Hot Knife Tutorial / Die Cutting Stamps

I'd read on Splitcoast about several stampers using a Hot Knife to cut out larger stamps for a die-cut product (and having the ability to use the negative space as an additional stamping option). Since I recently received Big Blossom as a Sell-A-Bration set (by Stampin’ Up!®), I thought I'd create this tutorial. I appreciate those on Splitcoast that put this bug in my head, otherwise I wouldn't have thought of it myself! LOL!

1. Assemble the Hot Knife (I used the creative HotMarks -tm- by Walnut Hollow) to have the knife attachment. I used a pliers to do this - it's super sharp.

2. Preheat the knife for about 4-5 minutes. There will be some smoke the first time you use it. The metal will turn bluish when it's ready. Make sure to use a heat proof table top and I can't say this enough... Be careful. The knife will get to 750F.

3. Carefully cut out around the image. Hold the knife straight up and down. Since the knife is hot, you won't need to "saw" through the rubber, but pull it. You'll know if the blade is hot enough, since this should be like slicing butter. Don't worry about getting through the paper and some of the corners with your first run. You can go back and clean up missed areas once the bulk of cutting is complete.

4. Separate the stamp from it's negative image. It should be a fairly clean cut.

5. All that's left is mounting the images. In this case, I used the same wood block - one stamp on each side.

Let me know if you found this helpful. It was my first try at this, but I can see I'll be doing this again!

Thanks, Lisa