What Is It?

Rebecca wanted to know what a Big Shot is.  It is a die cutting machine.  What the heck is a die cutting machine?  I used an industrial die cutting machine when I was a teacher, so I sort of knew how it worked.  If you want to make many exact cuts of something, you can put the paper in the die cutter along with the selected die and pull the lever.  But I had to figure out how to use my Big Shot.  So I went on YouTube yesterday and found a video that was very helpful. At first I tried my Big Shot and couldn't get it to work (I wasn't doing it right).  I was afraid to really crank the lever.  I didn't want to break anything.  After watching the video, I tried again.  I was using very thin dies.

With thin dies, you put the platform in the machine,

 then one of the clear cutting plates,

 then the die with the cutting edge up. then the paper ( usually one sheet),

 then the other cutting plate.

 Turn the crank (it is hard to turn at first).and ta-dah!

You have a cut some fancy shapes out of a piece of paper.

  You can make fancy cards this way.  You can use it to do scrapbooking.

The Stampin' Up catalog has lots of ideas for very nice cards and it also sells thin dies.  I must admit that I have a Cricut machine tucked away in a cabinet but it is a little finicky to use.  It will cut things out but you have to have the shape that you want just like you need the dies for the Big Shot.

I should make some thank you cards.
A