What's your Spellbinder die set cutting methodology?

First I move my Gemini Jr right next to me…I know I’m going to be settling in for a nice long die cutting session.

Then I pick a color palette. I start with the larger pieces and work my way down. I do the math to figure out how many of each piece I want. Say I need 9 strawberries, three medium white flowers and 7 leaves in two different colors/styles. I then trim my papers and each go thru the machine and I include as many as I can. I know near the end, I’ll have a couple passes with maybe only one of the images.

I have several shallow stackable trays from Target I use to organize my cut pieces.

I keep the leftover scraps until the card is done, in case I need a couple additional pieces.

Some of those Spellbinders set get really detailed but that’s why I like them.  I cut what I need per project. If I have some leftovers I save them in a 4”x6” photo box which I usually forget to check when I start another card.

Ah, thank you for reminding me why I don't care for those kinds of die sets! I am not a planner and I don't have patience for small details most of the time. If I ever have the guts to tackle the fiddliest Christmas tree scene set I have I will come back here for everyone's advice though!

Spellbinders aren’t the only company that makes sets with multiple tiny dies. Queen & Co. sometimes does that, too, and like you, pinklady , I have bought a lot of such sets. I no longer have a Spellbinders sub, but I still manage to buy a lot of these types of die sets.

I cut the dies all apart into individual dies if they are grouped together. When cutting, I group together the dies that I want to cut from the same color. You can group them with removable tape. Scotch removable tape works the best for me. I have used Washi, but Scotch removable is better. I cut only as many as I am going to use right away. The smaller dies, even when grouped, can often just be cut from scraps.

As for the question that MichyM posed, when I have matching stamps and dies, I prefer to cut first, stamp second., especially if I am making multiples of the same card.

When I'm not using white I'll first check my scraps book for any leftover bits of the colour I want, if there's none I'll grab a new sheet. Otherwise it's just a case of puzzling the dies into the piece of paper in the most efficient way possible. It hurts my soul the way I see most demonstrators die cut their cardstock, just plunking one die in the middle of a piece of paper. I even keep any miscuts or scraps to be cut down again with small dies. Only the most useless of skeletal scraps winds up in the recycling bin.

For things where you use a lot / a variable amount in a given project, like leaves, small flowers, banners, etc. I'll just cut as many as I can from whatever paper I'm using, bag em' up and store them in trading card pockets in a binder for later use. Same with any leftover pieces. Sets get tossed into a box in their clear baggie for later colouring if I don't feel like using them right away.

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For stamped die cuts, I stamp first then die cut, since I rarely make this type of element. If you're doing batches, I can see the template method being more efficient.

Good questions. I have another to add to the mix... Once you have cut all those little dies apart, how do you store the dies so they don't get lost?

Sometimes it just seems easier for me to cut out all the pieces in all the colours, then layering the pieces so the needed colour is on top or discarding the pieces I don't need, rather than dealing with each little die each time.

I save some of the acetate bags that so many of our card making supplies are packaged in. I'll put the >little< die pieces into an actetate bag, then into the clear storage envelope (I use Ellen Hutson's). That said, I'd also love to hear what others do.

grammadee, I keep my die sets on magnetic sheets, in the ArtBin die containers. Even if they come off the magnetic sheet, the bin catches them. I haven’t lost a tiny (or any size) die yet. I know some put them on magnetic sheets vertically on the side of a filing cabinet, or on a wall, but the small dies can come off when stored that way. On Facebook, more than one person has been upset over losing dies from a set.

I have a ton of dies that I have collected over the years, so I mark each ArtBin with a sharpie to show what dies are kept in each. It makes finding what I want very quick.

All my die storage is magnetic, I use old day planner 7 ring binders to house my collection. I have made little charms for the zip tab so I know what's in each binder when they're stored on a shelf. This one has sky related dies and objects.


Acetate divider sheets keep dies from rubbing against the facing page's dies.


Bigger dies are kept directly on magnet sheets, really small ones in magnetic 'folders' that go into pockets. Because the planners zipper up, nothing can get lost even if a die comes off the sheet, which I haven't had a problem with anyway.



The 'folders' are just scraps of magnetic sheet stuck to a folded scrap of acetate, sized to an ATC / standard trading card. The four pocket page that holds them is a cut down old 3x3 trading card page that was too worn to use for cards anymore. The folder makes it easy to slip them in and out of a pocket without losing any dies in the process. Also convenient to carry over to the project workspace.


If I have a group of very tiny dies I'll always want to cut together, I'll mount them as a unit either with Scotch or glitter washi tape. Anti-static powder/corn starch takes care of any remaining stick after joining and trimming the tape. They can be stored & used like that too.  Grouping them by colour can help, if you've got part of a set that's always going to be a single colour for those pieces, mount them together and it'll reduce the amount of fiddling and cutting needed. 

Thanks for all the storage suggestions, Ladies!

And thank you pinklady, for reminding me about how much I dislike working with ALL.THOSE.TINY.PIECES. Just saw this Spellbinders' set featured on the SCT blog:



I was ready to hit Add to Cart, when I checked out the panel with the dies:


now I like that the form is outlined that would make placement easier. But I know my track record for actually getting things glued together...