Owl Be Praying for You

I wanted to try out a new technique for making clouds in the blue sky. I liked how it turned out so I needed to find a way to use it on a card. I found this cute owl on a branch, and I had just received the sentiment and voila! It all came together.
Paper: white cardstock, The Paper Company; light blue and turquoise cardstock, DCWV
Ink: Chocolate chip, SU; Buckaroo Blue, SU; Sahara sand, VersaMagic Dew drop, Tsukineko, chocolate brown and green marker
Stamps: Owl from Whimsical Birds, TPC Studio; sentiment, Clear Dollar Stamps
Tools: scalloped oval punch, oval nestabilities
Embellishments: chocolate brown with blue dots, Target dollar section
Techniques: I used a scalloped oval as mask, starting at bottom and sponged on Buckaroo blue, SU, moving the oval across the page and at different angles and then moving my way up until all area was covered with clouds. This was super easy and I love the way it turned out.
Another hint: I have been trouble cutting my nestablilities with my Sizzix original machine, I needed a spacer in addition to the system converter. I tried everything I could think of. I finally could get good cuts with an old CD as the spacer, but this would not allow me to cut the largest of the nestabilities. So as you can imagine I was still frustrated. My dh came up with using the cover of a CD case. I scored all the edges and broke off the ridges. BE CAREFUL, this makes for some sharp edges. After I created a flat piece, I covered it all in clear packing tape to cover the edges and give it more stability, but let me tell you it works great.
My second problem was embossing with the nestablilities, they would always shift on me and I would emboss the wrong area, so I added a thin magnet sheet (you know the kind that come home with the calendar from your childs' school), now it keeps the die from shifting and I get good, crisp embossed edges. Yea!!!! I hope this helps someone else out there that wondered if they could use their original Sizzix with the Spellbinder dies and how to get it to work well. Let me know what you think. Thank you.