Does anyone have experience with JEM cutters? I bought the butterfly ones not realizing how difficult they are to use. Can you use fondant? I have been trying to use them with fondant but am having a difficult time. I don't have the roller pad because I don't think I need it. Maybe I'm wrong? I want to make them to put on my nieces birthday cake at the end of the month so any help in using these would be greatly appreciated!!! Thanks in advance!

That's funny I bought the butterfly ones your probably talking about a few months back and just used them yesterday for the first time and what a pain in the a$$ they are! Didn't work at all like I thought they would. I gave up after several attempts and just used them to imprint the design and then used my knife to cut the butterfly out...didn't bother attempting to remove all the little details as it is only for my 3 yr olds class. I would be interested to know if there is a trick to it. I rolled the fondant really thin and that was no help

I would use them like tappits. Use gumpaste, roll it really thin and tap them out on the work surface. I would assume that gumpaste would work, in the UK we have something called flower paste which is firmer than gumpaste but works a treat.

I've never used the JEM cutters but I bought these butterfly cutters here at Michael's. I found them in the clay aisle. They are really easy to use.

https://www.lisapavelka.com/Buy-Embossing-Cutters.asp?ProductID=143

Mickeebabe, I have those also and they are definately easy to use! The JEM ones are just alot prettier (if they come out like they should!). I have tappits also and I have my battles with that too!

I just found a youtube video that helps. Its not in English, but its nice to see that they really do work. I will have to give it a try this week!

Thank you for the link IHeartCupcakes! I have these cutters too, but had given up on them - I'll give it another go now - not quite as quick and easy as the manufacturer would have us believe

The patchwork cutters I have are very similar to the JEM cutters. This is a video that is in english that might be of some help.

I am so glad to read about these cutters.  I just received the heart and butterfly cutters and my first few tries were not working out at all.  After looking at the you tube video, i noticed that the person wants the paste to be dry.  So i added tylose to 50/50 gumpaste-fondant and used a lot of cornstarch.  The dryer my paste was getting the better.

Here is a picture

I have also applied what i have learned from this to other cutters.  In my experience, it seems that the smaller the details the thinner and dryer the paste should be.

Just recently i came upon a Hem Petal Paste recipe that follows;

1 egg white

1 cup of icing sugar

11g of Jem Petal Powder  ( i did not have any so i used Tylose)

I tried this paste with both the heart and butterfly cutters and it worked great.  It needs to be rolled out very thin though.  I cut out all the heart shapes then went back to the first one (that dried a little) and it was quite easy to take out of the mold using a toothpick.  This paste has elasticity and this makes it much easier to work with.  I also used icing sugar in the molds.

I use these and LOVE them. Roll 50/50 gumpaste fondant mix (I use homemade) and cutter the butterfly by swirling the whole "dough" piece around. NOT a drop and cut, but a drop, cut and swirl (to grind it off from the back). Remove excess, and then put it back down on the board and "mash" to imprint pattern. Pick it up, plunge again to drop it into your hands to set to dry....  

There is a "learning curve" with these crazy things to get the "dough" just right. Thick and moist enough to imprint well, and thin and dry enough to pop out. With the JEMs, I think it is a little moister dough than what I use when using the tappits.

Yup- both of them made me crazy before I was able to figure it out....

I've only used gum paste for my JEM cutters?  Do you have the roller pad that goes with them?  There is Utube demo by Alan Tetreault on the Gerbera Daisy but the technique is the same for all the JEM cutters - I found it most helpful.  I can't get the link to copy/paste but you can search for pretty easy.  Hope this helps.