I have been somewhat oblivious about the wonderful world of craft die cuts out there. By definition a “die cut” is a method for punching or cutting out special shapes or designs by using a metal form called a die -it is also referred to as a “cut out shape”. The die can be used to cut paper, fabric and of course…. metal. With my limited experience I had only used die cuts to obtain shapes that could be used under metal tape for cards.
That was about as good as it got until a Christmas ornament workshop necessitated a way of putting metal on the painted glass balls and also required the ability to get really fine, precise cutting done on metal to simulate a filigree look. To the rescue came the great die cuts from Elizabeth Craft Designs.
I had prepared the Christmas shapes for a large group of ladies by cutting the pewter metal sheet to size, taping it with Be Creative/Scorpal/Sook Wang adhesive tape sheets and running the “sandwich” with the Christmas image steel die cut through the Big Shot machine. The results were great and each Christmas ornament looked different as the ladies could decide which part of the design they wanted to retain and which areas the metal were removed from to show the glass underneath.
Els from Elizabeth Craft Designs was kind enough to send us another die cut to try out on our paper ornaments and I was amazed at how beautiful and versatile this product was and how the possibilities are pretty much endless. I did various cuts with this lovely flower design always taping the metal sheet first with the adhesive tape before putting it through the Big Shot. Some of the flowers ended up on the colored glass bottles and some I used on cards. I also used the “background” on a card because heaven forbid that we should waste anything ; ) !
I also used “magic foam” to make a stamp from the die by warming up the foam with a heat gun and making an impression of the die to use as a backdrop for the flowers by stamping with Stazon ink.
As far as metal embossing goes using the die is technically “cheating” …but then who is checking ? …I love how quickly I can make a beautiful metal art card and I can certainly envision many more uses for these funky metal cutting die designs…
