Card making techniques: die cutting

Die cutting machines are a must have tool for most paper crafters specially cardmakers and scrapbookers.

Nowadays there are many die cutting machines available commercially and aimed at the home market, they vary in the way they work, in size and in price. If you're considering buying one of these machines think carefully of what kind of craft projects you'll want to create with it, what materials you'll want to cut and read the information available online about the different machines so you know exactly what they do, what kind of dies they use, how much these cost and whether there are any compatibility issues with dies from other companies, etc.

Once you've bought your die cutting machine it's time to start using it and exploring its many possibilities.

I have 2 die cutting machines and they are both from Sizzix. When I bought the SideKick I thought it would be enough for me as I only wanted to use it for cardmaking. I soon realised this was a mistake as I was restricted to the size of shapes and materials I could cut.

Eventually I bought a BigShot and I love it. It allows me to cut not only cardstock but also thicker card, felt, fabric, etc. There's also a much wider range of die cuts and embossing folders I can use.

SideKick BigShot

Below are a few suggestions on how you can embellish die cut shapes to use on your projects. I cut a few shapes to show you how you can put them together.

Duck

After cutting all the pieces that make up the duck I applied some orange blending chalk all around the body, wing and head of the duck.

The next step was to stick a foam pad on the reverse side of the wing to make it more 3D and then glue the beak in place.

I then placed the wing and glued the head on the body to finish the duck. Doesn't he look cute?

Stocking

The aim here was to make a red Christmas stocking with a white toe, heel and top. For that I cut two shapes one in red and one in white.

I cut the white shape along the markings so I had my toe, heel and top.

I then glued them on the red stocking thus creating a pretty stocking to use on a Christmas card, for instance.

Bird with branch and flowers

First I cut all shapes in the colours I wanted. The bird shape will be used as base.

I applied some blending chalk around the bird and the larger flower too and then glued all the different elements in place making sure they were properly aligned with the base shape.

Here are a few examples of cards made using die cut shapes. They were all embellished one way or another before being used.

On this card I used a black pen to create the faux stitching effect.
The sewing helps to add texture to the card.
I used a black pen to outline the flowers and the leaves.