Another upcycled Christmas card

Having moaned that not many of this last Christmas's cards really lending themselves to up cycling - what does Hazel do over at Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge ask us to do? Up cycle, recycle, re purpose or use something free! So I scrabbled round in the box of saved cards and came up with this:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- backing paper from the My Mind's Eye 'All Is Bright' paper pad - chosen as it went well with the colour of the church in the image that I wanted to use. Plus I worked it so that the word 'Christmas' in the design shows and means no need for a sentiment as the card is probably busy enough

- the image came from a  shop bought Christmas card, die cut using a Spellbinders 'Labels One' die -it's a lovely sparkly image ( on the snow especially) which doesn't show up sadly in the piccy :(

- then I die cut a frame using a Spellbinders 'Luscious Labels One' die, glued behind the image and then glued the whole topper onto the card - using Collall glue - still in love with the little bit of maneuverability of course

- the baby blue pure silk ribbon (sigh, this makes such gorgeous bows) is from The Ribbon Girl, tied in a bow and adhered to the card using the glue gun

- finishing touch, an already glittered snowflake shaped button (from Hobbycraft, bought eons ago), just with a bit of iridescent cord tied in a bow and then glued onto the blue bow using the glue gun. Thereby making this a card which will not go through the normal sized letter slot - but hey-ho, sometimes it's worth it :)

This should have been a quick card to make, but I hit a huge pot hole in the road snag that's probably worth sharing.

I'm not sure how many of you may have seen (on blogs and YouTube) tutorials about the reasonably new idea of using tumble dryer sheets to remove all the fiddly bits from dies?

I spotted that Enfys of 'Going Buggy' had done a tutorial HERE and it looked a really great idea just to run your newly die cut piece of card, still in the die, through your cutting machine with the die face down onto folded tumbler dryer sheets. Quite magically the 'dross' from the die cutting should stick to the dryer sheets leaving you with a clean die plus your cut shape all neatly minus any little clinging pieces.

I'm a big fan of Enfys and she made it look so easy, so whilst doing the Sainsbury's run at the weekend I picked up a box of their 'own brand' tumble dryer sheets and tried out this new 'wonder technique'.

Now, it could be that Sainsburys dryer sheets are much moister than others. Folk do recommend you buy the cheapest from places such as Poundland or a Dollar Store, and also that you experiment a bit as perhaps you need only three folded sheets instead of four. But, I was horribly disappointed for the following reasons - the card shape didn't release from the die at all and I ended up poking bits out of the metal die once I'd managed to remove the shape, the shape itself seemed to be damp but I soon realised it was almost oily and also looked greasy and a bit discoloured - and to add insult to injury the cutting plates were left icky and needed a good wash.

So for me, right now, it's a thumbs down :( As I've said, perhaps less moist/oily sheets would be a vast improvement but needless to say I threw the test die cut out and reverted to good old waxed paper, which always works a treat.

I'd love to hear if any of you have had real success trying this out - especially as it looks such a great idea. And if you did have success, where (in the UK) did you buy your dryer sheets?

And I'd also like to add this card to Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for January.

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