December 2, 2011

Design Team: Denise O'Connor Week 11 Video


Denise O'Connor Fun Foam Tutorial


We have a treat for all eCrafters! Today, Denise O'Connor will show you, how to cut foam! We always get lots of setting questions when it comes to cutting specialty materials, but wonder no more! Denise will show you how to cut foam in a flash!

Are you ready for some fun foam?!?!?!?!?! I am SO excited about today’s video because I have been wanting to cut some fun foam with my eCraft for awhile now. I have had trouble with it and could not get it right. Then I got a wonderful e-mail from Tracy about how she was able to do it. Here is the e-mail that she sent to me.

Hi Denise,
First, I want to say that your blog has been pivotal in my enjoyment of my ecraft - thanks soooooo much for all you do! I wanted to add a new setting for your chart - I've had excellent luck cutting foam (Darice sticky-back foam, which I found at Joann individually and in value packages) on a pressure of 8 with blade cap ON, and the pen removed. This has given me a perfect kiss-cut. A few notes:
-the blade will cut a little into the foam just while moving the cutting head to position it- I found it's better to position the head, pull it up, load the foam, then put the head back down.
-the kiss-cut seems essential, that is, attempting to cut all the way through both the foam and the backing will probably jam the foam in the rollers.
-don't try to load the foam through the front rollers - it won't roll smoothly and will jam. Position and load the foam only into the large rollers behind the blade.
Thanks again,
Tracy
 
Now, I will admit that I never tried this sticky back foam before, so I ran over to Joann’s and got some. This product is 2mm thick and our eCrafts are really only designed to cut products up to 1 mm thick so I was a bit skeptical about it. I was able to get it to cut. The only problem that I had was that the cut was a bit jagged, so I decided to do another internet search to see if I could find someone that sells 1mm fun foam….and to my surprise I did! WOOHOO!! Wandy-foam is an eBay seller and I ordered some 1mm fun foam (12 sheets of 12x18 for $8 plus shipping). It works great and leaves a much cleaner edge. When I went back to Wandy-foam’s eBay store, I found that they had listed some 1mm fun foam with the sticky back, so I have that ordered. I will report the results of that product once I have it all tested out.
Tracy was so nice to let me make a video of her discovery with the 2mm foam (and I also demonstrate the 1 mm in this video), so THANK YOU TRACY!!!
Oh and in case you are wondering, I used my fun foam to make some stamps! So much fun! Here is what I made! 


Background frame stamp created with the 2mm fun foam which I texturized to give it a vintage look (LOVE THIS!) and I show you in the video how to do this. The holly is made from the 1mm fun foam and stamped with paint. My cutie gingerbread man is cut from my eCraft with some Core’dinations cardstock at a pressure of 5 1/2 and embellished with the WONDERFUL Peachy Keen Stamp set Winter Wonderland Faces and some hand drawn chevrons with my Signo Uniball white pen and adorned with some pretty red buttons. I used 3L Scrapbooking Adhesives’ 3D Foam Squares to pop up him up! Oh, and in the video you will also see me use the Adhesive Sheets from 3L Scrapbooking Adhesives. These are great for when you need to add adhesive to any die cuts (especially small pieces)!
Now enough with my yapping….on with the video! 



Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! We are planning on a Christmas movie night, and I am also going to attempt to make a Gingerbread House with the boys…should be interesting!


Denise O'Connor
www.PurplePaperParadise.com
  
How great was Denise's tutorial?! Thank you Denise!

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