Posts Tagged ‘die cuts’

Last week after sharing where I keep my die cuts and how I’ve made them easier to get in and out of their packages, I got this question:

Julie K in Taiwan

More good advice as always. I’d be interested in knowing how you store the cut outs from your die cuts. Do you cut multiple pieces at once? I tend to trade with my friends, but I’m starting to get quite a collection of cut out die cuts and I’m not sure how to efficiently store them. Right now they’re all in a box, along with a bunch of commercial die cut cut outs. Any tips for that?

Should I Pre-cut Multiple Die Pieces

When I was a brand new scrapbooker, my mentor friend brought me to a scrapbook store in Utah and we spent an evening cutting dies from the store’s collection. I was happy to pile up, since there wasn’t very much in the way of scrapbooking in Arizona at the time.

Not long after that I signed up with a die-exchange internet group where we exchanged pre-cut dies with each other.

What did I learn from this experience? I learned not to pre-cut dies.

I never used these cuts. Never!

Okay, wait — I don’t claim to know the answers for everybody. If you already do this and have had great success with it, then keep doing it. I can’t help but believe most of us won’t end up using most of them, though, and would better benefit from scrapbooking a page or editing photos than from punching die cuts we may never find a use for.

That said…

Storing Pre-cut Die Pieces

I do end up with some extras here and there. Sometimes it’s because the die automatically cuts more pieces at once than I actually want to use. Sometimes it’s because I need to demonstrate for a video tutorial. So yes, I do have some extra pieces –

Here’s what I do with them:

I treat my extra die cuts the same way I treat store-bought embellishments.

This is my embellishment box. I have a tin container for random items that don’t fit in with any specific group and that’s where my four pre-cut die leftovers go.

If I had enough to fit within a group, I would group them. So that’s what I would recommend you do if you have a lot. Here are a few possible ways to group:

• By function: borders vs. images vs. letters vs. flourishes
• By image subject: birds vs. butterflies OR winged things vs. hearts

Right now, I have packages of chipboard paisleys, butterflies, flourishes, and acrylic hearts. To me, those are the same things as my die cuts, the only difference being that the store-bought items have packages and my own die cuts do not. So I treat them the same.

Do you do something different? Does it work for you to pre-cut multiple pieces? Please join in the conversation and share what works for you by leaving a comment!

P.S. For the wine lovers who are wondering — No, I’m not a Chianti fan. And don’t give me no Pinot either. I love reds. Just not those reds. :)