A set of cards that nearly didn't get made!

Along side my digi-cards, (See yesterday's post), I have also been working on a few 'proper' paper-crafted Christmas cards. While browsing the internet recently, in particular, craftsuprint site, I spotted this cutting file that I rather liked, so I purchased it, and this week I thought I'd have a go at using it.

Sadly my Silhouette Cameo cutting machine has been developing a fault lately which has got progressively worse, and when I turned it on to cut these cards out, it wouldn't read the image or cut it at all. I have about six weeks left of my two year guarantee so I thought I might have to send it back. But I knew the postage was around £76 two years ago, so would probably be more now, so it was a tough decision. However, I wrote to the company I bought it from, and they suggested that I contact the technician at Graphtec, (the home company for the machines). As soon as I saw his name I knew he was someone who has been very helpful to me in the past when I had my original CraftRobo machine, so instead of e-mailing him I rang him up. 

He listened to my machine over the phone, and made some suggestions for me to try. Then he got a bit too technical for me so I called for Chris to come and talk to him, and he was given some really sensible and helpful advice. Chris then did something - involving my computer and printer - and hey presto, my machine was working again! Once again I am really impressed with the customer support from this company, and the fact that Brian was able to diagnose the problem and suggest action to remedy it, just by listening over the phone, when we ourselves had no idea how to do it. 

So thanks to him, I was able to continue with making my cards.

The image has three main layers, plus the capital A and M, and the base card. Opening the files in the Cameo software, I resized it to fit on a DL card, and using one A4 sheet for each layer, I was able to fit three to a page. So I cut each page in each colour, and by alternating them both ways, I was able to assemble six cards; three on a blue base and three on white. 

It is a bit of a  'labour of love' to glue them all together, but I soon got in the swing of it, and had all six finished in an evening. I just added a small gem stone to the centre of the star as embellishment. Being me, I was not too happy with the empty corner, top right, and had to fight the urge to add a stamped greeting, but I think it is probably best without.

The only thing I am changing before I use the file again, is to remove the cut triangle in the letter A on the third layer. I think it should be left white. But I think I can change that quite easily, so I shall do so before I save it to my library. I might get a few more made in a different colour combination later.