Stretch Your Nesties and Save Your Nest Egg Tutorial

I got SO excited about exploring the possibilities of "two step cutting" with my Nestabilities dies to create new shapes like I did before in this "Faking it"post, so I played around with a few more, here are the results! I hope it gets you thinking outside of the box with dies you already have (or helps you pick which ones you REALLY want to get!) and saves you a few precious crafting dollars! TIP: For all of these, it is extremely important you have your die centered over the cut out so the pieces being cut off are symmetrcial, otherwise your final shape will be wonky, I didn't measure or anything, just look at it before you add your top plate and run it through. :)



While I DO love my scalloped dies, my favorite Nestabilites dies are the more classic, simple geometric shapes, so besides the Labels One Die Set, I haven't yet gotten any of the curvy, more ornate offerings that have come out from Spellbinders recently. Occasionally though I'll probably want something that has a fancier feel, so here's one I made using the Labels One set. Start by cutting one out.

Then turn you die a quarter turn over the die cut and cut again.

Voila! A kind of more angular substitute for the Labels Four die, has a more masculine feel(would make a cool, badge/belt buckle or just a different shaped frame... (be sure to save those curvy corners you have left over for something else!) ;) Below you can see I made a white mat with the smaller die, I'll stamp something on that later! :)

Now, onto the "Octagons"! Sorry, although I've seen some beautiful cards made with the Octagons dies, I personally can't look at octagons and not think "STOP!" (and that's where my creativity stops with this shape LOL! so I haven't bought the octagons either!) But what if I want to make a stop sign?? Well, an 8- sided shape is really a four sided shape cut twice, observe!
Cut your square, then turn a quarter turn and cut again.

...an octagon! (and photo corners, ooh ahh! hee hee!)

Next I thought I'd try cutting out an oval and then seeing what my Labels One die would do when centered over that...

A "softer" version of the first one I showed you today (it's easier to see the difference side by side at the bottom of ths post), not so pointy. It's very close to the original Labels One cut out, but I like just cutting off those rounded corners gives you a slightly different option. These two I meniton both have more of a Labels Two or Labels Three feel.... Certain stamp images and designs really do call for very specific shapes sometimes! (hey look, do you see a pair of lips on either side?! I just noticed that-HA!! I'll be using those!)

This next one using the Stars die set is cool for piecing together a quilt collage, maybe making the head of a prize ribbon, etc. Cut out a star. Now turn the star die so that each point is exactly in between the other points.

While not so curvy, layering several of these together could make a really cool looking flower, similar to the "Dahlia" Die set.

Here they all are:

I hope you liked this! :) I'm off to try to work these "new shapes" into some samples for further inspiration! New stamps are in the house!!! ;)

If you have not read the Alzheimer's post below, please do! The event has't even started yet and they are already halfway to their goal! My hope is at the end of the event we'll find there is going to be a 10, 000 dollar check written for Alzheimer's research!!