Spellbinders Small Die of the Month & Crafting with an Essential Tremor

I have an Essential Tremor. It is a neurological disorder that causes my left hand to shake, especially with fine motor actions like holding a die cut to add glue. I’m right handed so that helps a bit. But I love card-making and die cutting a lot so I find ways to manage it, with tweezers for example.

I recently bought Fine Tip Reverse Grip Tweezers from Scrapbook.com. And since I’d just received the October Small Die of the Month from Spellbinders, it was the perfect time to try them out.

To begin, ink blend Crackling Campfire Distress Oxide Ink onto a 4” x 5 1/4” piece of Warm Glow cardstock from Gina K Designs. Add heavier amounts to the edges decreasing as you go toward the center.

While the panel dries, cut the half diamond leaf/stem die from bronze shimmer cardstock and green cardstock twice. Cut the leaves and stems off the bronze pieces. Adhere the remaining piece over the green die cuts.

Next, die cut the flower pieces from red, yellow, orange and purple cardstock. I used scrap pieces from either Hero Arts or Gina K Designs. Cut the small accent pieces from bronze cardstock.

Die cut the word “thank“ and letters Y O U from bronze cardstock and twice from brown cardstock. Glue these together with liquid glue.

This is one area where the tweezers are invaluable. I hold the letters with tweezers in my left hand and glue with my right. If I don’t use the tweezers my fingers shake and often will stop holding the die cut entirely.

Line up the diamond pieces centered on the panel and adhere. Don’t glue down the leaves and stems.

Adhere the bronze accent pieces to the larger flowers. Use foam tape to adhere the flowers just under the stems on the panel.

Tweezers are great when you need to remove the backing paper on foam tape. Especially when it’s small pieces like in this project. They are also great for placing small pieces on the card.

Add the sentiment, using a t-square ruler to make sure it’s straight. Splatter the panel with Crackling Campfire and gold metallic watercolor. Foam mount panel to A2 card base cut from Warm Glow cardstock.

This was my first time using the new Crackling Campfire Distress Oxide. It is a gorgeous color. I also used the Domed Foam Applicators from Scrapbook.com for the first time. So far I really like how sturdy they are.

Time Intensive

I often get comments about how time intensive my projects are. Yes, they sometimes do take a lot of time but I rarely work on them from start to finish at once.

Most of the time I break my projects into small parts. Ink blend one day, die cut another time, assemble a completely different day. The longer I work continuously, the more pronounced my tremor becomes, so short amounts of time is how I manage it.

I’m sure there are others out there with a tremor like mine or worse. I’d love to hear in the comments how you manage it to continue crafting.

Sales

Also, here’s some sale information you don’t want to miss! Spellbinders is having their Semi-Annual Warehouse Sale until September 27, 2020. Scrapbook.com is having a Die Cutting Sale until September 21, 2020.

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