How to use the Gemini Pop Out Sentiment Word Dies

Hands up, who spends a little bit too long worrying about the exterior of the card and kind of neglecting the interior? We’re guilty too! That’s exactly why we developed the incredible Gemini Pop Out Sentiment Word Dies – to give the insides of our cards a little extra oomph. With these dies, you’re able to create a sentiment that literally pops out of the card when opened up, giving your recipients a little bit of a surprise and a fun element to interact with!

While these dies are absolutely perfect for beginners and experts alike, we all know how daunting it can be when you first get your hands on a new product. That’s why we thought it would be super handy to put together a little how to guide for the Pop Out Sentiment Word Dies! That way, you can get confidently crafting with them in no time at all.

Which sentiments are available?

For the initial launch of these stunning sentiments, we wanted to keep the phrases pretty neutral, so you can find a selection of every day sentiments, including:

Just For You
Happy Birthday
Best Wishes
With Love
Thank You
Special Friend

Each of these sentiments, with the exception of ‘Happy Birthday’, can be used for a variety of occasions and themes. You could use them for anniversaries, graduation cards, Valentine’s cards, thank you cards and so much more! Pair them up with themed papers and embellishments for even more pizzazz!

A handy design

With some dies, it can be difficult to know whether you’ve lined it up in the right place. Sure, the die has been created to help you cut out a gorgeous image, but if you can’t line it up correctly, then it can be a bit of a problem. Fortunately, our incredible designers have come up with a solution for this!

On each of the Pop Out Sentiment Dies, there are two notches on either side which line up perfectly with each other. This is line where the crease of your card needs to be in order for these dies to spring to life, so all you need to do is make sure you get these notches on a pencil line or a fold, and you’ll be good to go!

These dies also feature the ‘shelves’ needed to get that fun pop out effect, so you won’t need to do any extra snipping. Simply cut, bend the shelves and watch as the sentiment jumps out at you.

How do you use the dies?

Now that you’ve had a little look at the sentiments, it’s time to talk about how we put them to good use. Take a little look at this step-by-step guide to see how it’s done.

1. Take your favourite cardstock and cut it to your desired size. A standard card is usually 5″ x 7″, which will fit these dies perfectly.
2. Using a ruler, find the halfway point along the long edge on the card and mark it with a light pencil line.
3. Line up the handy notches on the sentiment die to the light pencil line and low tack tape it into place.
4. Place this on to a die-cutting plate, followed by a plastic shim, a magnetic shim and the final cutting plate, then run this through your die-cutting machine.
5. Remove the cutting plates and the low tack tape from your design, then gently remove the die.
6. Create a score line along the centre of the card where you added your pencil marks. Make sure you only score the plain card and not the area that you’ve die-cut.
7. Gently start to fold your card in along the scoreline, creating creases in the base of your letters as you go and creating creases in the shelves. Work gently to tease the letters into place until you’re able to fully close the card and re-open it with the letters jumping out.
8. Cut another piece of cardstock in a different colour or pattern to the same size. Again, create a fold along the centre line, then adhere your die-cut card piece on top, taking care not to add glue to the die-cut area.

This will give you a basic card design, which you can then embellish to your liking.

If you like more visual instructions, then take a look at the video from Jan Brown below. She uses a slightly more advanced technique, but she still follows the basic instructions and the final result is simply beautiful!

Once you’ve got the hang of the technique, you can play about with colours, patterns and finishes to get even more of a wow factor. Imagine how stunning they’d look with a mirror effect card behind or with clashing colours!

We would love to see your Gemini Sentiment Pop Out Die card creations, so make sure show us by tagging your photos on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #crafterscompanion.