Diagonal Cuttling

Some time ago I wanted to make a card with a Cuttlebug embossed design that was on a diagonal. Putting the embossing folder through wasn't the problem. My problem was getting the plates to go through--they won't fit diagonally, and no amount of manipulation or partial Cuttling could get it to work. Well, today I was getting ready to use one of the Sizzlit decorative strips, pulled out the clear cutting plates for it, and a lightbulb went on in my mind! This might be a way to make that diagonal Cuttling idea work.

Here's what I pulled out--my Big Shot with the multipurpose platform, the two long clear cutting plates, my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder, and a white A2 size card.


I placed the card inside the folder as I normally would to emboss the front of the card. I tucked the back flap behind the folder, and placed a piece of text weight paper between the back flap and the bottom plate to keep it from getting marked by the edge of the plate.


Using the same principles as with partial Cuttling, I placed the clear plates so that they would sandwich and emboss the Swiss dots diagonally.


I positioned the right edges of both plates directly over the last line of dots that I wanted to emboss, not worrying about the other corner that wasn't covered by the folder. Now there are a couple of things that I want to point out in the above photo. The angle is a little deceiving, but I placed the folder on the platform so that it was completely on top of the platform, no overhang. The trailing end of the clear plates did hang over, but that ended up not being a problem.


I rolled the sandwich through. I held the clear plates together to keep them even with each other--they tended to want to slip. By the time I got to the part of the sandwich where the plates were hanging over the side of the platform, the folder and card were most of the way through, the sandwich fit more loosely, and the clear plates both easily slid sideways over the top of the platform as they passed through the slot.


This is the cardfront with the diagonally Cuttled design. Now it was just a matter of doing a little partial Cuttling to take care of that corner.


And after the partial Cuttling, here is the cardfront showing the corner embossed along with the rest. I'll skip the illustration since I've described partial Cuttling before. Alternatively, you can also just roll that small unembossed corner through at an angle on your platform and roll it back again since that small corner will fit easily into the slot far enough to emboss it, and you're not looking to be very precise--you just want to emboss the dots of that corner.

And here is an example of a finished card with diagonal Cuttling. The die cuts are by Sizzix, the birds and branches decorative Sizzlit strip. The stamped images are by Hero Arts. I embellished with Robin's Nest dew drops and a couple of scored lines that I made using my Scor-It.

Edited to add: I've updated this technique, adding another way to diagonally Cuttle a card front. Click here to read it: diagonal Cuttling update.