It’s Groundhog Day! It’s also 2/2/22 although I’m not whether that has any mystical significance. It’s also exactly three months until the end of the Stampin’ Up! 2021/2022 Annual Catalogue. As a result I’m now thinking about products that I suspect my be retired. Today my prediction is the Playful Alphabet Dies. Not because I don’t like them, but simply that they’ve been around a couple of years and sales are likely dropping off. So to show off these useful dies (and some free paper) I created this simple bookmark.

SIMPLY MARBLEOUS PAPER

I began my project with the bookmark base: a 2″ x 5-1/2″ piece of Thick Very Vanilla Card. Then from the free Simply Marbleous 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper (DSP) pack I chose a Highland Heather sheet. After cutting a strip 1-7/8″ wide I used Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) to mount it onto the card strip.

Instead of cutting off the excess DSP I simply folded it over the end and glued it to the back. Then using the oval hole option on the Detailed Trio Punch I punched a hole at the reinforced end.

Next I threaded a 6″ piece of Highland Heather 1/2″ Grosgrain Ribbon through the hole. To keep it in place I first cut some Very Vanilla twine from the Baker’s Twine Essentials Pack. Then I tied the twine around the ribbon in a simple bow near the top of the bookmark.

PLAYFUL ALPHABET

The bookmark looked very pretty just as it was but I had an idea using the Playful Alphabet Dies. Despite the name there’s actually 58 dies in the set including numbers, punctuation and some special foreign letters. There’s even duplicates of some of the most used letters to make die-cutting even quicker.

I began by selecting the letters to spell out “start here” plus an asterisk. As luck would have it there were two e’s and two r’s in the set so one pass through the Mini Cut & Emboss Machine would be all I needed. Among my scraps of Thick Very Vanilla Card I found a piece with a hole punched out of the centre. However there was enough of a border to fit all 10 dies needed for my design.

With everything cut out I began to think about how it would all fit onto the bookmark. Lining up the letters was proving challenging so I went back to my scraps of card and found a 1/2″ strip. Next I lined the strip up with the end of the DSP on the bookmark and temporarily secured it in place with some old washi tape. After laying out the pieces on the bookmark I then marked on the card strip where the last letter of each word would go.

Finally I could get to work attaching the individual pieces with liquid glue. This actually took very little time as the guide helped keep them level and spaced as I’d planned. Once the last piece was in place my bookmark project was complete.

SIMPLER ALPHABET ALTERNATIVE?

As I was working I realised that I could have fixed Adhesive Sheet to the back of the card before cutting out the letters. For some this might be a less messy alternative to using liquid glue to attach them.

It was only after I was done that it occurred to me there was also another way to create a similar effect using the same Playful Alphabet Dies. Instead of cutting the individual letters from card, cut them from the DSP before attaching it to the bookmark base. This way the card base would show through the die-cut holes. Then all that would be left are the centre pieces from the a and r’s to fix into place.

However you use them I really think these dies could be a great addition to your collection. Make sure you check them out and order them just in case they are retired in a couple of months.

PRODUCT LIST

Sadly the Simply Marbleous DSP cannot be purchased, but you can get it for free until February 28th (while stocks last). Simply place an order for $60 of Stampin’ Up! products (before shipping and taxes). Then when prompted during the checkout process choose this paper as your free gift. There’s also other paper and exclusive stamp sets to choose from too, and no limit on how many you can earn. Check out the Sale-A-Bration Brochure for all the details. Otherwise you can view all the free products in the Sale-A-Bration section of my online store.