Trying out the 7 in 1 Snowflake Die Living Creatively with Fibro

The Details

Where did it come from

Papercraft Inspirations Issue 169

When did I get it

8th August 2017

When did I try it

9th August 2017

First quick impression

The die, designed by Jennifer Ellory who I believe design the Fairy Wishes set I looked at last week, features different snowflakes which can be used independently or collectively as a border. Personally, I am most interested in this border because I already have a variety of snowflakes but I don’t have a border like this. As I have come to realise since starting this series of posts I don’t want to jump to any conclusions before having a play though, so let’s do this!

Cutting Out the Whole Die

The first thing I did was to cut it all out. I used some basic white cardstock and cut it with my Gemini machine from Crafter’s Companion. To manage all the little bits I used one of my Cut Tidy folders from Tattered Lace. If you are not familiar with them then it is worth finding out, you can see a really short video on YouTube where someone demonstrates it but basically, you no longer have to spend ages picking all the little pieces out of your die. Whether time is precious or you have limited mobility or let’s face it having a lazy day this is a bit of a Godsend which allows you to carry on with the fun parts so much quicker. You can purchase it at Create and Craft or Amazon links to these are lower in the post. Before using Cut Tidy I used to use the wax paper method but didn’t find that anywhere as easy…

These are the initial snowflakes I cut out:

One of the snowflakes is missing from this design because the pieces were so small they got caught up with all the other small pieces! I, therefore, got out my Spellbinders Sapphire machine and cut a little bit of cardstock just big enough for that snowflake. Here is the result of that:

The Low Tack Tape Method

The only way I could think of getting this out was using the low tack tape method so I tore a piece off and stuck it over the small elements:

However, when I came to move it onto the black cardstock this happened:

A broken Snowflake

<>Failure! Part stayed behind in the cardstock some stayed behind on the cutting platform and the rest did as it was meant to. At this point I admitted defeat, life is too short. Every credit to those who have managed to use this smallest snowflake you have my admiration.

Creating the border

The next thing I looked at was the border. If you check it out with all the parts removed this is what you see:

I think the top snowflake especially doesn’t look quite right, I don’t know about you but I think it looks better with two of the snowflakes put back in it:

The photo is really zoomed in and you can see the imprint left on the card from the cutting plate. In reality, when looking at it with the human eye this isn’t visible.

The Verdict

Other than my failure with the smallest snowflake, I have got several nice snowflakes from this die as well as the border die. If you need a longer strip I am sure it could easily be repeated. Part of my process though is reducing my craft stash and just keeping the items that have a real value in my craft stash. As I am lucky enough to own a scan and cut there are countless snowflake designs available as free SVG files and with special thanks to John at the Gentleman Crafter blog I do feel confident enough to create my own snowflake borders that will be the correct size for my project rather than cutting repeats of the die. So my verdict is to appreciate this die for what it is and to let it go so that someone who does not have a ScanNCut can get a lot more value and enjoyment from it. If you are unfamiliar with the ScanNCut you can find out about it on the Create and Craft website ScanNCut information section.