Can I live without a die cutter?

I own three electronic cutters & one manual. I own the Cuttlebug. I am buying another BigShot in a couple of months. My old one broke. I fall in the category of power user. I don't feel that way but I have been told I am.

That being said do you need a die cutter? No, you don't. Even though I do enjoy die cutting I am also very happy not die cutting. I am also in the weird camp that I love, love, love fussy cutting. Give me a big stack of magazines & I can happily cut things out all day long with not a thought to my die cutters.

I have been paper piecing cute coloring pages by hand before it was even popular and die cutters were not mainstream. I still paper piece by hand. I love to sketch my own designs. I have been doing shadow layers on stamps before all the stamp die combos came out. I have been stamping since the 1970's when I was a little girl. We didn't have die cutters then.

Don't get pressured into all the pretties in the stamping world. It is just marketing. Your creativity is what makes your cards great not Lawn Fawn. Don't get caught up in the acquisition syndrome. Buy what inspires you. Not things that you have to pay for to live with you.

You said your not good at cutting straight lines or fussy cutting. You still don't need to buy a die cutter. I have a nice circle cutter that cuts nested circles. I cut a lot of circles for some reason. I guess I like them. I am not going to invest in two billion different circle dies. I got my circle cutter for a steal. I have the Stampin Up one. Circles are the one area I get wonky. A circle cutter is a must have tool for me since I use it so often.

Check your library branch they could have die cutters. All you need to do is bring in your paper you need to cut. Your local LSS also might have die cutters both manual and electronic. Purchase some paper from their store, even if it's not what your going to use at the time. You could purchase solid color card stock because most of us all need that. It helps support the store and it's a lot more frugal than purchasing a slew of die cutters and dies. I know some LSS have a "rental" time for die cutters. You pay a small fee and can cut things for that period of time you paid. It helps the LSS keep the costs down for the consumables they have to pay.

The only reason I would recommend somebody would NEED a die cutter is if they had health issues that prevented them from die cutting like being home bound and could not go to their library or LSS. They have debilitating condition where they struggle with cutting materials using scissors.

I also recommend cutters for people who work with metal. I don't think it's a need. My fingers think it's a need. I like to make jewelry and when cutting shapes the die cutters blunt the metal so you don't cut yourself. If I didn't do all sorts of different types of crafting I would never own a die cutter just for paper crafting unless I found it at a garage sale or something.

I guess the third reason I would recommend is if your struggling with your paper crafting trying alternative ways. I love my Cuttlebug but I have been using it trying to cut out a material that the Big Shot handles better. I am actually spending money trying to save money. I am hurting my Cuttlebug in the process too.

If you do want a die cutter don't pay full price for everything. Check Freecycle for listings. My Craig's List is not something I trust in my area but I know people who have had amazing luck using Craig's List.

I never pay more than $10 for a die. I did pay over $10 the other day. It was like 64 cents over, lol. It was a feather that I have been looking for a pattern like that for ages. I am rabid about Ebay & Amazon for finding good die prices. I never buy trendy. My feather die is the old red Sizzix die. I buy for my personality not the new star or the scrapbook trends.

My mantra I live by is "How I can make this before buying?" I always try to recreate the look. A lot of times I like mine better. To be honest most of all the things that the companies are showing you are ideas from others who have created it before. There is one designer right now touting something brand new & unique that my own Mother marketed year before as brand new & unique. To be honest knowing my Mom she got it from somebody in her family that made it in the 1940's. My Mom sold a slew of those things and this lady is too. Her stuff is exactly like my Mom's. I think somebody was digging in her Mom's old craft stash.

I have QuicKutz, a Cricut Expressions and a Silhouette Portrait AND a Cuttlebug. I hate fussy cutting. I bought the CB originally for embossing, but now I have lots of dies (the QK dies work in the Cuttlebug, too). I like that it's quick and easy to use, and the CB doesn't take up a lot of space.

I use mine a lot.


ETA:  I forgot!  I also have a Coluzzle.  I have circle and rectangle dies now, but before I got those I used the Coluzzle if was making a window card. I'm not sure if you can still find these or not.

All you need is a stamp and an Xacto knife. Worked for me for a lot of years before I got my die cutters.
As for straight lines I cut with my knife and a straight edge.
The nice thing about my knife is, the blade is sharp, so I get a clean cut edge. The bad thing about my knife is, the blade is sharp.

Geez, I totally forgot about that! I probably have a pile of those kinds of cutting templates almost a foot high from when I was doing freelance for Accu-Cut. I doubt I'll ever use them again now that I have better tools that do the same thing faster and easier.

joblackford- I bet you are really good at fussy cutting.

I have lupus so I have problems with my hands. I never thought I could be good at fussy cutting. When I was a little girl I would cut out everything. After I got diagnosed with lupus and kind of slowed down on paper crafting. I went to digital. I fell in love with it. I wanted to cut my digital designs and turn them into cards and other things. I bought the Wishblade. It was a gulp purchase.

Then right after I get my Wishblade we had an ice storm that left my home without power for a couple of weeks. I never got to use my new Wishblade. During that time I started fussy cutting things to keep from boredom and stress. My Mom needed some help with projects. She had power in her home, luckily. I found out I was really, really good at fussy cutting.

Listening to the radio and fussy cutting out things during that period I would find myself in a nice peaceful zone. Every day I fussy cut something now. It's my meditation time.

We did get our power back on. I got to play with the Wishblade. Then I felt quite stupid buying it because I let my insecurities buy the tool. Did I mention that my digital work was getting ruined because Wishblade's Print & Cut was hit or miss most of the time. Because of this hit or miss thing frustrating me I ended up studying die cutters and getting pretty deep into the field. All because I couldn't print and cut my digital work.

Moral of this long story is we let our insecurities buy things a lot of times. We see one of our favorite crafter's do incredible techniques with her Copics & Die Cuts we are inspired and a bit intimidated that we go out and buy Copics and die cuts then find out we hate it but try to make it work because we spent so much money on it. When our favorite Copic artist would probably love to be able to watercolor like an expert and she is probably "envious" of one of her followers.

I bet you are really good at fussy cutting. If you try it and just it royally sucks then you can think about a die cutter. Then you will have the new headache of deciding which die cutter and what dies to start with.

When you practice your fussy cutting, try turning the paper you're cutting into the scissors blades instead of turning the blades around the design, if that makes sense. You should end up with much smoother, nicer cut lines doing it that way plus you have a lot more control. HTH!

I love my vagabond but it is an investment ...follow your gut...it seems to me that you aren't really interested in a machine....no worries cuz they aren't necessary!!

I got my Big Shot at least 8 years ago at a 50% sale at Joann's, I think I paid $50 at the time. I am hooked, and I now have quite a stash of dies (I also have the Sidekick too, love that as well).
I bought a Cricut a few years ago with a bunch of gift cards from Walmart, and it's been collecting dust.

The dies I get the most use out of - shapes (squares, circles, etc) as it makes it easy to layer. I also like the matching stamps/die sets. The Tim Holtz line blows me away as well.

You'll just have to see if this is something that would work for you. I think the Sizzix is bigger then the Cricut, so if you were going to purchase one, I would go with the Sizzix.

You need a lot of arm strength to emboss with a rolling pin. You can definitely do it. I have friends that LOVE the rolling pin method. When I tried it I hurt my arm for a week. I admit I don't have a lot of arm strength.

You can also use a pasta machine to emboss. A lot of polymer clay artists are really into this method. They do have pasta machines already in their arsenal. I work with polymer clay but at the time I learned this method I had already bought a Cuttlebug.

I did buy a Sizzix Vintaj last week. I got a really great deal. I am using it for jewelry and fabric work. I had to be so creative making room for the Vintaj in my room. It took up a lot of room. I almost took it back but I do really need it because I don't like to cut metal by hand.

I was never good with the exacto...and other people had such good results... I had such high hopes for the Blade Runner... A total fail!!

I am terrible enabler. Over the years I have had each progressive Cricut machine. Then I bought a Silhouette Cameo and take classes every month. So out of the two I love my Cameo. My husband enables me and I have a cuttlebug, a big shot, and Evolution,a Grand Caliber and an ebosser which I got because it is electric. My favorites of those is the Big shot and the ebosser when I have problems with arthritis. I also have a little tiny one that is called diamond somthing by Crafters Companion that you only use little folders, I don't know how it works but it cuts and embosses with only one little folder and no series of plates to mess with, but again this is for little dies etc. but is so great as it only takes up a tiny space.

All this being said I broke down and bought a Brother CM350h Scan n Cut. I am in love. It will do everything a cameo or cricut will do but I bought it for the scanner and for cutting stamps. I have been stamping and scanning and cutting like crazy. You can take a picture, stamp or color book page or what ever or a design you have made yourself and in a couple of clicks it is scanned and cut out perfectly.You can even resize them. It has 650 designs in it including all the shapes that you can size to what ever you want.
It is an easy machine to use, and since my hands are shakey anymore, it is harder for me to sissor cut. I have tried many craft knives on cutting mats and even glass but I hack everything up. My other reason is most all stamps are coming out now with dies that match them. The die sets are always more expensive than the stamps.. Yes I paid $300 for it but now I will save a ton in not buying the dies that come with stamps and that alone will pay for my machine in no time. If I were to get rid of most everything I would keep my big shot or Ebosser for embossing and keep my Brother scan n cut for all my designing and cutting out stamps. One more thing I might mention. I can not get a straight cut on any of these sliding cutters. I use a guillotine 12 in cutter that we have had for 20 yrs or more and I get a good cut every time.

I'm an enabler. I have 2 cricut machines, and sold one. I also have a cuttlebug that I LOVE. I used to love using my cricut machine but I found it was just too big and such a pain to drag out, cut out the images, pull it off the sticky mat, clean the mats and clean up the aftermath. Plus it was electronic and it made so much noise. And sometimes when I craft, I want to craft, not look at another electronic screen! But I would recommend the cuttlebug because it's small and you can use dies and embossing folders. I use it so much more. I only make cards and yes, buying the dies is a bit addicting. But I find that I use the same dies over and over again. So I would suggest you buy only a couple staple dies and see where it progresses.