I love when things are made simple – after all creating is all about enjoying the process instead of finding it stressful. The new Xcut border punches and nesting dies are some of the products I find to make creating so much easier. The designs are beautiful and the products are of such a high quality – going the extra mile. Here are some of my favourite qualities about the new products 

• Have you noticed the little clear plastic flap on the punches to collect all those tiny confetti bits that normally find their way onto your floor 

• The XCut border punch’ guides can be removed so you can punch anywhere the punches are really strong and it doesn’t feel like the handle is going to break off first time around 

• You can punch through paper, thin cardstock, vellum, photos, packaging materials – 

all with great ease 

• The dies have their own little magnetic storage sheet – genius. Because as we all know these little bits tend to disappear at the most inconvenient times 

• The nesting dies will work on most brands of die-cutting machines making them really versatile 

On top of the world card

washi tape come in really handy to adhere two dies together for cutting - not too tacky and easily removable.

Music to my soul card

On this card I used the nesting hexagon dies set to create a layered focal point image for my card. Cutting shapes with these dies makes life a whole lot easier. I first cut the top shape out of white cardstock and then stamped my image onto it using Black Versafine ink and a Gorjuss stamp image. I then combined my Artiste markers with some traditional watercolour paint to colour in my image before layering it onto a larger cut hexagon piece. The border at the bottom was punched using the Lace Trim punch for a beautiful and subtle effect. I added red as my accent colour on the cards making the grey and sage green combo really come to life.

Heart gift bag

I had recently got these cute little gift bags from a local store and the colouring was just perfect to create something using the same colour combinations as the cards I had just completed. I used my Flourish border punch and just punch a random border from a piece of scrap cardstock. I then placed it onto my actual cardstock that I am going to work on and used it as a stencil to ink through. I used a finger dauber and some brown ink to achieve the soft look. This is a fun and easy way of creating your own stencils. Alternatively you can also mist through these stencils using some of your Mister Huey inks.

I used sponge daubers and a scrap paper punched using one of my border punches - then I inked through the punched shape to create a custom inked border

subtle and effective

Xcut Decorative Border Punch - Lace Trim [DXCU257104]
Xcut Border Punch – Flourish [DXCU2571301]
Xcut Dies - Nesting Hexagons (7 Pieces) [DXCU503080]