Fussy cutting hints and tips

Hi everyone and I hope you are looking forward to a new week!  Or at least not too depressed that it's four days to the weekend...  Anyhoo, I am here today with some hints and tips on fussy cutting for All That Scraps.  I've get a lot of questions about how I do it so I hope this will go some way to help.  First off, here is my card where I used this technique...

Isn't she beautiful?  This is Drozy's Darlings Letter For You and I also used a sentiment from the AmyR Stamps Sunny Sentiments set. As you can see, I have cut around her and also in between the gap of her leg and wing.  Here are the tools I use...

In order from left to right:

1. Serrated scissors (Tim Holtz)
2. Craft knife (Xcut)
3. rounded sanding tool
4. flat sanding tool (a nail file is just as good)

I don't think I need to tell you how to actually these tools!  But here are a few things I do to get a good result:

• First of all, I always cut around the image, say 2cm all round so that I don't have large pieces of card getting in my way as I cut round.
• Don't try to get a perfect cut out using your scissors the first time you go round.  You can always go back to trim more off but you can't put it back!
• Make sure your craft knife is sharp - you should be able to cut with quite light pressure.  If you find you are having to press down hard to get a cut, they are not sharp enough.
• Don't worry if the edges aren't completely smooth and rounded (especially around those tight corners) - this is where the sanding tools come in.  For the outer side of the cut out image, I use the flat sanding tool to smooth it out.  I use the rounded sanding tool in the inside cuts.

Here's a another look at my card...

That's it!  I hope that was useful.  I hope to do a video some time in the future so you can see the whole process.  If you have any questions, leave a comment to this post and I will get back to you.  I'm off now but I'll see you again for another Make It Monday in the future!