My New Slice Machine!

I've been wanting a die cut machine for years, but I haven't broken down and bought on- until now.  I did a lot of research and decided that the Slice would be the right machine for me.  It's small & will cut out anywhere on my paper.  I just make a template for the shape I want to use and place it where I want it on my paper & then line it back up on the glass matt that came with the Slice.  I made some flowers today.  I had made some like this with my Prima paper flowers, but I was inspired by a You Tube video from Laura.  Here is the link to her video.  http://www.youtube.com/user/FollowThePaperTrail#p/u/1/8VkrTLC9BAs  Be sure to check out her videos.  They're great.  She inspired me to get back into making mini books.  I made a mini paper bag book & love how it came out.  I put up some pics soon.  Here is my flower that I made with my Slice machine.

So, like I said, I cut my flowers from the Slice.  I made two flowers at 11/2" and one at 1".  I used the Seasons cartridge that came with the Slice.  I also used some patterned papers.  This is a great way to use up those paper scraps.  I heated up my Melting Pot with clear UTEE & added my flower.  I used the purple tweezers that I got with the UTEE tools to take the flower out of the pot.  It doesn't melt even though it's plastic.  I set it one my non stick craft mat from Ranger.  I did this with all three flowers.  I had kinds shaped the petals of the flowers first. 

As you can see, they aren't perfect when they come out of the melting pot.  I use some scissors to cut of anything I don't want.  You can really see the extra piece on the red flower.  Then I heat up the flowers with my heat tool to smooth out any weird spots.  I then used my heat tool to make the center of the first flower sticky and added the second flower to it.  Then I do the same with the smallest flower.  Then I heated the center of the smallest flower to add a hinestone that I colored with a Copic marker.

Here's the finished flower.  I really love how they end up!

This is a view of the template I use to line up my Slice.  I use a piece of white paper to cut out the shapes I want to use.  This piece shows the 1", 11/2" & 2" flowers.  I use the template with the piece of paper I want to cut from.  One I decide where I want to cut, I lay it down on the glass mat lining up the white template to where it was when I first cut out the shape.  Then I remove the template leaving the paper exactaly where I want it.  I just love my new llittle tool!  JIL