Circle Scissor Plus Tips

Sorry I have been quiet the last few days. I was stamping like crazy with my new stuff and preparing samples for my New Catalog Open House (which was yesterday). I joined forces with several other local demonstrators to do a group open house and we had lots of projects on display, three great make & take projects, and a handful of demonstration booths featuring new products. My "job" at the open house was to demonstrate the new Circle Scissor Plus . I'm not very handy with video, so unfortunately I don't have a video of my demonstration to share with you. But here are some of my top tips to help you get started.

The Circle Scissor Plus (Item #112530, $29.95) is a fun tool designed to make circles as small as 1" or as large as 6". The black dial in the middle of the tool rotates to change the size of the circle, and thus, the location of the blade. I had a hard time figuring out where to position my cardstock or photo underneath the tool to get the cut that I wanted. I remembered a tip someone shared about the Coluzzle and broke out my colored Sharpie markers. I turned the cutter over and colored the grooves different colors. This allowed me to more easily see the complete circle and position the cutter on my cardstock accordingly.

Speaking of the cardstock, the cardstock/photo will slide around on the Glass Mat (#112531, $19.95). This is not ideal, so make sure to secure it down with some Dotto (removable) adhesive (#103305, $12.95). The Glass Mat is sold separately and a lot of people asked me why it was necessary to use this mat opposed to other mats (like our "self-healing" Cutting Mat, Item #101087, $15.95). The Circle Scissor Plus works best with the Glass Mat because it allows the blade to glide around the cardstock for a smooth cut. Whereas, the blade would get caught up and not cut smoothly on the other surfaces. Don't worry; the blade does not nick or cut the glass.

So, you need to secure that cardstock down, but you also need to make sure and hold the cutter firmly in place when you rotate the blade and cut your circle. If the cutter slides, even just a hair while you're cutting, your circle won't be smooth and complete.

It takes a little bit of practice to get the hang of this tool, but it has a lot of potential and I've enjoyed playing with it so far. Here is one of the cards I had on display. I CASEd this card from the Spring-Summer 2009 Catalog (page 42) and changed just the colors a little bit.

Here's a side view of the card so you can see some of the dimension. You'll notice the blue border around the boat is not a layer underneath, it's actually a circle frame cut with the Circle Scissor Plus. It's one of my favorite tricks with this tool. The key is to cut the smaller circle first; then, without moving it, adjust the circle size to be slightly larger and cut again.

Supplies: Boatloads of Love, Very Vanilla cardstock, Baja Breeze ink & cardstock, Not Quite Navy ink & cardstock, Certainly Celery ink & cardstock, Sahara Sand ink, Blender Pens, Circle Scissor Plus & Glass Mat, Stampin' Up! Backgrounds 1 Texturz Plates for the Big Shot, Rose Red grosgrain ribbon, Mini Glue Dots

One final note, the Coluzzle Circle Cutting System is being discontinued (boo hoo!). The manufacturer is no longer making it. The refill blades have already sold out and the Coluzzle Starter Set (#102264, $19.95) is only available while supplies last.