Fun with the Fuse Creativity System by Fiskars

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I was lucky enough to get the Fiskars Fuse Creativity System to check it out and do a little test drive. Fuse Creativity System is a die-cut/letterpress system that will let you cut and emboss a wide variety of materials including felt, cork-board, vinyl, wood veneer, card stock, and of course fabric! For those who are adverse to reading long complicated directions it is incredibly easy to use and you can watch a quick video here for more specific details.

Although the Fuse Creativity System can do a lot of fun things on paper and other materials fabric is what I’m interested in. The five techniques that can be used on fabric or other media are the die-cut and letterpress, die-cut and press only, die-cut only, letterpress only, press only. For this demo I’ll be focusing on using fabric. The fabric I used was pleather silk charmuse, quilting cotton, denim, felt, oil cloth, fleece.

The most I did was 8 squares of cotton with a bit of resistance as it went through the roller. After doing almost 50 cuts on fabric the silk had a little issue with sticking to the rubber side of the cutting plate.

I think if I had removed it a more carefully it wouldn’t have been an issue. But just look at it! You could use it to make frilly silk fringe pieces for a blouse detail like below. Click on the photo for an enlarged view.

You can purchase the rubber replacement mat as well. How often you change the mat will depend on what type of materials/media you are cutting as well as how much.

There are two different types of dies , a steel-rule dies cut through thicker materials (fabric, felt, foam, cork, chipboard, magnet, balsa wood, etc.) and photo-etched dies which are more intricate shapes but only cut through paper or vellum. Be sure to check which dies will work for fabric and other types of thicker materials.

Here is the hexagon shape with the honeycomb print. This is on denim with black ink.

Oh all the fun to be had with hexagons! Here is the Sew News hexagon tote bag project.

And, for another idea check out this cute clutch made with hexagons from Sew Sweetness.

Plus Fiskars has more fun ideas and projects that you can do with the Fuse system, be sure to check out their website HERE.

Here is a little pink felt piece that I cut using the Fuse System and the circular die-cut and ink press option.

If you are going to use the ink to create an image on fabric be sure to ink the raised design only. I smudged ink on the flat surface and my bird has a dirty head. You could use this to create cute fabric badges, elbow patches, applique and all kinds of adorable crafty items.

I’m sure you are already thinking about using colored inks too. Purchase a colored ink pad and you’ve expanded the possibilities even further. Yes, Fiskars has colored inks in great colors.

Here are a few other fabric pieces I used in the Fiskars Fuse Creativity System.

Oil cloth

Pleather

Cotton

I made a little sachet and cut out some more birds. You could make cute little ornaments with the hexagon shapes.

Here are a few scalloped circle forms, that I decided would make cute coasters. I put felt on the back side and sandwiched between them a little cotton batting. I found that having the stitch length at about 3-3.5 worked best for going around curves.

The Fuse system also has an expansion pack available which include seasonal designs, floral and fauna and other fun designs. And, another great thing about the Fiskars FUSE Creativity System is that you can use it with other competitors dies by purchasing an adapter kit.

I loved using this system, it was just so easy to roll out perfectly made shapes from fabric. It is a dream with quilting cotton, plus I love what it did with the silk.

The one issue with the Fuse system is it is heavy, especially for my noodle arms. There is a tote bag with wheels that can be purchased from Fiskars for those who plan on taking it back and forth to creative meetups frequently.

For Free Stuff Friday 0ne Hexagons Made Easy by Jen Eskridge will be given to two lucky readers. Answer the question in the comments section below to be entered.