My Favourite Things...Nestabilities

I've been neglectful of my poor blog this past week. Crazy work schedule and teething babies have unfortunately conspired against my creative pursuits...

Anyway - I'm back and I thought it might be fun to feature some of my favourite tools from time-to-time. I'm starting with Nestabilities from Spellbinder and over the next few posts I'll show you ten fun and fabulous things you can do with your Nestabilities.

The first time I saw these fantastic dies I was blown away and knew I had to have them as part of my tool collection. They are a great addition to any paper crafter's tool kit. Why, you might ask?

1. They are very easy to use - they work in almost all die cutting systems. The new packaging even has instructions for using them with different die cutter machines such as Cuttlebug, Revolution and Sizzix.

2. They are very light weight, small and easy to store. I can store between six and twelve of these dies in one CD case. Can you imagine translating that many die shapes into punches? The storage alone would be overwhelming.

3. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes - with usually five to six sizes of each shape in a package. They coordinate with one another so you can make double and triple mats.

4. Not only can you die cut the shape - but you can also emboss it! What versatility.

10 Great Things You Can Do with Your Nestabilities

#1: Make interesting card bases.

You can use your Nestabilities to make great card bases. There are a couple of ways to do this.

You can use a large Nestability die to make a card base. The Megabilities are great for this purpose. Here I'm using the largest of the long rectangle dies.

Die cut you paper, emboss if you desire and then fold your card in half. The card base is about 3 1/8" x 3 1/8" square.

Another way to make a card base with your Nestabilities is to place a pre-scored card over your die with the fold just below one edge of your die. I use removable tape to tape the card in place so it doesn't slip around when you make your Cuttlebug sandwich. Both layers of the folded cardstock should be on top of the die.

Run it through your die cutting machine and you have a great card base with a unique shape. I tend not to emboss these cards as the embossing won't go all the way around the front of the card (because of the gap at the top).

You can make card bases using any of your Nestability dies. Here is one using a large scalloped rectangle die.

And here is another using a large scalloped circle die.

Nestabilities are very easy to store. As mentioned earlier in the post, the majority of mine are stored in CD cases - usually two sets per case. I line the cases with adhesive magnetic paper and then pop the dies inside.

My larger dies (Megabilities) are too large to fit into CD cases so I've covered a hanging board with magnetic sheets and stick them up there. They hang over my craft desk so they are easy to access.

Here are a few simple cards I made using the card bases cut from the my Nestabilities.

Supplies: Cardstock (Bazzil, SU!, Papertrey Ink), Stamps (Technique Tuesday - Decoration an Rejoice sentiment, SU! - snowflakes, Amuse Artstamps - elf and Merry Christmas sentiment), ribbon, Cuttlebug embossing folder, embossing powder, Copic markers, ink (SU!, Adirondak, VersaMark)

Tomorrow I will showcase another fun way to use this great tool!