manual die cutters - some considerations

When I started out stamping years ago, the notion of using a die cutter to cut shapes, particularly intricate or delicate shapes, was an attractive one.

I started out with the original red Sizzix. It did the job for quite a while and there are a lot of folks out there who are still quite satisfied with that machine. Tinker a bit and you can use many types of dies and embossing folders. You can emboss with brass stencils, too. The drawbacks to this machine are its weight. It's definitely not portable. It takes a pump type action to use it and you have to manually move your platform through the machine. Some people find that difficult. It also has a narrower opening and a narrower platform so some of the bigger dies (and by this I mean big from the standpoint of width; thickness is not an issue) and most texture plates cannot be used with it. They just won't fit through the opening.

As I recall, the Wizard was one of the next machines that became the subject of many discussions. People like the fact that it's metal and durable. Early on there were complaints that it was difficult to crank dies through, but it cut and it embossed beautifully according to the ones who persisted and learned to love it. I don't have one, so I won't comment any further.

My next foray into the world of manual die cutters came when the Big Shot was released. I liked the Sizzix, but I liked the Sidekick even more. The Big Shot seemed like a bigger version of the Sidekick, so I went with it.

The advantages of the Big Shot in its current incarnation:

• crank action - You simply turn a crank to roll your platform through the machine.
• large platform - This allows the machine to accept all of the non-commercial dies out there. You can also cut multiple dies in one pass.
  
• versatility - It is a die cutter--anything from wafer thin dies to thick dies like the Bigz. It embosses. You can use Cuttlebug embossing folders, Sizzix folders, texture plates like the ones by Sizzix or Fiskars, even brass stencils. Yes, you do need other accessories like an embossing mat, but you'd need those with other machines as well. You can also use a wide variety of materials in it. And with the largest opening of the current die cutters, it can accept all cutting plates--it can be trickier to use competitors' dies if you don't have plates that will fit through your machine.
  
• multipurpose platform - This makes life so simple! One platform, hinged, with tabbed "pages" that allow you to change the thickness. The instructions and diagrams are printed right on the platform. You don't need to memorize or pull out a printout of what "sandwich" to use for which dies or folders. It's all right there.
• durability - I've had my Big Shot for a few years now. If you stop by here often, you know that I experiment a lot. LOL! I tend to challenge this machine by running things through it that people don't normally use. It's done great!
  
• stability - The Big Shot does have a bigger footprint. Space isn't so much an issue for me. It's actually better for me to have a machine that I can use almost anywhere, like the floor or on a counter, or on the dining room table. I tend to move around with my crafting. But the bigger footprint keeps the machine from moving as I crank things through it.
• convenience - I store my cutting plates and multipurpose platform on the bed of my Big Shot. Everything is right there where I can find it.
• longevity - So far it has stood the test of time with me and my experimenting!
  

The disadvantages:

• size - Some people want and need a machine that takes up less space.
• not as portable - The Big Shot doesn't fold up. It does have a handle that makes it easier to carry, but it's certainly larger than the Cuttlebug and the Wizard.

Okay, now about the Cuttlebug. Most of the recent buzz had been about the Cuttlebug, at least until Stampin' Up decided to team up with Sizzix to offer the Big Shot and some exclusive dies. I have one of these and have played with it a bit.

Here are what I perceive to be the advantages:

• size - The machine folds up and takes up little space when folded.
• portable - Because of its small size when folded, it's one of the more portable machines. It's not light though. It still has some heft to it. It has a nice carrying handle, too.
  
• crank action - Again, this is a machine that you roll your platform though.
• suction - When you open up the platform of this machine, the base will attach to the surface of your work area via suction to stabilize it.
• versatility - This machine will take all non-commercial dies, thick or thin. It can emboss with folders, brass stencils, and texture plates given the proper accessories. It should be noted that to use some of the Bigz dies, particularly the XL dies, some tinkering will be necessary to get those to work, but they will fit.

Some disadvantages:

• stability - I don't always use a smooth surface when working, so if the base can't stick to something, I have to make sure to stabilize the machine myself as I roll things through. Even if I am using a smooth surface, the suction can sometimes fail and I'm stuck pinning the machine down myself, especially if I'm in the middle of cranking something through. With the Sidekick there was a separate lever to re-do the suction. With the Cuttlebug you'd have to close and reopen the platform--something you might not be able to do if you're in the middle of cranking.
• sandwiches - I suppose if you use the machine often enough you'll eventually learn all of the sandwich combinations for the various dies, folders, and texture plates. I find that I have to refer to a printout, which is okay, but inconvenient.
• storage - The machine doesn't take up much room, but I do have to have a way to keep the A, B, and C plates all together as well as keep them near the machine. Again, this is something that I find to be a disadvantage given the way that I tend to craft here.
• durability - So far so good as far as my experimentation goes, but I do get the impression that this machine isn't as tolerant of my weird combinations. I can't quite bring myself to push things as far with this machine for fear of breaking it. I know this is very subjective.
• no long cutting plates available for use with the XL dies
  

I'm sure that it's clear that I'm a big fan of my Big Shot. It does everything for me. The multipurpose platform is a big plus! The fact that I can use the Sizzix XL dies and the long cutting plates is also a plus. Add in that I can use the crease pad to cut and emboss Nestabilities dies in one pass and that's another advantage.

The Cuttlebug is a good machine, too. For me it comes in second. I don't mind tinkering and looking for ways to make things work in it, but when it comes right down to it, quicker and simpler and more foolproof will generally win out for me and in most cases that will be the Big Shot way of doing things.

At some point I'm hoping to update a couple of the charts that you can find here. That's on my To-Do list. I'll just remind anyone who may not know that they can always be found in my sidebar in the Tutorials for the Big Shot and Cuttlebug menu. I'm talking about the Die Cutter Comparison chart and the chart showing die cutters and their compatibility with various materials.

It seems like there are a lot of questions out there at the moment about these two die cutters, so I just thought I'd put in my 2 cents since I have both. I'd also like to point out a YouTube video made by Spellbinders that shows how their dies can be used in the Cuttlebug, the Quickutz Revolution, the original Sizzix, and the Big Shot/Big Kick machines. It gives you a good look at how these machines work and what's entailed in cutting and embossing with each. You get a look at the multipurpose platform and at the embossing mats. You won't see the crease pad in use--you'll just have to take my word for it that it can be a simpler process than what was shown in the video. Click on the crease pad label at the bottom of this to read more. Maybe this will help some decide which machine will work best for their needs, because that's what it really boils down to.

Milestone and a Recap

This morning I noticed that the counter on this blog ticked over 18000 hits. There have actually been more than that since I didn't have a counter when I started and since I've had to reset it at least once along the way. LOL! But still, it's a milestone of sorts. I also noticed a few old posts that have been racking up some hits lately. These are posts from some time back. It's neat to see that people must be getting something useful out of them. When I get into crafting and come across ideas that seem like they might be helpful, I try to include them here. I thought I'd do a recap of sorts. Yeah, and I also don't have any new cards to post yet today. I could just say, "Hey, be sure to click over on the Mini-Tutorial & Tips menu over on my sidebar," but that'd be too easy. I'll just recap some of the more informative type posts.

So, here goes....

• Using The Font Thing - I love this application for managing my fonts. I have over 1400 of them at last count. Really, I do know that there are a lot of folks out there who have more! TFT saves me a lot of time when I'm searching for a particular look.
• Using the Big Shot to emboss with brass stencils - this goes for the Cuttlebug, too, but I don't know what the specific sandwich combos are since it has the various plates and I just use the multipurpose platform. The principle is the same for both machines, and I showed how to emboss so that the edges of the brass stencil won't show if you don't want them to.
• The Bind It All - I posted quite a bit of info about this when it first came out. There's a post describing how the machine works. There's a chart that summarizes the approximate coil size that would be needed to bind a certain number of pages. There is also a work-around for those small 1/4" coils--this was before Zutter came out with their plastic gizmo, the space bar add on. You know, that thing that you get for free but it costs $2.99. LOL! Just strikes me as funny. I realize that S/H costs money, but really--folks had come up with work-arounds and for cheaper. Crafters are so creative.
  
• Manual die cutters - all sorts of questions came up about these when the Cuttlebug was released. Everyone wanted to know which dies could be used in which machines and with what materials. I tried to summarize the info that I found in various forums and those are in a couple of charts. I tried to include all of the major die cutters and dies, so there's info about which dies you can use whether you have a Sizzix, Cuttlebug, Big Shot, Big Kick, Wizard, Bosskut, Sidekick, Tag-along, Zip 'e mate, or Quickutz. I also tried to include info in another chart about what sorts of materials each type of die could cut, and I included acetate, cardstock, chipboard, cork, fabric, felt, fun foam, foil, HVAC tape, magnet paper, shrink plastic, transparency, vellum, and velveteen paper.
  
• Those Cuttlebug embossing folders and those Nestabilities dies! Both are so much fun! They're great to use as is, but I made a couple of posts about partial Cuttling and partial Nesties, using these folders and dies in slightly different ways. I think that the partial technique is probably something that can be applied to any of the die machines that use a "sandwich". The idea is to take some of the guesswork out of it when you want to emboss or cut only so far. Instead of rolling your sandwich combo in and then backing out, a method that's rather imprecise since you have to guess when you've rolled it far enough, you set it up so that you just roll the combo through and leave the part that you want to leave unembossed outside of the sandwich. Voila! No pressure applied means no embossing.
• Info about the Scor-It - scoring boards have become very popular and it seems like there is an ongoing dialogue about the Scor-It vs the Scor-pal and which is better and so forth. I've had the Scor-It for a couple of years and have been satisfied and not inclined to buy yet another board, so I'm not taking sides on this one. I'd read about people having trouble making accurate scores with the Scor-It though, so I compiled info that I'd found about troubleshooting that particular issue with the Scor-It.
  

I hope this will sort of act as a refresher about some of what can be found here. Also, the labels in my sidebar can be useful for finding relevant posts. Blogger seems to arrange them by frequency first, so the ones referenced most often are at the top, then alphabetical after that.

Using brass stencils in the Big Shot

I've been raving about the Cuttlebug embossing folders and the job that the Big Impressions kit does with texture plates. I also mentioned that the kit lets me use regular brass stencils. Here's how I do that.

First off, I use the multipurpose platform. It's great because it has the instructions printed right on it.


If I run a stencil through my Big Shot according to the instructions, this is the impression that I'll get.


Sometimes having the outline of the stencil around the image is okay. Maybe I'm planning to cut it out, or maybe I wanted a border of sorts. But what about when I don't want that to show--that's when some adjustments need to be made.

I use silicone rubber for making these borderless impressions. Some folks have had luck using mouse pads or fun foam. I like this because it's reliable. This is a tan sheet of silicone rubber that Spellbinders makes for use in the Wizard. It's a big sheet. I cut off a piece just slightly larger than my image and smaller than the size of the stencil.


I then run this through my Big Shot, just like I would if I was using the usual rubber that comes with the kit. Here's how it comes out.


No border. I know that it may be tough to tell, but my cardstock was larger than my stencil, so if there was a border there, you'd see it. Here's a slightly closer view.


The trick is not letting the rubber overlap the edge of the stencil, even when it's being compressed by the machine, so that you don't get that border. By the way, these images were run through using dry cardstock. If you want even more crisp impressions, lightly misting the paper first with water can help. I've also found that many of my stencils are the same size, so I can often use a piece of silicone that I'd cut previously. I'm not having to cut a new piece every time. I just keep everything together with my Big Impressions kit so that it's close at hand.

Die Cutter Recap

It seems like excitement about the Cuttlebug is at a peak! I don't have that machine, but I bought some of the dies and embossing folders when they first came out and I was impressed. I loved a lot of the designs, particularly the A2 size embossing folders. What crisp impressions! They're great! You can use them as is. You can distress them with sand paper or a fine grit sanding block. You can chalk them. Lots of possibilities.

I use the Cuttlebug dies and embossing folders in my Big Shot. They work great and aren't complicated at all to use. I have a multipurpose platform and use them with it the same way that I would use the Sizzix or Ellison embossing folders. The Big Kick is the similar die cut machine that's sold by Sizzix. I think it comes with the multipurpose platform. The multipurpose platform makes life a lot easier! Not only that though, it makes it easy to use all of the following types of dies, both thick and thin:

• Spellbinders Wizard dies
• BossKut dies
• Cuttlebug dies
• Quickutz dies
• Zip-e-mate dies
  
• Sizzix dies
• Ellison dies

Basically, you can use any non-commercial die in this machine. Gotta like that! The thick dies can cut through thicker materials, such as multiple layers of cardstock, chipboard, cork, felt, fun foam, fabric, thin metals.... If the die happens to be one that will also emboss, that works great, too. Now Sizzix, Ellison, and Zip-e-mate have cut 'n' emboss dies that I've used. No problems. Beautiful results in a single pass. Some of the Wizard dies will also emboss. You have to run them through twice though, once to cut and a second time to emboss. These are fabulous!

Now, as for embossing, again you can use all sorts of products in the Big Shot (or Big Kick). Here's a list:

• Cuttlebug embossing folders
• Sizzix Simple Impressions folders
• Ellison Easy Emboss folders and Big Impression texture plates
  
• Quickutz Goosebumpz embossing dies
• Fiskars texture plates--yes, those blue or pink textured plates that were awful to try to use with that little embossing tool
  
• any brass stencil!
  

Again, to make things easy, Ellison released a texture kit to use for embossing with The Big Shot, The Big Impressions Texture Kit. It comes with texture plates (6 designs), a sheet of silicone rubber, and an impression plate. You can emboss cardstock, vellum, lightweight metal, HVAC tape, foil, transparencies.... The list goes on and on. Usually I get a nice impression without much difficulty. One thing to remember is that with cardstock a light misting with water will soften it enough to give a more crisp impression. This can work well both with the texture plates and with brass stencils. Usually the embossing folders have a positive and negative side or image, so those images tend to be crisp already. One more suggestion would be to add a shim if the image still isn't deep enough. Sometimes a sheet of text weight paper is enough. Sometimes you need a sheet or two of cardstock. Just be willing to experiment.

I've tried to make this a little more all-inclusive than my other entries. I know that some of this repeats things I've said from time to time already. I just thought I'd put it all in one spot. I've also tried to update my labels. If you want to see examples of how I've used Cuttlebug folders, you should be able to click on that label and go to that post. Same with some of the other tools that I've mentioned. I'm still fine-tuning though and trying to make things as easy to find as possible. Hopefully I'm getting there. :-)

More about the Big Shot

I think everyone is still looking for that one crafting tool that can do it all, or at least come kinda close. Seems that there are a lot of questions about what the Big Shot can do. I talked about some of this in my last entry. This time I want to talk about using it with regular brass stencils--that is, the ones that don't come from Sizzix or Ellison in their own folders, ready to emboss. When I was using my Sidekick, I found a way to make my regular brass stencils work. I used the cutting plates, some foam rubber, maybe a cardstock shim or two, and the paper that I wanted to emboss on. The principle is the same with the Big Shot. I used the multipurpose platform and some of the supplies from the Big Impressions starter kit. So, starting at the bottom, first lay down the multipurpose platform open to tab 2, then the clear cutting plate, brass stencil, cardstock (navy bazzill in the example below), silicone rubber layer, black plastic impressions pad. Roll this through. This worked great, even considering that I used a fairly heavy cardstock with texture to it. Here's a Christmas card that I made using my embossed design.

embossed Christmas card

I enhanced the embossing a bit using some fine grit sandpaper on the image and then my Stardust pen on the individual ornaments, but I liked the way it turned out. By the way, the silicone pad included with the Ellison Big Impressions kit is similar to the one sold for use in the Wizard. These are both very soft, pliable rubber, which I think is the key to getting good impressions with these machines. And let me just say one more time that the multipurpose platform is super! Not only is it handy, but it has all of the instructions for the layering needed for the various dies and stencils printed right on it. I love it when things make my crafting life easier!