Metal cutting dies, what materials do you use?

Foam sheets work well, as long as you don't use very intricate dies. They make decent stamps! Just put some double sided sticky tape or adhesive on the back. Glitter paper is usually fine too, but some of the adhesive kinds can be tricky. There's a no-shed glitter plastic sticker sheet that I bought from the dollar store that can be die-cut but needs to be sandwiched between thin cardstock, otherwise it just stretches instead of cuts.

Chipboard *sort of* works with thin metal dies - it'll make a deep score at the least, usually I have to finish it off with a craft knife/utility knife. Again don't use really intricate dies with thick materials. It doesn't end well. I use a press rather than a roller cutter so I can manually feel how much pressure I'm applying, but with the more common rollers (Big Kick, etc.) it's better to use too thin a sandwich at first and work your way up until you find the sweet spot rather than try to cram something too thick in and end up breaking the machine.


Felt and some types of plastic work too, though be prepared to do some final cutting with plastics. They tend to stretch rather than shear.

You can also cut felt (higher quality wool felt cuts well, those cheap felt squares from Michaels/JoAnn/etc not so much just because it doesn't have enough substance and can even pull apart). The one thing I've found that DOESN'T cut well with metal dies is American Crafts POW glitter paper because it has this plastic-y coating that the dies just won't go through. It cuts like a dream in my Cameo, but even with multiple passes, my metal dies don't quite get all of it. All other glitter papers work well, just the POW paper doesn't.

And while you can definitely cut most acetates, I recommend using a protective tissue paper or thin printer paper (on both sides) because it can get scratched/dirty very easily going through the machine.

I know that decorative faux leather is super popular with some crafters and although I haven't tried it, from what I understand, you need steel rule dies to fully cut through it. I've seen videos where people have used wafer thin dies and gotten the impression/partial cuts, then trimmed the rest of it out with their scissors/craft knife. This would work best with simple shapes, not intricate details. (I did a similar technique with a super thick chipboard when I wanted to make my own ribbon "bobbins" out of chipboard, using a simple rectangle die since I don't own any steel rule dies.)

Hey it's all good, confirmation makes it better!

Me neither, but I got a bunch at the local Dollar Store. No idea how it's made, but there's no actual glitter flake, like "glitter" washi tape.

Yep! Love my 'Big Red'. I have a small two-drawer stand next to my table that's about six inches shorter, it sits on that which is the perfect height to be able to work the lever easily while seated. Most of what I do is tiny individual pieces, so Red's faster rather than cranking a whole plate in and out.