Fixing those wood dies

If you haven't heard yet JoAnn's is having a crazy clearance sale on original and Bigz dies. I got 10 on Sunday and they were marked down to $1.99 & $2.99! Of course this was perfect timing to figure out if I can alter these. The results were mixed. It seems all the frame dies the centers came out fairly easily. On the other hand these flower dies were a bit trickier. Still worth the work though (being able to cut piles of book text and sewing pattern tissue is worth it to me! not to mention the chipboard.)

So here's what I discovered. The center holes are impossible to remove LOL! they are small though and easy to cover. :) it was those center flower shapes that needed to go anyway! pulling them out proved futile. I tried for probably 1/2hr before giving up.

I decided I needed to remove the black foam to see what the next option was. I ended up going for a pair of really big wire cutters DH had in the garage. I made cuts every 1/8" around the entire shape. When that was done I used some blunt tipped needlenose pliers and twisted off each little piece until the shape was gone. (you can see in the close up the tiny pieces I removed.) It looks pretty rough but once the foam is back on you won't notice it and it cuts fine. The foam even went back on with no problems. Make sure you don't lose the tiny circles of foam that go in the center holes. These push the paper out of the holes after cutting.

***As always, proceed with caution. The dies are sharp and you can damage your die if you aren't careful. I suggest picking up one of the clearance dies at Joann's and giving it a try before you move on to more expensive dies.




EDITED: to fix the bright, reg, green, yellow, blue dies read HERE