Cutting out card 'bits'

You might use a square craft punch or, if you are gonna do this a lot, you could buy a custom die for a personal die press. This latter solution may run you $500-$700.

You can get extremely clean edges. When using a knife and straight-edge, the sharpness and width of the blade is extremely important. Here in the US, anyway, Stanley makes more box-cutter type of knives that use an old-fashioned razor blade or similar cutters. A craft X-acto knife is both thinner and sharper.

Because cardboard is really just mashed-up wood, it really wears on the blade, so you must replace it often. I buy X-acto blades in 25- and 100-packs for that very reason -- as soon as the cut stops being super-clean, or more commonly, as soon as I beging to feel more resistance than if I was cutting through a single sheet of paper, it's time to replace the blade. A hassle, sure, but that's how you get clean results.

And as you noted, a metal ruler/straight-edge with a nice rubber or cork backing is ideal. It allows you to press very hard against the straight edge as you press down, making a big difference in the "clean-ness" of the cut.

As far as cutting out hexes is concerned, it's a hassle. Eventually I learned that I simply had to space them on the page so that they don't abutt. That means I end up cutting six times for every hex, but the result is clean, perfect hexes. I could save one cut per two hexes by abutting two together, and might start doing that, but another key to clean cuts is being able to cut prior-to and after the primary cutting area, at least 1/4" on both sides.

When cutting thick cardboard, with a reasonably fresh blade, a nice straight-edge, a cutting mat, and space before and after the cut, I can cut a perfectly clean machine-quality cut with one stroke. With very thick cardboard, it takes two.

Now cutting curves... even with a very sharp knife, they're only so clean. :)

-- Matthew

That Sizzix die cutter sure looks good.

Are there any circle die below 1"? The ones I saw at their site are all from 1 1/8" and up.

Seo

The best defense for edges separating is really good glue. I prefer 3M Super 77 for a serious, heavy-duty long-term bond. It's a spray adhesive, so you just coat the whole back of one of the pieces of paper and adhere it to your chipboard or illustration board or what have you. Seriously permanent hold.

There is a good spray, though, to both protect your artwork (the ink or toner) and the edges, too, if desired. It's called either (depends on what "batch" you buy) Krylon Clear Acrylic or Krylon Crystal Clear. It's a spray acrylic, really just like spray paint without any colorant or opacity. It's good for protecting everything from all kinds of things, including gamer hand sweat, spills, you name it. It alse will help seal the layers together some.

Be careful, though: if you're spraying it on the edges, it's just like spray paint: if some seeps underneath it can adhere to whatever your spraying it on. As such you'd want to spray the pieces and then pick them up and set them someplace drier, even a couple of times if you sprayed way too much.

-- Matthew

I also got a Sizzix for this reason, and my biggest problem with it is this: there's no good way to 'aim' the cut. Matthew actually mentioned once that he'd made a template... I tried to do something similar but with no luck. So cutting circles of solid color is fine, but trying to center the sizzix circle around a bit of artwork is extremely difficult (for me) and my Sizzix has been sitting in a drawer since I bought it.

If someone has a good way to line up the Sizzix dies, please let me know! What I've been doing recently is I got a circle punch (I think it's 3/4", I wanted smaller but they were out of stock) and if I turn it upside down I can actually see what'll get punched so I can line it up. It's something of a pain, but at least I can cut out what I want...

- Seth

I don't try to cut out cardboard hexes; I purchase them online. I print artwork for them and cut that out, turn the artwork hexes into stickers by using a Xyron machine, and affix the artwork to the hexes. The result isn't professional quality, but I am only building prototypes and for prototyping, it's great.

Here's where to buy good-quality blank cardboard hexes:
http://www.muecke-hotelberatung.de/shop/

This is kind of pricey, so I recommend doing this only when you're pretty sure you're finished making changes to the hex parts of your game. I bought a few more hexes than I needed, so I'd have a little elbow room for mistakes and minor tweaks.