Beer Tin Die cutting tutorial

Hello everyone... due to popular demand (lol) ive decided to do a beer tin die cut tutorial..

Ive made a few cards recently using sizzix bigz dies cut from beer tin metal and coloured using promarkers... its a lovely medium to work with and the results can be quite stunning

ok first things first.. the tin....  mine are gladly donated from my other half (his one donation to my craft stash hehe) and i use the slightly longer sized beer tins as they fit nicely over the die. you can use soft drinks cans but they tend to be a bit stubby so you might have to jiggle bits around to get all the die bits cut.

Ok how to retrive the metal from the can... I use my xcut sprug scissors as they are quite robust. please dont use your best paper cutting scissors as I wont be held resoponsible for blunting them hehe!

Carefully pierce one of the blades into the tin and carefully cut around both ends.. taks care not to squeeze the can as this can cause dents that are impossible to remove and will ruin your diecut afterwards

when you have removed the ends be very careful as the cut tin can be very ragged and extremely sharp so keep your fingers away from those little offshoots!

now cut from one end up to the middle - then turn the can and cut from the other end up to the middle to meet your other cut.. doing it this way limits danger to cutting yourself

next to get rid of all those nasty burrs that you can cut yourself on - take a guilloteen or sharp scissors and trim all the edges.

you will have nice safe edges now and a nice clean sheet of metal to work with

choose your die (i have only ever used sizzix bigz and tim holz dies which i know WILL cut through the tin. no damage is done to your die.) Now place the sheet so that the printed side is facing upwards before running through your die cutting machine -  this is important!!!

when the sheet is cut with the die - the blades of the die push the edges of the metal backwards slightly giving a bevelled effect. if you do it the wrong way round the bevel is facing the wrong way and it wont look good!!

carefully punch out any excess bits and dispose of all your scrap tin carefully as it will be sharp. keep hold of one bit for colour testing.

I use promarkers for colouring my tin which works great... I would assume any other alcohol based marker would have the same effects. Using a scap piece - try out your pens to find the colour you require.

when colouring be careful to hold your diecut by the edges or keep laid flat because till it has dried you will leave fingerprints as shown on this scrap piece!!

Colour all over your diecut using the large chisel end of your pen.  you will see that the ink has a pooling effect - this can be drawn out by using long sweeps with your pen.

The pooling effect can be used to an advantage to create special effects like marbled or pannel beaten effects.. to create a marbled effect make large circular motions with your pen and colour the diecut in circular clumps... to make a pannel beaten effect just touch the pen onto an already coloured bit and then lift.. you will see a small pool of ink spread out from where your pen has been.. then move to the bit next to it and repeat (as above)

This is my finished diecut... just leave to dry for a short while (you can spead this up with a quick blast from a heat gun) then decorate if required and add to your card.

This is my finished card using this diecut..  and here are some others I have made using the same principles...

thank you for looking x If you have enjoyed my tutorial please leave me a comment as I love to read them and they are much appreciated xx