Shape Cutters

I started making home picture mouse pads about 3 years ago. It’s really simple, but I need a way to cut all three materials at once.

It’s foam board, card stock, and thin stencil sheets of plastic. Paper cutters don’t work; scissors don’t work.

Would those new electric cutters work with layers like that?

Please help.

If you’re referring to the Wishblade or Cricut electric cutting systems, no they won’t work.

They both use very small sharp blades to do the cutting. Cutting is driven by a small motor, like in a computer printer. There’s not enough force to push the blade through thick sandwiched materials.

What you need is a manual die cutting machine which applies a lot of pressure and will accept thick sandwiched materials. I think the answer for you is a Wizard Die Cut and Embossing Machine.

The Wizard Die Cut & Embossing Machine accepts sandwiched materials and exerts over 3000 pounds of pressure. It will even flatten bottle caps!

Go to the manufacturer’s web site to view instructional videos and look at some of the projects the Wizard is capable of cutting.

You can also buy the Spellbinders-Style Embossing & Cutting Dies for Wizard Die Cut Machine Square Set, which might do the trick for your mouse pads.

With this set of dies, you can cut squares from three to seven inches.

The Wizard is very flexible and will work with die cutters from other manufacturers. I mention this because, if you need a thicker die to cut your mouse sandwich (ewwww), Ellison Design has a neat set of wavy squares in its Thick Cuts collection. The largest is about 5 ½ by 6 inches.

The Wizard comes with all of the mats and pads needed to use Thick Cuts or any other Manufacturer’s die cuts.

Here is more info on various shape cutter systems.

The Artful Crafter Shape Cutter Store

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