To Die for Diecutter: The Cuttlebug

I have fallen in love with another crafting tool! Recently I've been toying with the idea of buying a die cutting machine since my production of cards has stepped up a gear. I was was hampered by a non existent budget, but also tempted to splurge money that I don't have on a super posh die cutter that cuts 10 layers of fabric at a time. I had to choose the sensible option and buy a trial run crafty housewife version. After some research online I came up with this, the Cuttlebug, partly it was the super cheesy infomercial that sold it to me, go check it out here.

I wanted to buy it locally so I made a trip to Cork Art Supplies and picked up my wonderous machine, along with some dies. It was hard to gauge what I would need, and I was rather miffed when I discovered I needed to order an extra plate (plate C) to use the dies I had bought. So after a frantic search on ebay, waiting a week very impatiently I was able to use my Cuttlebug.

I wasn't sure if it would cut material or felt, but it was a risk I wanted to take, the infomercial said it would cut fabric paper..whatever that is. The verdict is that it doesn't cut material very well but it can cut two layers of wool felt very easily. With the thicker synthetic felt it can only cut one layer at a time. This is great news for me as I've been ordering my die cut felt flowers for years online, and I always have to wait about 8 weeks for them to arrive. I'm looking forward to getting more dies so I make new flower designs for my brooches.

As you can see here I went crazy cutting all my felt, then I spent a while co-ordinating them into little bags, which I then bring with me to the market. This is so I can get some work done while it's quiet. Or sometimes when I want to chill out and watch a film I bring my box of prepped brooches.

I'm also looking forward to using this machine for card making. Since I've put out my card rail at the stall my sales in handmade cards has hugely increased, so this means I'm making much more of them than I used to. It's an expensive craft though, especially for things like embellishments, so it will be nice to make my own from the large collection of nice paper that I have. Especially as my die collection grows the Cuttlebug will become a much more versatile tool.

In the near future I'm hoping to post a video showing how I use the Cuttlebug in my work.