Make a Photo Cube Using a Sizzix Bigz Die

This page shows you how to make a beautiful popup ball using a Sizzix Bigz die. The ball makes a great photo cube, hanging ornament, or a surprise card inviting someone to attend a special "ball".

The Sizzix Bigz XL Popup Ball is the needed base for any number of wonderful projects. In this picture, the 3D Popup ball became a photo cube with a Christmas theme.

Later on, I'll show you a picture of a hanging Holiday ornament made with the 3D popup ball.

However, those two projects are by no means the only thing you can do with this ball.

Since it pops up beautifully, and lays flat beautifully, you can insert this ball inside a card and mail it. What a surprise for the lucky recipient when he or she opens the card and this gorgeous ball comes flying out!

It makes a great invitation -- imagine an invitation to a beach party written on a beach ball! And of course, it's shaped right for invites or photos of many sporting events that use balls -- baseball, football, volleyball, netball, bowling -- you get the idea.

As a hanging ornament, you could easily transform it to become a Japanese lantern, a Halloween haunted "dome house", a pineapple, a flower themed ornament, a Valentine chocolate, an Easter egg -- and probably a whole lot more.

Here we have a hanging Holiday Ornament made with the same Sizzix Bigz Die. I made two of these -- one to keep and one that I donated to my local community and recreation center. This Holiday Ball is decorated with punched snowflakes, glitter, scalloped circles cut with Spellbinder Nestabilities Dies, and a product called Snow Writer. Snow Writer allows you to "write" with a snowy, white substance that dries to resemble snow. A red ribbon for hanging completes the picture.

I used the Sizzix Big Shot to make this project. The Sizzix Big Shot is a universal embossing and die cutting machine. That means it can use Sizzix dies, Cuttlebug embossing folders, Nestabiities, brass embossing templates and more. The Big Shot is definitely high on my list of preferred tools. I use it regularly and with great satisfaction. It is the one tool I would not part with.

To use the Big Shot with the Bigz dies, you need a couple of accessories -- the extended platform and the extended cutting pads.

With this die, you are limited only by your imagination. Here, I have made three hanging, Celtic-themed pop-up balls to honour St. Patrick's Day. I decorated the balls with Celtic clip art, freely available on the Internet. I believe many of the images here can from Graphics Fairy Blogspot.

I resized and reshaped them on the computer using Adobe Elements photo editing software, then printed them out for use.