Sunday 13 January 2013

VAGABOND REST IN PIECES

A few months ago my Tim Holtz Vagabond started to run slow and smelt a bit like burnt toast.I did not like to say any thing to my partner Dave because when I bought it 18 months before even though it had 25% off at QVC he thought I should buy the Sizzix Big Shot.I informed him the Big Shot looked like the washing mangle my mother used to use and the Vangabond was electronic and looked like a lovely little suitcase when not in use,how wrong could I have been.
Just before Christmas it stopped working and I had to mention it to Dave.Being an electronic engineer I hoped he could repair it.After 1 hour of a lot of *****ing he got it open to find a burnt out motor,a gearbox full of dried up grease and a burnt up PCB and wiring (the bit that makes it work in Ladies terms).His comments are not repeatable but basically in his opinion it was made from cheap Chinese crap. 
Looking on the Scrapbooking forums I found I was not alone with this problem.Some Vagabond had packed up within 4 months and by the looks of the forum rants did not get much satisfaction from the manufacturers. 

Do not fret Ladies the story has a happy ending , along came Father Christmas with a lovely new Sizzix Big Shot.It still looks like a mangle but it is so easy to use and it has NO ELECTRONICS.The other thing Father Christmas bought me so a Distrezz it All machine.This machine distresses paper for fun,up to 6 sheets at a time.It is electronic but was cheap and I didn't buy it.
Please check out the lovely flowers I made with my lovely little Sizzix Big Shot plus the distressing on the paper edges ,so easy to do with my Distrezz it all machine.I have kept my manual distressing tool just in case.
The pictures are from our trip to Rome last year and Dave has just booked a 5 night holiday back to Rome in June,Lucky me.
P.S. This is not a ADVERT   l.o.l

http://handmadeharbour.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/handmade-monday-99.html

handmadeharbour

12 comments:

  1. Happy New Year to you to Chris, sorry I have neem MIA but paper work has taken over my life! I love the new look on your blog, looks fab! Shame about your machine, I had heard that. I have an old cuttlebug, I love and a Cricut which I still havent had much time to play with. Loving your two new layouts, goergeous flowers and lucky you going back to Italy. Take care x

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  2. Hi Chris. Love your layouts. Sorry to hear about your Vagabone. I have recently paid out for an eBosser, which is much the same thing, but I am not overly impressed with it. I love the fact that I can now use big, A4 size, embossing folders, making it much easier to cover the whole of a card, but it is hard to get an evenly cut die, and I find myself getting out my very old cuttlebug for the smaller cuts.

    The flowers on your layout are beautiful, but I always wonder what you do about storing pages with such deep embellishments. I normally use the 12" x 12" plastic page protectors in an albumn, but surely that would ruin your lovely flowers. I'd be interested to hear what you do with them. Kate x

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  3. Here's hoping you have better luck with the new mangle-style machine! Love the distressed edging on the papers x

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  4. Shame about the machine conking out. Your card is lovely and I'm sure you will have a lot of fun with it.

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  5. I too hope that your new toys work really well for you although I am sorry to say that just because you didn't buy it doesn't mean that it won't go wrong. (or to turn that around - just because you bought the other one didn't mean that it went wrong!)I really like the effects that you got on your pictures they look vintage and really pretty.

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  6. Hope the new machine works out for you. Some of my knitting ladies also make cards and they talk about the sizzix being the best of the bunch. I love the layouts you've done. I've experimented in the past with using layouts electronically from e-kits but never tried with paper:-)

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  7. those paper flowers are so beautiful! Good luck with your new gadgets :) x

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  8. I like the sound of the Distrezz machine. You are so right, some e,bossing machines do resemble mangles - they produce much nicer things though. Hope you have a good week.

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  9. Honestly Chris I thought you were talking another language with your vagabond and the sizzix big shot. Most important I love the flowers you've created in both the frames, so pretty. Have a lovely week.
    Ali x

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  10. Yes I have to agree it all sounds like another language to me too! But very interesting. The effects look so pretty.
    Wendy x

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  11. I love the distressing on the edges so I'll have to check out that machine you're talking about!Great layouts.

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Hi
Thanks to all who have commented
Keep Scraping . Chris P