Craft Essentials for Beginners!

Calling all beginners looking for craft essentials, if anyone is new to Sizzix and the crafting world I am here to help! I wanted to break down all the essential, super useful items you might need to get started on your crafting journey for your upcoming Halloween, Christmas & Easter crafts!

I am going to be going over mostly paper crafting tips and must haves today but if you are a soft craft lover or have a desire for crepe paper flowers etc. then Sizzix has plenty on offer for those creative avenues too.

Sizzix Die Cutting Machines

To start any Papercrafting/Die Cutting journey, you need a trusty Die Cutting Machine that will do all the hard work for you!

Our Sizzix Big Shot Machine is a fool-proof option that has a solid and stable yet stylish design that can be used to cut our Thinlits and Bigz Die Sets with ease (I will explain Thinlits and Bigz Dies later if you are unsure don't worry!). However if you are a little tight on space, then a Big Shot Foldaway might be more suited to you as this has all the benefits of a Die Cutting Machine but has the added bonus of being able to be folded away to be more compact.

Thinlits & Bigz Die Cutting Sets

If you are just getting started you are probably thinking what in the world are Sizzix Thinlits and Bigz and what is the difference!? Well, both Thinlits and Bigz are used for Die Cutting, along with your machine of choice.

Thinlits are Thin Metal Dies that are usually a lot more intricate than Bigz Dies and can cut materials such as Cardstock, Stencil Film, Crepe paper etc.

On the other hand, Bigz Dies or Steel-rule Dies as they are often referred to as, are much thicker Die Sets that are capable of cutting much thicker materials such as felt, fabric, cardboard, mat board, shrink plastic and multiple layers of cardstock. Bigz Dies tend to be much simpler designs to allow clean cuts with the many different materials.

Craft Making Tools

There are so many Craft Making Tools in the Sizzix range that are essential for beginners! Craft Making Tools will help you with making; from our Craft Glue Gun to our Sizzix Multi-Tool however in my opinion, particularly for paper crafting there are two craft tools that will be life savers when die-cutting and assembling makes...The Sizzix Die Pick and a pair of Fine Tip Tweezers are extremely useful, especially when working with the more intricate Thinlits Die Sets! The Die Pick will help with releasing the card from the die once cut and the Tweezers will help with manoeuvring the small die-cut pieces and arranging them perfectly on your makes. Both the Die Pick and Tweezers are craft essentials for your toolbox!

Craft Making Essentials

Making Essentials is a Sizzix making category that has so many fun products in that you could be constantly expanding your collection, with sequins, glitters, cardstock, Effectz and adhesives and all of those will be personal preference depending on your making style therefore I won't go through every single aspect but just touch on the most important craft essentials - in my opinion!

Cardstock is of course necessary when it comes to die-cutting and Sizzix assorted cardstock packs cover a wide variety of colors that you could want and need and those colors translate across many of our products to create a color story that works perfectly together no matter what material or making coloured making essential you are using. Our cardstock also has a lovely texture to it on one side which creates a professional finish oral die-cuts.

We have several different Cardstock packs from assorted and festive color ways to more specialist cardstocks such as patterned and opulent and all can be used for actual die-cutting or background elements.

Craft Adhesives are also an extremely important making essential for any beginner's Craft Toolbox! There are a few different types of adhesive that can be used for different things when crafting, of course our express glue is an all rounder that can be used for many different aspects when creating projects however I always recommend having other adhesives in your collection also such as foam tape and adhesive sheets that have different uses whether you want to create a raised, 3D element with foam tape or add adhesive sheets onto the back of cardstock before die-cutting to side-stepping the need to use glue (which is big help to avoid creating any mess).

There as so many other Crafting essentials at Sizzix that would be perfect for any beginners to add to their collection however I am not going to go through them all otherwise this blog post would be insanely long and naturally you will quickly see what you want and need in your collection or what you feel is missing as your own making style develops. If you ever need any inspiration myself and all the other designers constantly post blogs, vlogs and lives across all of the Sizzix platforms that you can check out where we showcase new products and how to use them, create fun and exciting makes and hopefully inspiring you guys at home to get crafting!

We hope you enjoyed this blog for crafting beginners! Please share your makes with us using the hashtag #mymakingstory!

Crafted by Sizzix designer Jessica Slack.