about the Sizzix crease pad

I've mentioned a couple of times now that my Sizzix crease pad has found new life in my crafting because it will simultaneously cut and emboss my Spellbinders Nestabilities dies. This is so much faster because it takes the process down to one pass through the machine. I use it in place of one of the clear cutting plates, and that's it. No embossing mat, no manipulating the die and die cut. Simple! I love it!

Now, the catch is that this will work in the Big Shot and the Big Kick, but not the Cuttlebug. Yeah I knew this question would come up. Unfortunately, the crease pad, like the clear cutting plates for these machines, is just a tad too wide to fit through the Cuttlebug's opening. Doesn't that just figure? Is there a work-around? Well, not yet. Yes, I'm an optimist.

I experimented a bit last night, and I thought that I'd toss out some info about the crease pad and what I tried. Maybe someone out there will drop a comment or suggestion and we'll be off and running as far as finding an alternative.

Here's my crease pad. It's the blue layer.


As you can see, it's the same thickness as one of the clear cutting plates, the bottom layer.


It's stiff, but flexible. Firm, but with just enough give to it that a scoring bar on a die won't cut through paper or cardstock, but the blades will.


And here you can see that it's just that little bit too wide to fit through the Cuttlebug. You might even be able to appreciate that even though I've used this mat several times already, there aren't any deep cuts in it like you get in the clear cutting plate. The surface is still fairly smooth with just a few little indentations here and there.

So, as far as alternatives, I wasn't coming up with much that I thought could be a reasonable substitute. Nothing had all of those qualities. The closest I could come up with was stiff rubber gasket, and of course I couldn't find the sheet of gasket that I know is around here somewhere.


I did have this circular piece of gasket. It's slightly stiffer than the silicone embossing mats or fun foam. I tried it with a Nestabilities circle die using the A plate, 2 B plates, and the backing from 3 Cuttlebug embossing folder packages. The die shape was embossed, but the die only partially cut through the cardstock and the cut edges weren't nice and clean. I didn't want to add any more shims because this was a very tight fit already. Cross this idea off the list. It's got too much give to it to be a reasonable cutting surface.

So, right now perhaps the only alternative would be to cut one of these crease pads down to size. If I didn't have just the one crease pad I'd have been tempted to try it. I'm not ready to sacrifice this one though. I'm enjoying using it too much. Sorry, Cuttlebug users. You know I love to experiment for you, but I couldn't go that far. :-) I will say that if you use Nestabilities and like to emboss with them, I've seen the crease pad on sale for as little as $4.50 USD. It might be worth adding to an order if you're already placing one at some place like the Sizzix site or Joann's online. Michael's with a coupon might be an alternative, too.

If anyone has any ideas for a possible crease pad substitute for Cuttlebug users, feel free to chime in. It's a fun accessory to have in the arsenal and I really like using it in my Big Shot with these dies.