How to create bands with the Gemini Christmas Wrap Dies

The thing with the Gemini Christmas Wrap Dies is that they produce some beautiful effects and unrivaled precision, but they can appear a little bit intimidating at first. At a glance, it can feel like there are a lot of factors to consider when creating the beautiful wrap band, but we promise, the steps are reasonably simple to follow!

We thought we’d put together this handy guide for those of you that have taken one look at the Wrap Dies and thought “they’re way too complicated for me.” We’re here to show you that anyone can do it!

If you haven’t been introduced to the Christmas Wrap Dies yet, they have been designed to help you create a beautiful band to interlock and surround your papercraft projects, including cards and gift boxes.

Each side of the two dies in the sets features half of a Christmas motif, such as a snowflake, a snowman family or a Christmas tree. When the two edges of the wrap band meet, a full image is formed, so with the addition of the decorative band, you’ll be able to add the most eye-catching details to your projects.

How do you use them?

1. Select your favourite Christmas Wrap Die and an A6 card base (A2 for US crafters).
2. Take a separate piece of card in any colour, design or finish or your choice, and cut a 257mm x 44mm strip (263mm x 44mm for US).
3. Lay the strip on to your cutting plate and place each end of the Wrap Dies on opposite ends. Make sure that you get as close to the edge as possible and Low Tack Tape the dies in place.
4. Add the plastic shim, then magnetic shim and final cutting plate on top, and run the sandwich through your die-cutting machine.
5. Remove the top plates and the Low Tack Tape from your strip to remove the dies. You’ll see that the beautiful design has been cut out on each end, but the band is still too thick.
6. Take a metal edge ruler and line it up against the two ends of the connecting pieces, and using a craft knife, cut across to create a thinner band.
7. Now that you’ve got the straight wrap band, slot the two connecting ends together and fold the two edges evenly.

This will give you the completed wrap band to fit around an A6 or A2 card! If you need a bit more of a visual representation, take a look at this video from Debby Robinson.

Once you’ve got the hang of it, we’ve also got a great video from Debby about how to extend the length of the wrap band to allow it to fit to other projects, which you can watch here.

Take a look at all of these gorgeous Christmas projects and get your creative juices going!

We hope that this handy guide has helped you with understanding how to use the Gemini Christmas Wrap Dies! We’d love to see what you’ve been creating with yours, so please tag us in photos of your creations on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #crafterscompanion.