What am I doing wrong?
 

I recently became the proud owner of several Karen Burniston's Pop 'n Cut bases and magnetic inserts for her lovely 3D cards.
Hubby and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary and instead of buying me more jewelry, which I asked him not to, he got into my Evernote account and my wish list.
He bought everything on my wish list! I had a lot of Karen's dies on my list due to her leaving Sizzix and not making the pop n cuts dies anymore. :cry: I had mentioned this to hubby when I first heard and I jokingly said, "Gee, I had better hurry and get her stuff before I can't find them anymore". He took care of that.

I have had "fun" trying to do the pop n cut cards.
I have watched Karen's you tube vids so many times I can speak them myself!
She makes it all look so easy!
However, it seems my cards never meets up correctly. I get one end glued perfectly straight across, then I notice the card is skewed a bit. I straighten it up and then need to trim a little off of both ends.
Example, using the round basic insert in the regular base. I cut out the inside or the mechanism of the card. I removed the insert and cut just the outside card, score it and fold it in half, set it aside. I fold all of the lines on the pop out part. I fold it in half, glue it and place the first sides together. THEN when glue around the mechanism like she does and fold the outside down over the inside and poof, about 1/8" to 1/4" of the inside card sticks out! OR, if I decide to force the end to meet straight and glue it, then there are wrinkles in the card.
And here is a really trying problem, sometimes, the top of the outside card cracks!!! I am using good papers and cardstocks, Graphic 45, BoBunny, etc.
I've even tried to just make the outside card in the stiffer paper like G45 and use papers from DCWV for the inside so the card is not too thick, but sometimes it happens anyway.
I cannot always look for the grain of the paper because of the design on the paper may be where the grain is wrong.
Someone on SCS told me to use a drop or two of Dawn in a spritzer bottle of water and spritz the paper before folding, but I am not sure I should do that.

Does anyone else make cards with Pop 'n cuts? If you do, what is your secrets? Thanks to hubby, I now have 3 different decorative card bases, 10 magnetic inserts for the bases, 8 Snippets die sets for the inserts and 3 decorative strips as well (I told you he cleaned out my wish list) and I hate to think my frustration is going to cause me not to play with them anymore.

I managed to do one card and I did it by using washi tape over some of the problem areas. I am not sure how to put the pics in the post, so here are the links.
Poppin' Postage Side | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Poppin' Postage Opened | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Take a good look, this one may be my last if I can't stop wasting paper or cutting it straight or something.

Oh how frustrating for you, and how wonderful of your sweetie to give you a gift you truly wanted! I don't have an answer but know someone here will be able to help. Your cards are amazing! Good luck!

I bought these dies, I'm having trouble with the aswell. The tutorial looked easy, not so easy when I tried. I must be doing something wrong. I have put the dies back in the cupboard, I think I need to have more patience.

Guys. You must email Karen B. She WILL answer you. Her pop n cuts are great and you should not put them away. You should have fun with them. Please email her. I am sure she will help. BTW...your card looks great. Doesn't have to be perfect to be great ;)

FYI, she is now designing dies for Elizabeth Crafts and she has some really cool ones. I have one of her Sizzix designs and it is similiar to one she designed for EC. But the great thing about her new dies is they are thin like Spellbinders, etc. I want them all!!!!!
Cindy

I just trim the inside piece a tiny bit on the end and re-round the corners.

I think your card is cute!

Thank you all!
I did write Karen and she advised me to use a crease pad so that the die won't do so much cutting through and to also watch my paper weight. Too thin paper or card stock and the scoring part of the pop n cuts die will go right through.
I went right out and bought a crease pads. It is working great!!
AND I bought one of her new Elizabeth Craft dies, Heart Pivot, I haven't tried it yet due to a Southern ice storm (the second one this year!) knocking our power out for 3 days! It is hard to craft anything when your fingers are numb from the cold!! Not a good way to celebrate Valentine's Day either.
I am planning on playing with the heart pivot card and see if I want to get more of them.
The great thing with these are the accessory dies are included in the set. No more buying the pop up die and a separate die to decorate it. The heart pivot card came with I think it was 6 accessory pieces! I bet Sizzix is going to be cheesed that they got rid of her!!

Well I had another go at using these dies, I have have worked it out, it's not perfect, but I will give it another go tomorrow, thanks ladies for making me try again, instead of just throwing the dies in the back of the cupboard.