I’ve got some exciting news to share today! A number of weeks ago, I got an email from Tammy Tutterow, Design Team and Community Coordinator at Sizzix, asking if I would like to be a member of their first ever Design Team! I was quite honored to be asked as I am joining a group of ladies of great talent and creativity. Most of them work mainly with paper and are avid die cutters. I am a bit of a die cutting newbie so Tammy is taking a big gamble on me! I hope that you will learn along with me how we can use Sizzix dies in our sewing projects. Each month I will be sharing two brand new tutorials with you: one here on my blog and one on the Sizzix blog.

I’ll be using a Big Shot die cutter to complete my projects.

I decided to begin with the three quilting dies that I thought were staples of a good quilting die collection: the 2 1/2″ strip cutter, the 2 1/2″ square and the 2″ finished HST. More about that later! Today I am sharing just a little extra. It’s not going to count as a tutorial because I classify it as more of an “idea.” It’s the simplest little project but it makes me insanely happy.

I just love this die by Tim Holtz. It’s a Bigz Die called Sewing Room. I bought a large piece of chipboard in the mat section of the craft store and the Big Shot cut through it so easily!

While I like the dress form and button shape, the thread spool got me to thinking. I am guessing that I am not the only one who has embroidery floss that quickly goes from nice and neat in the packaging to a tangled mess, right? I know that they sell little cards to wrap them on but I thought it would be so cute to wrap my floss on little chipboard spools!

First I cut out a pile of spools. I marked them along the upper edge with the color number of the floss (a good reference so you know what to tell you husband when you send him to JoAnns to pick up more green, for example!).

Then I cut a little slit along the diagonal at the bottom of the spool to secure the tail of my floss. Then I started winding!

Aren’t they cute?

And the cuteness grows when you get a pile of them. Check out the Sizzix Design Team page and click the links to meet the other designers. Read the announcement on the Sizzix blog too. There might just be a BIG giveaway going on there! Hint, hint!