Die Cutting Without Wasting Cardstock

About this project

Cardstock is the running cost of this hobby, and most of it ends up in the bin as offcuts. This tutorial is about layout: how to place dies on a sheet so the gaps between them are usable, how to cut nested dies in one pass, and how to build a small offcut system so the scraps actually get used instead of accumulating. I also cover shimming so you can cut two layers at once, which halves your passes through the machine. None of this is glamorous but it is the tutorial I wish somebody had shown me early on.

What you’ll learn

• Laying dies edge to edge instead of centered
• Cutting two layers in one pass with a shim
• A three-box offcut system that you will actually maintain
• Which offcuts are worth keeping and which are not

Step-by-step instructions

Written out in full so you can follow along without the video, or check a measurement without scrubbing back.

1. Work from one edge Start dies flush against one edge of the sheet and work across. Centring a die on a sheet wastes the border on all four sides.
2. Nest the shapes Curved dies interlock. Rotating alternate shapes 180° often fits a whole extra cut onto the sheet.
3. Shim for two layers A sheet of copy paper between the plates lets most dies cut two layers of cardstock cleanly.
4. Sort offcuts immediately Three boxes: bigger than 3", smaller than 3", and confetti. Sorting later means never.