Die Cuts became really trendy the past few years and for many good reasons. First, the term Die Cuts is pretty broad and has many industrial connotations but in the arts & crafts world the act of die cutting is simply using a machine to produce cut-out shapes.
The machine helps to create the same shape over and over again without using scissors, pencils or a knife. It saves you time and the result is very professional. Some people have made it their profession and the sell unique greeting cards (for example) by the thousands.
What Are Dies?
Think of dies as cookie cutters! They are templates or model with sharp edges (mostly) that are pressed through the machine to make a uniform shape from materials like paper, fabric and more.
Die Cutting Machines
First it is important to understand that there are manual and digital machines.
A manual machine uses a steel die and a lever to press the die and cut shapes from paper, fabric and others. They are considered very easy to use and produce excellent results even for beginner crafters!
Some of the most popular machines include the ones by Sizzix and Spellbinders.
A digital machine do exactly the same thing but they don’t need a die because they have a blade in them. They are electric and use a computer software to store different designs so you can think of them more like a printer that cuts shapes.
However they are out of the scope of this article since we’re talking about dies but if you’re interested you can check the most popular digital machines on Amazon here.
Using Your Die
After selecting your die you will sandwich your die and material (paper or fabric) between the foam layers.
Then, all you have to do is use the lever to press the die and the material together. It will slowly and accurately cut it. Then you just check to see if your paper or fabric got cut all the way.
If you want really detailed instruction you can check this wiki tutorial.
Or simply watch this Youtube video.
Remember that your creativity is limitless. There are so many cool thing you can do with die cuts. Card making are obvious but you can use the dies to make really cool wall art, stickers and more!
Also, I didn’t even mention embossing but most of the die cutting machines do that as well and you can really let you imagination go wild when combining these two techniques!
Here at all for Xmas we offer a wide selection of metal die cuts that will allow you to make the perfect Christmas greeting card. One that will impress all your loved ones.
This type of cards are so beautiful you know whoever receives them will keep them forever!
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