Die Cut Printing

by PC Smart

sandbox serendipity (my art blog)



Under the heading of "so that's what I can do with all those die cuts".... this printing technique uses repositional adhesive and die cuts to create a positive/negative image within another image. (or you can simply use it to print over your die cuts.)
I published this awhile back in a scrap mag and also did a project for a Craft Lab taping. It is so simple....just adhere the die cuts or letters to the unprinted sheet (photo paper, cardstock, transparency, etc). Make sure all the edges of the die cuts are adhered properly or they may stick to the rollers then insert the sheet into the printer and print as usual. When you remove the die cuts from the sheet, you will be left with a negative image on the sheet and a positive image on the die cut. When this technique is done with transparencies, the negative image will of course be clear. In the example below, I adhered the word "trees" to the photo paper before printing the photo. After I removed the letters, the word remained white and the printed letters had tree images on them. I can use the letters on the same project or another one....







(the example below is from my CraftLab appearance on DIYnetwork)



Materials:
die cut letters/shape
repositionable glue stick
photo paper
ink jet printer

1. Adhere letters/shapes to blank photo paper to spell out a word or create a pattern using the repositionable glue stick (be sure all the edges are adhered securely so you don't get any pieces caught in the printer's feed mechanism).
2. Inserting the paper correctly for your printer, print a photo/image on the photo paper.
3. Wait a few moments after printing for the ink to dry and then remove the die-cut letters or shapes from the photo paper carefully.
4. The areas that were covered with the letters/shapes will remain white, creating a word/pattern on the photo. The shapes themselves will be printed and can be used to create titles/cards/tags.