What happens when two amazing companies join forces and resources? You get an awesome product, of course! Enter in Hero Arts and Sizzix Stamp and Die Cuts! Hero Arts is one of the leading manufacturers of quality and trend-setting stamps while Sizzix is one of the most well-known names in the crafting industry and leader of die-cutting machines and dies.
According to the website:Â “Create the most exact cuts around your cling stamp images. Introducing wafer-thin and chemically etched Framelits Dies from Sizzix with their own matching cling stamp set from Hero Arts. With this unique product pairing, you cut exactly what you see with nothing to obscure perfect registration.”
Each set of Stamp & Die Cuts includes multiple high-quality Hero Arts cling rubber stamps and Sizzix framelits metal cutting dies. Fellow Craft Test Dummy Jen C., plays with and describes framelits here. The framelits, which are wafer thin metal dies, are specifically made to perfectly cut outside of your stamped design creating custom embellishments! I know when I first started crafting and card making I would painstakingly cut around stamped images with an X-acto knife.  This product takes all of that work out for you! Let’s take a look at everything before we get playing!
The stamps are very high quality and nothing short of what I would expect from Hero Arts. They are nice and thick cling mounted rubber with the designs printed on the backside of them so you know where you’re stamping what you’re stamping!
The dies as I said before are wafer thin. And if you look closely at them you can see a small ridge on the innermost portion of the die. This itsy bitsy little ridge is what actually cuts your paper giving you a spot-on acuracy.
Let’s test these babies out! I stamped out my image; nice and clean! And then I lined up my die directly over the image. Make sure you’re “ridge side down.” Roll it through your manual die-cutter (I used my Vagabond) and voila! Perfecto! I also love that these stamps are coordinating and layerable! SOOOO COOL!
Now I found that the framelit can get a little wibbly-wobbly over your paper, especially when trying to move and transfer to your machine. What I found works well was to position my paper on top of my acrylic cutting pad. Then using a small piece of floral tape (it’s less sticky than masking tape) on one side of the framelit, I position it over my image and when I’m happy I stick it down. At this point my paper still has a little wiggle room and I can get it just right. I then gently tape down the other side of the framelit and it’s now ready to run through my die cutter. If using this tip also make sure your stamped image is dry.
After a little bit of playing, you will become a pro at stamping and die-cutting with these! These are the perfect size for cards, tags and smaller embellishments for scrapbook pages.
Here’s a snappy tag I made. Who doesn’t love chairs and chandeliers these days?
Of course you can use the stamps without die-cuts and vice versa. With this card I used the framelit as a “frame” on the front of this card and put the flower on the inside! These are so versatile!
Subway Art seems to be everywhere these days and I love using these as embellishments. Here I stamped my image first on the paper and then used a die-cut of the same image over it and some foam tape to give a slight shadow effect.
Hero Arts & Sizzix Stamp & Die-Cut sets were an absolute joy to play with. They can be found at many online retailers and some of the “big box” stores in your local area. At approximately $24.99 a set, I think this is an absolute screamin’ deal. I would think that either of these products sold individually would go for that price. You get multiple stamps and metal die-cuts that you can use together or separately. And you can’t beat the quality and dependability of Sizzix and Hero Arts products.
Excuse while I get back to playing with these… while I’m gone, tell me what you would make!
Disclosure: sample provided for review
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Sara- thanks for an insightful review. I love your framed art piece- it’s SO on-trend! Where did you get the words/subway art? Do you have a tutorial or download available?
Thanks, Jenny! I have heard of a website called wordle that makes word clouds, but I could not get it to work for me. I created my word art in Photoshop just using some of my favorite fonts. I could definitely do a tutorial if you would like. 🙂
It’s SOOO pretty- Sara- I think folks would love to download it or know how to do it! : )
Very cool!
Love the idea of the cut-out die and stamp set. I have a PapertreyInk set that does not have the cut-out, and it’s quite a challenge to position. I use my Stampamajig. Do you have any other suggestions?