quickutz dies - sticky sheet in package?

[Carol W]

I just bought some Quickutz dies for the first time (a 4x8 alphabet, an A1 alphabet, and a 4x8 numbers set). I'm a bit confused by what was in the packages of the 3 dies and hope someone more familiar with them can help.

The A1 alphabet and the 4x8 numbers set both had a sheet in the package that looks like it has adhesive on one side and a slick surface on the other. There were no instructions (and I could find nothing on the Quickutz site, which has been sort of discontinued and links to the Lifestyle Crafts site, as they now own Quickutz). What's even more confusing is that the other 4x8 die had no such sheet in the package.

What do I do with this? And is it an error that there was no sheet in the one package? It does have a copyright date of 2008 on it where the other 2 are from after 2009... maybe the sheet has only been added to later products?:confused:

Thanks for any help I! found other threads on here about the dies but they were all about foam (and these are all fine, foam-wise.).

[gingerd]

I'm not sure I know what you mean, however, the die sets used to come with shims. You would stick a shim on the back of a die to enable the die to cut better. There was also extra foam for the dies too.

HTH!
Ginger

[cbet]

Yep, I'm pretty sure that the clear sticker you're talking about is supposed to be a shim - you stick it on if the die doesn't seem to be cutting all the way thru. It makes it just a tiny bit thicker.

[staceylovespaper]

Is the sheet thicker, like foam? Some of mine had "ejection foam" that you would die cut, then stick inside the letter or number and will remain there so when you cut paper, the paper doesn't get stuck inside the die.

[shazsilverwolf]

I have some of these sets. They come with a sheet of white Ejection Foam, which you peel off individual squares of and stick over the cutting side of the die, i.e. the actual letter shape.It will cover the whole surface, covering up the letter shape,but when you cut with it, it cuts perfectly.



I've scanned in a sheet of the foams and what they look like on the dies to help you see what they will look like.
If they don't look like this, then they are the clear shims, sorry I don't have any of those left I can scan:(
The clear sheet are shims, which you can stick onto the reverse side of the die if it fails to cut very well, which sometimes happens.

Sometimes one edge or corner doesn't cut cleanly. You can also overcome this by turning the die around.Or you can use a thin piece of copy paper as a shim. Are you using the Squeeze tool, or cutting with a 'Bug or other machine?

[Carol W]

Wow, thanks everyone for the replies, and with helpful photos, no less!

To answer some queries: the sheets in question aren't foam. The dies came with foam already fully applied to them. The sheets are literally just like big square stickers.

So this must mean that, as you've described, they are "shim stickers" in case the dies need a little more thickness.

Would you believe, I haven't had a chance to try cutting with them since they arrived last week, so I don't know yet whether they need any shimming. But at least I know now what I'm supposed to do with that sheet in the package, in case it's necessary!

[shazsilverwolf]

You're very welcome, glad the pics were of some help. I think the need for shimming often has more to do with the thickness of what you are cutting- the thicker it is the more likely you will need a shim. But like I said, you can do that just as easily with a little copy paper, or I just thought about the clear self-adhesive stuff you can buy for covering books? that would work too.