

As always, thank you for stopping by to visit. Special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower or leave a comment!

Cuttlebug vs. Big Shot

Hi Peeps,

I resisted the whole die cut / embossing folder fad for a long time.  Like years.  Turns out it was here to stay.  My stamping friend, Donna, who is usually the more cautious of the two of us, got a Cuttlebug.  She loaned it to me with some of her embossing folders about a year ago.  I ran off 300 a few papers in different colors and thanked her.  She warned me that I would be getting one for myself.

 

She was right.  As it happens, about that time I started my blog and began visiting numerous other blogs.  I was amazed by all the crafters out there making creations which often used embossing folders or dies, or both.  Well, hold the phone.  I'm off to see Joann.  That was in February of this year.

 

In the ensuing months, I've spent more time ordering and organizing dies and embossing folders than I have actually using them.  Anyone?

 

Still, I did use it and today I'm writing about how I fell out of love with my Cuttlebug after a few short months, particularly after I fell IN love with each and every Memory Box die and discovered that my Cuttlebug bucked and win kneed like a wild stallion as soon as an MB die came within six inches of it. 

Hereafter, I'm going to call the Cuttlebug, um, well, I guess some people might object if I call it that ... I'll call it CB. So I found I was having trouble cutting dies with the CB.  I bought the recommended thin steel shim for it.  I tried using silly cone mats. I tried adding pieces of cardstock, one on top of another, and small posties right in those hard-to-cut places.   Some of these shenanigans worked, some didn't.

But what did happen every time was physical injury.

 

I don't know if the CB needs to get new feeties every six weeks or what, but that thing hops around on my table like Mrs. Rabbit trying to avoid Mr. Rabbit.  It seems like now the CB has trouble with even the simplest dies and embossing folders.  The more delicate the die, the hoppier it gets.  This results in me struggling to crank 'er forward and reverse and reverse and forward while keeping 'er still. I haven't cranked that hard since I helped Mama do the washing on the ancient used 1932 wringer washer. But back then I was young, with mally able bones and mussels. 

I put up with this until I needed to use the CB just about every day for my holiday cards.  And a lot of my holiday dies are made by MB.  I was heck bent to make a card with a particularly intricate MB die and, well, let's just say I went through some gyerations.  First off, I put all my considerable weight on the top of the CB with my left hand and being as how I'm still pretty agile for my age (yes, okay, thanks to Lyrica), I am able to also put my left foot up on top, along with my left hand, only slightly squishing my pinkie finger. 

Even with that, and even pressing my substantial bazooms into it (risky business, being careful not to pinch the saggy bits), I still struggled to turn the handle with my right hand.  Slowly it turned, ever so slowly forward and back and back and foward and forward ... I lost count until, Ureeka, I could hear the CB crunching and crackling and I knew I was finely cutting through the entire die!! 

Too late, I realized that the crunching and crackling was my L4 and L5 discs and the potato cuff in my right shoulder had given way.

Enough!

I can't remember which beautiful card of hers made me start a dialogue with my friend, Kelly Griglione of Notable Nest about how she liked using the Big Shot for her die cutting and embossing. Her cards almost always include some die cutting and/or embossing and they always look crispy and delicious.

So I ordered the BS.  Hmm.  I'm guessing that's not the accepted abbreviation for the Big Shot, right?  Somebody will have to clue me on that.

I showed enormous self-restraint not opening up the package from Joann until after I had finished my calendars.  (I told you I'm simple-minded and can only do ONE thing at a time!)  Finally, I could give her a whirl. 
 

 

I took a photo sort of diary of my "findings." (I'm not allowed to use a video camera after what happened to my granddaughter Kim that time.) 

First, here are the steps necessary for me to cut a MB snowflake die with the Cuttlebug.



If you click on the following photo, you can see the recommended sandwich I used and that it barely cut through.

Next, in the following photo, you can see how well it cut after I added a metal shim.  Not so well.

 

In the following photo, I've used the recommended sandwich, the metal shim, and a piece of cardstock.

And another piece of cardstock, and so on and so forth.  Seriously, speaking just on my own behalf, that's too much trouble and the risk of injury made me decide it's not worth it.

So I did the same spearmint with the Big Shot.  In the following photo, you can see the cut I got using their recommended sandwich.  To be fair, it did not cut through.  Also, to be fair, however, I should point out that I find the Big Shot to be lighter and yet it hugs the table effortlessly without hopping, and I feel like I'm simply turning a handle, not churning butter. 

In the following photo, you can see that the entire die cut through when I added a "Solo Thin Die Adapter" and a piece of cardstock just big enough to cover the die.  If you buy the Big Shot, I recommend you get the Adapter, but you should not need the extra piece of cardstock except on the most intricate of your dies.

I don't know why I wrote "heavy" piece of cardstock on my note below. It was just a normal (for me) piece of cardstock, visible in the upper right of the photo above.

It is a pretty die cut!

 

I still had to use my needle to poke out a few of the teeniest pieces, but it was nothing compared to the work involved with the CB.  

 

So I found the CB is just fine for embossing folders or doing very simple die cuts.  But for more intricate dies, I prefer the Big Shot.  Fortunately, Joann likes a sale and everything I got was half off, plus free shipping. 

 

Who knows, I may evolve into something else down the road, but for now, I'm delighted I made the switch.  I'm back to having fun at my hobby, not working at my hobby.  Thank you, Kelly!

 

Maybe this will help someone else going through the decision-making process.

~~~

Edited to add: 

The consensus of comments is that there is no consensus.  People like them both, or prefer one over the other, or like entirely different machines.  I do want to pass on some great tips, in the event you don't want to read all the comments:

 

1.  From Michelle Lupton:  I use a tip from Jennifer McGuire - stick some masking tape (or washi tape or eclipse tape or some such) onto the smooth surface of the die, but only covering the bits that don't die cut well (usually the middle) - and leave them there as a permanent shim! You may need multiple layers of masking tape, and you may still need a metal shim, but it works really well!

 

2.  From Caz:  Have you heard the tip of using a sheet of grease proof or wax paper next to the cutting surface of the intricate dies before putting your cardstock on?  You end up with a second die cut but it makes it soooo much easier to get the die cut out of the die if it's really intricate.  

 

3.  Similarly, from Karen:  When you use the really intricate dies, I would suggest using a piece of freezer paper on top of the die before you add your card to be cut - that way most of the little itty bits just fall out.

 

Thank you, everyone!

 

~~~

Enjoy your day!   No, seriously, enjoy your day.