A Step-by-Step Die Cutting Guide for Beginners (with Tips!)

A die is a piece of metal with a raised edge that will cut a shape out of a sheet of card with the aid of pressure. Dies come in various shapes and sizes and have a wide range of uses, such as shapes that can cut a butterfly, layers, words and letters or even cutting out an outline that can help you assemble a box. Dies are mainly used to cut card and paper but can cut out various materials like thin craft foam, metal and even some fabrics.

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Dies have one smooth side, and the other side will have raised ridges. The ridges are used to cut your shape out.

I recently invested in a die-cutting machine.  Perhaps ironically, it was the ability to run embossing folders through it that tipped me over the edge.  (I love texture!)  The machine and the dies are both investments, so I want to be able to do as much with them as possible, and, although there are a lot of ideas for them around the web (especially on YouTube), I had trouble finding something that just collected all the different options in one place.

So&#;what else can you do with thin metal dies, besides just straight-up die cutting?  Let&#;s look at the options, starting from the obvious and moving onto some other options.

Note: we&#;re talking here about thin metal dies and a manual cutting machine.  (I assume most of these things could also be done with an electric machine, but we&#;re not talking about digital machines.)  The dies I have right now are a mix of dies from AliExpress, Wish, and the like; and dies from Spellbinders.  The machine I&#;m using is also by Spellbinders &#; it&#;s the Platinum 6, which is incredibly sturdy, but also fairly compact.  In particular, I love that it folds up for storage.

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Note 2: My camera lens died midway through the making of this post, so I apologize in advance if the photo quality is mixed.  I don&#;t ordinarily take photos with my .

1. Straightforward Die Cutting

Even though the focus of this post is on what else you can do with dies, it just doesn&#;t seem like the list would be complete without also including the obvious &#; use your dies for their primary intended purpose &#; die cutting shapes from cardstock.

Every machine will have its own set of instructions, but generally you&#;ll stack the platform, then the bottom cutting plate, then your paper, then the die (cutting side down), then the top plate&#;and then run it through the rollers.  (Or you may flip the inside of the stack so you have a die facing up, and then the paper.

I&#;m using the Scrapbook.com Magic Mat to replace my cutting-into plate, and I really like it.  Having never used a die cutting machine without it, I don&#;t personally have anything to compare to, but I&#;m not experiencing a lot of the issues people report with standard plates, like warping.  (It will eventually need to be replaced, but hopefully not as soon as a standard cutting plate.)

Don&#;t forget that you can also use the negative spaces created by cutting out shapes.  And pay attention to the smaller pieces that cut from the inside of intricate shapes.  Some of those are interesting shapes you can use elsewhere, and very tiny pieces can make confetti to use in shaker boxes.

2. Pair Up Dies or Double-Cut

Alter your available shapes by doubling up your dies as you cut, or by re-cutting certain shapes.

Perhaps the most obvious example of pairing up dies is when using two from a set of nested shapes to create a frame.  When doing this, it&#;s usually best to use a bit of low-tack tape (or a sticky note/sticky flag) to stick the two shapes together to ensure they&#;re lined up properly before placing them on your paper.

Alternatively, you can cut your shapes &#; and then cut them again.  Punch art makes use of this technique regularly, and what is die cutting, really, but punching on steroids?  Perhaps one of the simplest examples I&#;ve ever seen is that of an umbrella made from a larger and a smaller circle.  You punch &#; or die cut &#; the larger circle, then cut it in half and cut smaller circles from along the lower edge to create the scallops.

(Similarly, you may be able to increase your options by cutting up your finished die cuts the same way punch artists do.)

3. Partial Die Cutting

Any part of your die that extends beyond the edge of your bottom cutting plate won&#;t cut, because it won&#;t take pressure from the rollers.  So you can get more use from your dies by using them off the edge of a page to cut a partial image.

For instance, you can create a cutout border, or you can cut a word along a top or bottom edge.

You can even step this up by partial cutting opposite sides of a die, one after the other, to create a strip.

To partial cut, line up your die on your paper, overlapping the edge the way you want it, and tape it in place with a low-tack tape (or a sticky note/sticky flag) . Align it with the edge of your stamping platform and lower cutting plate so it hangs off the edge along the division between &#;to cut&#; and &#;not to cut.&#; Then run it through your machine as normal.

(This is from the Art Studio Botanicals die set.  I love this and have been enjoying using it together with the Gilded Ornaments.  Since both are drop-in circle dies, you can use the insides from this set with the circle from that set.)

Depending on your design, you might have to go back with a craft knife and cut along the line between any elements that didn&#;t cut free from the main page.

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4. Embossing

When used with an embossing mat (a thick rubbery mat that bears a slight resemblance to a mousepad) or similar squishy surface, thin metal dies can be used to emboss rather than cut.

In my machine, you layer the platform, then the die (cutting side up), then the paper, then the embossing mat, then the embossing plate (similar to the regular top plate, but a little thicker), and run it through the machine.  Because of the way the die squishes into the embossing mat, the cutting edges make an impression in the paper rather than cutting through it.

Your machine&#;s instructions are probably similar.  (The Platinum 6 comes with an embossing mat.  If your machine doesn&#;t, you can probably buy one separately; or try some thick craft foam and see what kind of results you get.)

With the obvious exception of directional designs (like words), you can use either the &#;right&#; side or the &#;wrong&#; side of the impression, for different effects.

(Side note: Some dies are designed to cut and then emboss &#; not with their cut edges but with other elements built into the design.  It took me a while to figure out how these are supposed to work.  If you&#;re using a die like this, cut it first, as usual.  Then, with the cutout still in the die, run it through according to the instructions for embossing.  The additional details will emboss into the already-cut image.)

5. Embossing with Die Cuts

You can do the same basic thing with the actual cutouts.  You&#;ll probably need to cut several duplicates of the same cutout and glue them together, stacked, to create additional thickness.

Then you can place these under your paper in place of the dies in the same stack you&#;d use for embossing with a die.  Just like with the die, the cutout will squish into that embossing mat, leaving an impression in your paper.

6. Letterpress

Letterpress &#; or, technically, mock letterpress &#; is exactly the same thing as the die-cut embossing, except inked.

You add one final layer to your cardstock stack of die cuts, of either vellum or acetate or something else a bit &#;slick&#; like that.  Ink this up before adding your paper and running through to emboss (inked side toward the paper, of course).  You&#;ll end up with an inked impression.

7. Stenciling

Not all dies will work for this, but some dies are designed to enable you to stencil through them to add a bit of detail to your die cuts.  (Some of the Spellbinders dies will specify that they can be used for stenciling.)

In this case, while the die cuts are still in the dies after cutting, stencil through the openings in the back of the dies.

I&#;m personally not really a fan of this technique.  Most dies seem to be a little too &#;bulky&#; to really let the inking tool get through the way you want it.  (And then I don&#;t find them all that easy to clean off.)  But it&#;s possible.

8. Stenciling&#;By Making Stencils

Another option is to create a stencil by die cutting an image.  You might be able to cut some stencil plastic with your dies.  (*The plastic I linked to is reported to work well with digital cutting machines but I haven&#;t tried it yet with my manual machine.  As you can see below, the stencil plastic I already have did not cut with my machine.) Just vellum or cardstock will work fine if you don&#;t need your stencil to last long-term.  Another option would be to cut removable label paper, which would then stick well to your paper to prevent the ink from getting in under the edges.

This can be an especially fun way to use background dies, and/or to coordinate die cuts with the background.

9. Making Stamps

Another way to coordinate your elements is to create your own stamps by die cutting them.  Use thick craft foam, run it through as you normally would to cut cardstock, and be sure to only run it through one direction.  (Because of the way the foam squishes, running it forward then backward may cause it to shift.)  Then tape the cutout foam to a block to stamp.

I didn&#;t get very good ink transfer when I stamped mine.  (My photo also didn&#;t turn out &#; the aforementioned lens issues.)  I think that was probably because I was stamping on my clipboard, and sometimes when I do that I don&#;t get good contact in the center.  However, when I&#;ve worked with craft foam for stamps in the past, I&#;ve also found that stacking a couple of layers can make the stamps work better, so if you&#;re not getting a good impression, you might try cutting a second copy of the image and stacking them.

10. Foil It

Okay, I have to confess I can&#;t actually test this one out for you because I don&#;t own the appropriate machine/attachment.  But a metal die can also be used to apply the heat for heat-foiling.  Spellbinders has a machine/attachment called the Glimmer platform that works in tandem with the Platinum, Platinum 6, or similar machines.

It heats, and special foiling plates are used to transfer designs, in foil, to the desired paper surface.  Metal dies can also be used to transfer designs, although they&#;ll have similar limitations as they do for embossing, etc., where some designs will work better than others because that isn&#;t their intended purpose.  If you use the backs of the dies you&#;ll get thicker foiled lines (or solid areas &#; although watch for &#;dots&#; where the holes are for poking the die cut pieces out).  If you use the cutting edges of the dies you&#;ll get thin lines.

You might be able to use things like sentiment dies that come with shadows (depending on the particulars of the lettering)&#;and foil the sentiment then cut the shadow.  Of course basic shapes and things like that should work, too.  Just take a look at what you have and play around.

11. Combine Techniques

Don&#;t forget that you can combine some of these techniques for even more options.  For instance, you can cut with one die and then emboss that die cut with another.  (In particular, you might want to use a patterned die like a background die to emboss onto a plainer cutout like a basic shape.)

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Do you have any additional techniques to add?  Drop a comment!

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