My Love-Hate relationship with Cammie.

'Cammie' is my Silhouette Cameo machine, and when it works well I love it, but I also come very close to throwing it out the window when it chews up my good card and paper, and refuses to give a clean cut to even a simple shape. Don't get me wrong - it's potential is huge. I think it is the operator that is usually at fault! But it is very temperamental, and only cuts really well when I use paper with a minimum of fibre content. Fibrous paper clogs the needle too quickly. I am disappointed by the seemingly short life of the blade, and the sticky carrier mats. Having said that, I enjoy messing around with images to design my own shapes and patterns in it, and it is more versatile than using dies because you can resize designs to suit your needs. Unfortunately the main supplier of the replacement blades and mats has an unnecessarily high International postal policy, so I shall stock up next time I am in UK.

But today I am posting one of my Cammie successes. This is the anniversary card I made for Eileen and Tony, (see my previous post for the birthday card I made for Eileen on the same day). 

This time I used a bought file - from craftuprint I think. Originally the circle was cut in one piece with the base, but it did not overlap enough, so it seemed flimsy and wouldn't stand. So I fiddled with the file a bit so there was a wider join, and cut it out as a plain circle on the base, and then cut the lattice circle separately, and  I also cut a plain circle of dark blue paper to go between them.

For the lattice I use my last sheet of precious pearl white 'paper' that feels almost like plastic. It is pearlised all through, and virtually fibre-free. I have no idea where it came from, so I am unlikely to be able to replace it. The fun part is after the file has cut, when you need to weed out all the spare pieces, and then carefully remove the design from the sticky mat without tearing it.!

The silver holographic paper that I used for the 25, and the middle layer of the sentiment, is very thin and I could not get it to cut at all. Then I had a 'Eureka' moment. I passed small pieces through my old Xyron machine and pressed them firmly down onto some smooth copy paper, and they cut perfectly! The only way I have found to securely stick down a lattice, or other delicate design,  is with a glue pen, and even then it is difficult not to get glue on the right side. I cover it with a sheet of laminate and put it under my trusty Unabridged Spanish-English dictionary while the glue dries, to prevent the paper curling. It weighs a ton and is perfect for the job!

I shall link this card to:
Creative Fingers: Anything goes.
Inspire me Fridays 110; Anything goes.
Joanna Sheen Challenge: Don't be Square.