I’ve been working on some felt bunny Peeps for some upcoming shows in February and March. These are a lot of fun to make! I especially like adding the little felt flowers and seed beads to dress them up a bit.

While the bunny shapes are cut out with scissors, to decorate the bunnies I started purchasing packages of assorted die cut felt flowers on Etsy. This was working okay, but I was left with a lot of flowers in colors that just weren’t me. So back in December (as a Christmas present to myself) I purchased a die cutting machine, the Sizzix Fabi and it is awesome. It looks like the Fabi might now be discontinued. I guess that is why I was able to get it at much better price than the one listed in the link. But the Sizzix Big Shot is basically the same thing and is more reasonably priced.

Since die cut machines are used mostly by paper artists, I didn’t know much about them. I didn’t realize that I would be able to use dies designed for other platforms and by other manufacturers with my Fabi.. With the Multipurpose Platform (purchased separately), it works perfectly with thin dies without any foam backing. I am loving cutting out my own flowers and shapes in the colors I need.

The biggest drawback of the die cut world for me is that the majority of dies out there don’t appeal to me. A lot of the designs are too cutesy or are too ornate to work well with fabric and felt. But the flowers and basic shapes are great for getting the precision I want on smaller felt pieces. I don’t know about you but I cannot cut a circle from felt with scissors without it always looking a little wonky!

I’ll share some of my favorite dies with you in the coming weeks!