Under the dome....a little "magic"!!!

 What happens when you combine a 3D printer and paper crafts???  A lighted dome!  This little dome is just about 4" tall and maybe 2" across the bottom.

I bought 6 of these at the Scrapbook Expo last September.  Found them in the Melissa Frances booth and they were half off.    They come with a cardboard bottom.

I asked Kerry if he could make a LED lighted base with his 3D printer.  I needed something that had a rechargeable battery in it so that I didn't have to plug it in.  Each of these holes has an LED light shining up through the bottom.

The base is about 3/4" thick so that inside, it can house the lights, the on/off switch and the port for charging.  Amazing how tiny all that can be.

I then die cut a circle of clear acrylic to cover the top of the lights. And that's what I used as a base to hot glue the dies.  You can't see, but everything is cut in white glitter paper.  This is just 1 tree, cut into parts, and then 2 of the 3-piece deer sets.  Rolled the die cuts around a 1/2" diameter dowel to shape them.  Hot glued each piece to the clear acrylic base.  Then put it all up inside the dome and added the base.

Here's closeup of the trees and a deer.  Hope you can get a feel for the glitter paper I used.

When you flip the switch, all that glittered paper just sparkles in the light!

Five more domes, so I asked for 5 more bases!  And because each one will be on a clear acrylic base, I could make multiple designs for each dome!  I'm thinking 2018 is going to be a very good year for creativity!

What criteria do I use to pick a die?

Dies have never been cheap and it doesn't take much to get a fortune tied up in your collection.  I try to "see" or "imagine" a variety of ways that I can use a single die.  If I can't, then I do not buy it, no matter how much I want it!

Here's a cute tree that is a flourish.  First, I could visualize it in different sizes....just by cutting the bottom off.

But then I saw it as a corner embellishment:

I didn't actually do this, but if you look at the tree as points of a star, you could put 5, 6, 7 or 8 of them together to make a giant star!

What do you see in this tree???

When I do purchase a die, I will cut it out 10 times in plain white card stock.  If its a die that can be embossed, I do not emboss it, I simply cut it out.

Then I can lay all 10 diecuts out on a flat surface and rotate them North, South, East, West, on any angle, mix 2, 3, 4....10 dies together...just to see what I can come up with.  You can make a nice full page sized flourish rick-rack with this die!

It's sort of fun to see what you can "see" when you do this with your dies.   

This adorable tree is 5 pieces and comes in 2 sizes.  I had to have them both.  Take any two layers of the tree and put them together and you will see an "elf" collar!  Cut the tips off and you have snow to drip off any roof!  Put the 2 dies together as one and you'll get a huge tree with 10 layers!

I understand the company is no longer making this die, so call Rhonda at Design U'R Memories as she just placed an order for a ton of these!

She also sells this glitter paper in 12x12 sheets and it works fabulous with copic markers.  Just put a peel off sticker (the snowman) over the paper and color with your copics.  The cut out around the edges.

The title on this card is "Time to play" made but cutting up individual letters on a holiday peel off sheet.    I love the glitter sheet so much that I bought  the glitter and an entire roll of the adhesive so I can make my own!!!

So, stop before you invest in dies and see how many different ways you can use that die before you make your investment!!!