I love the look of shaped cards but it wasn’t very often that I would try my hand at them as my hand cutting didn’t quite look right, so nine times out of ten I would toss them aside. Now that I have gotten myself some nesties – I no longer have that problem.

I have been having fun making some shaped cards lately so I thought I’d show you the steps I take to make some.

I have one of the old fashion sizzix press die cut machines out here and when I found out that you could use nesties in them I was rapt, as I didn’t really want to get another die cut machine when I had one here.

To cut nesties

You will need to have an adapter plate attached to the press of your sizzix and the standard cutting mat. You will also need a spacer plate (note the plate is a little wider and needs about  a 1/2 cm cut off the edge) and a 6 by 12 piece of card folded three times as a paper shim.

This is the sandwich you will need.

Cutting mat

card/paper to be cut right side up

nestie die – ridges down

spacer plate

paper shim

Slide your sandwich under the press and pull down on the arm. Sometimes you will need to do this twice - sliding your sandwich over slightly for the second pull down as some nesties are bigger than the press area on the sizzix.

To emboss your cut nesties

You will need to remove the spacer plate from the sandwich and replace it with an embossing mat.

This is the sandwich you will need

Cutting mat

Nestie with paper/card still in it ridges up

embossing mat

paper shim

Slide your sandwich under the press and pull down on the arm. Again, you may have to do this twice due to the size of the nestie. When embossing my nesties I turn over the bottom cutting mat to the smooth side as sometimes you will get an impression of the cuts on the mat.

Now that I have given you a quick run down on how I use my nesties in my sizzix here is how I do my shaped cards that have all edges shaped. In the pictures here I used the big die from the Classic Square large set, the big die from the Classic Scalloped Squares large set and the big die from Labels #9.

Score and fold cardstock slightly bigger than your nestie then lay the nestie over the cardstock with it slightly over the folded edge.

You now have the card base. Next cut out the scallop in matching cardstock. This can now be embellished and attached to the card base.

If you want to have only three edges shaped then you would use a  shape die in step one.

Now that you have your cards cut here comes the fun part. Turning them into mini works of art.

For this one I used the big dies from the Classic Circles large and Classic Scallop circles large sets and cut an extra circle to use on the front.

If you are chasing a spacer plate or an embossing mat Philippa may be able to get some in for you. I hope that I have inspired you to make some shaped cards. If so I would love to see them.