Die Talk and other things

Hi Everyone
Another very snowy day here. We have spent most of the morning shovelling to get Richard off to work. One school closed, the other open so am on 'tender hooks' wondering if we can expect another closure. It's been snowing all morning- lightly but persistently. I'm OK indoors - so no complaints.


Work has not been great, I've done a little painting and will get going this afternoon.



The insects are underway with their colours and the painting has some extra colour too.
Here are a couple of photos showing the colours and my progress - much more to go !








The Die Talk today is about different types/brands of dies. I've already mentioned the need for different size machines to cope with thin or thick Sizzix dies. However, if you wanted simply to have one machine, the Big Shot is the one for me. It can cope with all the different thickness and brands of dies I have tried. More about that in a later episode.
For this episode,I thought it would be useful to show a range of dies from my collection Most of which can be used with the smaller Side Kick, Sizzix machine.



The first picture shows a couple of dies Ive already talked about ( go back a few blogs for details). Most dies on the board are Sizzix brand along with a few Quickcutz and a couple of Provo Craft. I've also included something called a Sizzix Adapter, this allows very thins dies to be used in the standard Side Kick machine.



Yesterday, I highlighted the Quickcutz cutter which is designed for the very thin dies. With the addition of the little black piece of plastic, I can effectively use the thin dies in my Sidekick. As you see in the photo, just place the thin die on the adapter and sandwich as usual (in order to cut). I've particularly chosen this die as it shows a 2 piece die rather than the single shape. Many of my Quickcutz dies are at least 2 pieces and some more.


The 'frame' die is an interesting one - you can use it to show something like words or numbers or anything else through the frame shape - this means it can be positioned inside the die. It's often useful for little embellishments eg for cards or labels etc. There are different kinds of frame dies. I will go into more of the options in a later episode.



The next die is another useful one. It's lots of 'off' squares cut inside each other. They can look great linked or used as single frames. This one struggles in a Sidekick as its a bit wide. I would use it with the BigShot.



The small die, is another Provo Craft die. Very useful for small embellishments. I love the paisley shapes and often weave the shapes into my paintings.



The last 2 dies are Sizzix and I'm showing them because they show a sample variety of thin dies. There are thousands of dies available. Some are retired and can be bought second hand and many more are being designed by an ever increasing brand list all the time.




The green die is an example of an alphabet and the red is a buttons die.



The alphabet letters are quite small and give upper and lower case. This alphabet is called The Ginchiest. It's highly stylised but I do use it often. There are 12 dies in this alphabet collection. Note the comparison with the single long die holding an alphabet collection.
The buttons is another well used die from my collection. I've cut lots of fabric with this one. Felt is OK too. I tend the put a layer of thin paper next to the cutting edge if I'm cutting fabric. It needs to be said that some fabrics do not work at all, you would just need to give it a go on a sample.



The pirate die is simply that, ie a picture of a pirate. Its very thin so needs the adapter.






This die is great for kids stuff. Each element of the die can be separated effectively so the bones and the hat part can be cut in different papers or colours to make the finished die cut really special.

I will be showing how I use some of the dies in future episodes.I have quite a few dies so there are many months of material available !!!! Please ask any questions along the way.

That's it for today.
Bye.