SUO Challenges: Wicked Good Time

Hey there stampy friends!  It's time for a new challenge at SUO Challenges.

This time it's a super easy challenge--Designer's Choice!  Just make a card (or scrapbook page or 3D item or whatever) using only Stampin' Up! products, then share it with us on the SUO Challenges blog.

Here's my card:

This is the invitation I made for my friend Sarah's daughter's birthday party (Leora is a Halloween baby).  I basically remade this card but with more colors--Sarah asked for orange to be the main color to match Leora's cake.  Instead of rhinestones, I used Glitter Enamel Dots in three colors.  The "wicked" is cut out of Gorgeous Grape cardstock and then embossed with Iridescent Ice embossing powder, which is retired.  I could have used the white or black shimmer embossing powder that's current, but we really wanted the word to read as purple, not white or black.  (And I now have glittery embossing powder on EVERYTHING in my craft room!)

Having cut out nearly 40 words, I have a few tips for you if you're interested:

1.  Run it through your die cut machine a couple of times to make sure every bit of it cuts all the way through.
2.  When you take it out, the die cut word will most likely be stuck inside the die still, but the top part of the C tends to pop out a bit when you detach it from the rest of the paper.  You can stick the tip of a paper piercing tool under the top bit of the C and use it to separate the die from the cardstock.  I would go all the way to one end of the word, then go back to the C and go to the other end.  This way you're not trying to poke through the little holes in the die and running the risk of poking a hole in your cardstock.
3.  If you want to emboss the word, what worked best for me (since I did 18 of them) was to cover half the word with Versamark and EP, heat that side to set the embossing powder, and then do the other side.  That gives you a place to hold on to it while you heat set, otherwise it's really easy to send the die skittering across your crafting table without actually melting the embossing powder.  Even if you overlap the EP a little bit in the middle of the word, it won't be noticeable on the finished product.

So there you have it!  Hope you'll make a card or other project and share it with us on SUO Challenges.  Cheers!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Wonderfully Wicked
Ink:  Granny Apple Green, Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie, Gorgeous Grape
Accessories:  Wicked dies, Glitter Enamel Dots, Iridescent Ice EP (retired)