Review of Spellbinder’s Nestabilities Dies

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This is turning into a bit of a Nestabilities theme week isn’t it. Cool! For anyone who hasn’t heard of Nestabilities dies they are made by an American company called Spellbinders http://www.spellbinders.us The Nestabilities are just one of the awesome ranges of dies that this company make. The idea behind Nestabilities is that the dies are grouped in decending size, so you can use them to cut mat’s for the shapes from alternating colours of cardstock for an interesting look.

 

The dies are sold in plain shapes, Squares, Circles, Rectangle and Ovals and these are available in Large or small. To compliment these basic shapes they also have Scalloped shaped dies, this means that you can use a larger die in the same shape or with a scalloped edge for a more decorative boarder. If you cut two dies at the same time you come up with a frame. This is great for adding dimension to your projects.  There are also some Mega Nestabilities coming out shortly which are in a larger size that will suit scrapbookers too.

 The dies are metal, so as long as you look after them they will last a lifetime. If you go to the Spellbinders own website they have a leaflet available for download which describes how to use their dies with machines other than their own Wizard machine.  I use mine with a Cuttlebug for example. What makes the Spellbinders dies different to other die cutting dies is that they not only cut a shape, but if you change your ‘sandwhich’ filling (this is the arrangement of plates that your die cutting system uses) then you can also emboss the shapes as well. I am using mine to make gift tags this year for Christmas. You can also combine your cut out shapes with other embossing system’s such as the embossing folders that Cuttlebug make in order to add even more dimension and interest to your finished shapes.

These dies are good value for money as they emboss as well as cut and you get sets of 5-7 dies in the Nestabilities packs. The only downside is that they are sooo good you end up Needing LOTS of them.

Links

Prepare to be inspired!

http://www.spellbinders.us/ This is the Spellbinders website.

http://www.heartprints.net/ Go to Sue Nelson’s Card Gallery and there are over 100 inspirational design ideas

http://mandymc-happyaccidents.blogspot.com/ Amanda McIlhatton’s blog has lots of inspiring projects using Nesties too

http://crafterskitchen.blogspot.com/ Jak does the most amazing projects using Nestabilites and many other products too.

 

Best wishes and thanks for reading

 

Billie

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Storing Spellbinders Nestabilities Dies

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I have mentioned previously that I store my brass embossing stencils in Photo Albums. Well this seemed the perfect solution for how to store my growing collection of Nestabilities dies from Spellbinders.

 

Here’s How

• Take a 6 x 4″ photo Album, mark the cover with the description of the contents; in this case Nestabilities
• Take a 6 x 4″ piece of card stock for each of your dies, make a note of the Name and Number of the die you will be storing on that page. This way you can easily keep plain and scallop pairs of dies on opposite pages to each other.

• Apply a strip of low tac tape across the page.
• Attach you Nestie to the tape and slip it into the photo album

• You can clearly see though the plastic to choose your shapes, and the plastic film with prevent the dies scratching each other.
• Store lots of dies in a small amount of space, but also in a convenient way to enable you to search your collection for a particular die.
• You could trim down the original cardboard packaging and store that in the album, if you prefer. Stick the label from the front of the packet onto the cardboard though so it shows which die is being stored.

To Use

Simply slide the whole 6×4″  piece of card stock out of the album whilst the dies are in use and replace it back in the album once you have finished. Use a good weight of card stock to withstand the handling.

 

Links

 

If you haven’t seen these dies before check out this link which will take you to the Spellbinders website.

http://www.spellbinders.us

This storage idea will work for all kinds other flat dies made by Spellbinders, you can also use it for flat brass stencils too. Just make a note of your dies details on your storage page BEFORE you discard the original packaging, just in case you need the details for reference later.

 

Best wishes and thanks for reading

 

Billie

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