decorative strip dies in Cuttlebug

A couple of days ago, Marie in BC, Canada, wrote to ask me the following:

I was wondering if you've ever used the sizzlit decorative strips in your c'bug? Do you need to run it through with the sizzlit strip plates or can you use double the c'bug plates like for the bigz xl dies?

My first thought was that these strips could be treated like regular Sizzlits, but then the problem of the potential crease from the edge of the plate occurred to me and I thought I'd better actually test one. Here's what I found.


I used the usual sandwich for Sizzlit dies: A plate, B plate, die with cutting side up, cardstock, B plate.


Running the stack through as you normally would, you'd get a crease from the edge of the plate. That's what I figured. Now for me, this crease hit at a spot where it probably wouldn't have mattered much. It caught the very tip of that blade of grass and wouldn't have been too noticeable. You might be able to find a spot on the strip where you could place that edge and it wouldn't matter if it made a crease. But what if you had a long, continuous design where it could make a difference?


Here's what I tried in order to minimize the possibility of creasing the cardstock. I left that trailing edge of the B plates, die and cardstock hanging off the edge of the A plate.


By doing that, I avoided making that crease. No pressure applied to the edge means no creasing. Sorry that the pic isn't focused as well as it could have been. Trust me though. There's no crease.


The next step was to cut out the rest of the design. This means sliding the uncut portion of the die and cardstock between the B plates and running it through again. You still want to avoid putting a crease in your cardstock. Essentially, you repeat what you did before. Here I show putting the front end of the plates through, hanging off the edge of the A plate. All I'd done was slide the die and cardstock forward in between the B plates. This worked. You could also flip this combo around and have this be the trailing edge going through the machine rather than the first part through. It's whatever is easier for you.

So, to use these decorative dies in the Cuttlebug, you'll just have to run your sandwich through the machine twice. You can't double up the B plates like you do with the XL dies because you have the short A plate to contend with, too, but you also don't need to have the long strip plates to use them--you can use the regular B plates. The long plates would make it easier in that you wouldn't have to worry about the potential crease--you'd just run the die through between the plates twice to cut the full length--but you can use what you've got already with your machine to make these work.

Hope that answers your questions, Marie. :-)