Problem Solved

I've been searching for a solution to a scrapbooking problem for a while now and I finally hit upon a solution that works.

One of my favorte Quickutz dies is the tag set that makes a rimmed circle tag. I used it in my cruise album extensively and I use it on cards with some regularity. I wanted to use it onmy Christmas cards, but this problem prevented me from doing that.

The problem? It's hard--make that almost impossible--to precisely place the die against the paper image to be cut *and* get it into the handle for cutting without it slipping out of place.

As you can see in the photo, I printed out a dingbat onto cardstock and wanted to make it a tag, but getting it properly aligned was a booger.

I contacted Holle who is a designer for Quickutz to see if she knew of a trick. She made some suggestions and even passed my delimma on to her fellow QK designers to see if others could help. (Thanks Holle.) After some consideration of those suggestions, it occurred to me that if I could make the die clear, it wouldn't be a problem. While I think clear dies are a great idea, I'm not sure QK is ready to be that accomodating, so I made my own.

Here are the directions to making precisely-aligned circle rim tags:

Lay the circle tag die on a piece of thin clear plastic (I used a piece of an old craft keeper envelope).

Using a permanent marker (Sharpie), trace the outline of the die (whole thing--square with a tab) onto the piece of clear plastic.

Using scissors, cut along the outline carefully.

Apply Herma Dotto temp adhesive to the foam on the tag die and lay the clear piece on the foam side of the die, making sure that it's perfectly aligned. Trim again if needed.

Put die, with clear plastic attached, in QK handle and press as usual. This will cut the tag shape out of the plastic. You may have to press handle more than once, depending on how thick your plastic is. Remove from handle and discard inner tag shape. Keep the big piece--the square.

Now you are ready to prep the image you want to cut into a tag.

Apply Herma Dotto temp adhesive to the foam again (unless it's still sticky).

Lay clear template over paper image and adjust until you *see* what you want the tag to look like in the cut-out of the clear plastic template.

Now make a sandwich. Hold the piece to be cut against the back of the clear template, align edges of template to the edges of die and press the layers together. The paper image to be cut should now be stuck to the foam.

Set clear template aside.

Insert die into handle and cut as usual.

The clear piece allows for precise alignment. The Herma hold the paper image in place while it's inserted into the handle.

Problem Solved!! :)

Happy Tuesday!!