Dies

Metal cutting dies are metal shapes that can be used in combination with a die-cutting machine to make cuts or indentations in paper or other materials.

Types of dies

• coordinating or matching dies are dies that will cut out a stamped image. These dies can't be used by themselves since the shapes won't make much sense.
• standalone dies can be shapes that are an image in itself: balloons, hearts, stars, leaves …
• cover dies, panel dies, cover plate dies … are dies that are the same size (or a few inches or mm less on both sides) as a card front and can be used as a background for your card
• word dies are words you can cut out. Some word dies also have a 'halo' or 'shadow die' which is the same shape as the word, but slightly bigger. This allows you to let the word stand out on, for example, a busy background.
• alphabet or letter dies are sets of the letters of the alphabet and exist in different styles and sizes. Often numbers are available too to match the font.
• layered dies are dies that should be combined, such as flowers that become more detailed if you layer pieces of paper on top of each other, often in darker colors. These dies can also exist as cover dies, where the design becomes more intricate when multiple layers of a similar design are used.
• nesting dies are standalone dies that all have the same shape but in different sizes. These are most often found as rectangles, squares, hearts, stars, balloons …
• interactive dies are dies that can help you make an interactive card with moving parts
• stitched, dotted or debossing dies are dies that will create a stitched effect on the paper, by only partially cutting lines or dots. The stitching in itself does not result in a cut-out shape. The stitched effect is most often found in dashed lines, but can also be designed to create tiny crosses, dots, a double stitched line … Debossing panel/cover dies exist as well, and will result in a background that is created by small dots or dashes without actually cutting out any shape.
• frame dies create one or more frames: a shape with another shape cut out of the middle, resulting in a thin frame.