Crafted By Colette

I have collected a few new bits and pieces for my adorable little die cutting machine.  You might have seen some of the them in my craft haul post, but I’ve got some more since then.

I got a nice spotty embossing folder, but unfortunately it’s too wide for my little dinky machine.

I did know this before I bought it, but I’d read online that you could cut them to size.  So I got just the one folder to test this theory out.

I laid one of the plates over the top as a template.  Originally I was just gonna do one cut, but that would change the little hump of no dots in the centre of the pattern.  It would also leave me with one hinge.  So I moved the plate to the centre and settled on two cuts.

I put little marks to indicate the desired width, and got out a metal ruler and a craft knife.  It took a few cuts, but it wasn’t too difficult.

And it embosses just fine.  See.

So I bought some more.

I cut these ones down too.  I discovered that after scoring with the craft knife it was relatively easy to cut with strong scissors.

I’ve also amassed a couple of die sets.

I have a few more sets on the way too.  Including some Christmassy themed ones, which unfortunately didn’t arrive before I had to make my Christmas cards.  But I did pretty well nonetheless.

I’ve also learned that you need to be really careful when ordering cutting dies, because people also sell die cuts.  Luckily this mistake only cost me £1.80.

How do you adhere these fiddly things?  If I was cutting them myself, I’d put double sided tape on the back of the card before I cut (another tip from the internet), but this was madness.  I made a total mess with a glue stick with the first one.  For the others, after a bit of research, I used a toothpick and some PVA glue.

More die cutting experiments to come!