Clearly iStamp: Make the most of your Designer Dies

Hi all, its Tuesday once again which also means its Katie here sayin hi. Hope everyone is having a great day. Today, I'm going to spend some time with you talking about the Designer Dies. If you aren't familiar with them, where have you been??? Just kidding... you can see what I'm talking about HERE and HERE.

Now, some of the dies come with clear guides to help you line up your stamped images with your dies and some don't. Today, I'm going to show you how you can create your own guides if the unthinkable happens and you lose your clear guides or how you can get even more from your dies that don't have the clear guides.

So here are a couple of photos of what you would get or what you are already familiar with. This die is from the set Designer Labels and comes with a clear guide.

You would then stamp with the coordinating stamp and place your clear guide over the image, make your marks, and use your die to cut your image. CLICK HERE for more details for this process.

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So in this next ssection, I'm going to show you how you can still have a guide if you misplace or lose the guide that came with your die.

You will need a nicely cut piece of cardstock that is sized larger than your die. I placed the die in the center of this piece. Place on your die cut machine and cut.

Discard the actual die cut, you will want the "negative" portion.

Next, all you need is a hole punch. You will then carefully line up your hole punch to the markings left from the die "handles".

And there you have it, your very own guide.

You will now be able to use this guide to align your stamped image just like you did with the plastic guide using the exact same method.

Replace your paper guide with the metal die and run through your die cut machine.

Now, if you really like the concept of clear, then I've got another option for you. You can use the Clear Cardstock that Lori carries in the store. The die will not cut through the acetate, but it will leave a deep enough impression that it is very easy to cut.

I cut around my shape and the "handles". I then used the hole punch to create holes for my plastic handles.

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Now what about the dies that don't come with clear guides? Well, here you go. I've chosen to use the largest blossom from the newest die release called Blooming Bouquet.

Again, you need a nicely cut piece of cardstock larger than your die. I made 2 marks on my die though so I could orient my die when it came time to cut with it.