However many punches/tools/gizmos we have in our treasure chest, there’s always a time when we haven’t got just the right thing.

And of course, we want/need it NOW!

Such was the case yesterday when I was working on my journal and went to cut some shapes using my die cutter.  Though I don’t use it much since I got my CraftRobo, I fell for the interesting “festive greenery” die when getting something else from an online shop and only when it was too late did I realise that it needed more than just the ordinary cutting surface, because it’s over size.  Having bent my hero’s ear for a while, muttering that something which appears to be reasonably priced suddenly becomes hideously expensive because of the need for loads of add-ons, I decided to do something about it myself.

I made my own cutting surface/pad using a holiday brochure which arrived on Saturday morning.  It was made of good, thick, solid paper which didn’t give an inch when pressed.  Add a couple of sheets of old committee minutes from the recycling bin and run the die through a few times to get it right.

Even though it was completely level, I still had trouble getting the whole die to cut through.

One area in particular was giving me difficulty, so I spent ages building up particular areas with single sheets of paper at a time to get it to cut out well every time.  Eventually, after much jiggery-pokery, we got there and as I punched the air with success, my hero breathed a sigh of relief.

This morning, I’ve been to the dentist again and I’m working later - “The Twilight shift” as it were.  So, I thought I’d allow myself a bit of fun in between and started working on Jessica Sprague’s Free Project.  I got out the various paper punches, only to find that I didn’t have a star punch of the right size.  Good grief, I’ll have to resort to using scissors!  Fortunately Jessica had provided a sheet with the stars printed, so I could simply cut them out.

A dozen or so stars in (32 are needed!) my fingers were sore from the scissors and I remembered buying some new spring ones whilst in LA. 

Wow and double wow!  These spring scissors are brilliant.  Super sharp and so comfortable to use, I can’t imagine why I didn’t think of them to begin with.

I think that says “ionic” brand on the blade…highly recommended!