Stamping Ground

These cards, beautifully photographed as usual *smirk*, serve to prove nothing except that I've discovered a file of previously unpublished photos! At least the fault of pointing the camera toward the light is obvious. Because there was light. Today has been wet and gloomy and dark since the get-go and I find it very uninspiring.

Yesterday's article about the Epic Six prompted some confession type revelations about your Cuttlebugs. Oh my. Couple of you haven't exactly used them to capacity and back, huh? Oh I have. I don't use it every day, but I do use it every time I make cards. Not necessarily as a die cutter - it's the embossing facility that I use the most, love it. With vague and not many exceptions, I have most of the the C6 size folders. I can't help it. At least I use them! There was originally, a lot of debate about the plates (shims); I was actually a demonstrator for the wholesaler that brought Cuttlebug to the UK at the time and I met a fair number of people who were horrified by the cracking noise the plates made, and worse, stopped using the thing because they thought the 'scarring' and 'bending' of the plates was a sign of something going wrong. I was able to reassure them with mine:
Ya see, there were (and still are actually) round-the-workshop table discussions about these plates. Lots and lots of us use the same B plate on the top all the time, so that only one of the pair bears the scarring and pitting of die cut use. Many, many - most- wiser people than I turn the 'top plate' each time they use it, so that it hasn't succumbed to continual heavy roller pressure and become a banana plate. I didn't do this, as you can see! For two reasons: I wanted to see how well it would perform at it's most abused - for the want of a better word (remember, as a demonstrator, you need to know all the strengths of your product); it quickly became obvious that turning it over would cause it to snap, so I didn't. The second reason is the revealing one really - I don't consider myself tightly wound about much, and certainly not borderline OCD (you've seen WOYWW, right?!), but I just knew that if I started the plate turn and turn about thing, I'd end up stressing over a system - do I turn it before I use it each time, once at the beginning of a session or once at the end of the session, ready for next time. Aaaghh. I might experience a night terror - waking up in a panic because I did (or didn't) turn it! So off I go with the line of least resistance again. Do nothing. That banana shaped plate is 3 years old, so it was for me, the right choice. I've just retired it from workshop use, but I'm keeping it as a back up!