Ideas in the photo

-- Use a twist tie to mark the leading edge of your clear packing tape.

-- Use clear packing tape on the smooth, non-cutting, side of your die to keep multiple die parts spaced the way you want them. Very handy when cutting multiple snowflakes or flowers from the same set. You can place and remove them all together and you're less likely to lose one. Remove the tape when you put them away so it doesn't age into a sticky mess.

-- Use wax paper between an intricate die and the paper you're cutting so the paper releases easily.

-- Cut cheap flexible kitchen cutting mats into sizes that fit in your die-cutting machine, and use them to extend the life of your cutting plates. They also make excellent shims.

-- Buy card stock by the ream. Avon Brilliant White is wonderful. If you don't need a whole ream, split it with friends. If you have lots of friends, you can get an even better price by the case. Go to a store that supplies paper and envelopes to businesses like printers. For a set-up charge, like $5 or $8, they'll cut the ream into halves, which, when folded in half, are the exact size for standard 4.25 x 5.5-inch cards. While you're there, get a box of matching envelopes. Compare the cost per card to what they charge for small packages of card and envelopes at the craft stores.

-- When you buy books of 12 x 12 scrapbook paper on sale for half price, as soon as you get them home, tear out one sheet of each design and cut the sheets into 4 x 5.25-inch panels that will fit onto your basic white card with a nice white border around the edges. You can get 6 panels from each sheet. Keep the panels in a box. To make a quick card, choose a panel, add something on top or punch something out and bam, there's your card. The easiest card to make is to punch a heart from the panel, affix the panel, then use pop dots to raise the punched-out heart over the white space.

Here's one my friend Pat made and sent to me as a birthday card. I thought she had found a fabulous new technique for making backgrounds. It's just a piece of scrapbook paper, and she added some die-cut petals and butterfly and stamped happy birthday. Actually she also added a plain panel behind the scrapbook paper panel.

-- A good investment is a Carl paper cutter that locks and holds your stack of paper and has a magnetic bar so you can align multiple stacks quickly to cut the exact size again and again. Cuts about 10 sheets of card stock at once. Saves so much time and trouble.

CREDITS: That fabulous die in the first photo and the Happy Birthday die cut are by Sue Wilson of Creative Expressions.