The Sizzix Big Shot is a Scrapbooking Die Cutting Machine Built Tough

The hobby or craft known as Scrapbooking, is a process of gathering all of your memories, whether that be photographs, memorabilia and stories and presenting them on a page in an album, for others to see and for you to remember events of the past. Some would say that the art of scrapbooking is very therapeutic. What once use to be simple pages, have know turned into artwork, with scrapbookers putting more and more effort into creating a wonderful page.

Embellishments are one of the best ways to jazz up any scrapbook page. Embellishments can be 3 dimensional, or just fancy titles and die cut images added to a page. Since the introduction of the die cutting machine for scrapbookers, no longer do scrapbookers need to use stickers and one of expensive die cuts for titles and images. They can now cut letters and images over and over again and create a whole new dimension to their pages.

In todays market, there currently exists two main types of scrapbooking die cutting machines. Firstly there is the computerized or electronic die cutter, which is relatively new. Provo Craft has a range called the Cricut and others include the Pazzles Die Cutting machine, the Xyron Wishblade and the Making Memories Slice. Secondly and what we will be discussing today, are the manual die cut machines such as the wonderful Big Shot or BigKick by Sizzix, as well as other brands like the Cuttlebug by Provo Craft or Wizard by Spellbinder.

The advantages of a manual die cutting machine, is that they are no where near the price of electronic die cutters, they are also more portable and more robust. Their biggest advantage though is the types of materials they will cut. They can cut much thicker materials compared to electronic cutters, like fabric, think sheet metal, cork etc, which is only a dream for owners of an electronic cutter.

However with all machines, none is perfect and the manual machine has two disadvantages that need to be considered. Since they are manual, they obviously come with the need to be supervised while cutting, unlike most electronic die cutters which can be set to cut without you being there. Also an electronic machine can cut die shapes in different sizes, where as a manual machine is limited to cutting the die as it is.

So as great as an electronic die cutting machine may sound with its benefits, the manual machine also has a definite place in the market for scrapbookers who want to make die cuts from thicker types of materials and not just be limited to paper and cardstock. The leader in the market currently for such manual machines would have to be the BigShot or Big Kick by Sizzix. These machines have come a long way since Sizzix made one of the first die cutters for scrapbookers, the Original Sizzix Machine

Sizzixs BigShot or BigKick (essential the same machine, but with different colours) works with a platform, where you lay your material, along with the die and apply pressure so that the die cuts into the material. The platform on the BigShot along with some of the adaptors available, can now cut any other brand of die cut on the market including Sizzlits and the whole existing range of Sizzix dies in all sizes.

The BigKick and Big Shot die cutters also have a larger base than the original machine. This means you can put the larger dies in sideways to make cuts quicker. It also fits in larger sheets of paper and basically cut more out at once. A new range of larger dies, which make fantastic backgrounds, has also been created for the machine. Also, if you own a lot of smaller dies, you can now cut out multiple smaller die cuts at once.

However the biggest improvement the Big Shot has over the original machine, is the fantastic rolling mechanism, so you no longer have to press the dies, move it along and press it again to cut a large die. With the roll handle, any large die or series of smaller dies can easily be cut in one action. That now also means no slips with the paper, or having shapes that werent completely cut in one section. The roller has also taken a lot of the manual work out of the old press system, as the roller is much smoother and easier to operate.

As with the old machine, the BigShot and BigKick hold the biggest advantage of being able to cut through so many wonderful types of materials like fabric, felt, thin sheet metal, thick cardstock or even multiple sheets of paper at once. So if you are an artistic scrapbooker, who likes to embellish your pages with textured titles and images, then the tough BigShot by Sizzix will surely meet your demands.

When it comes to Scrapbooking Die Cutting Machines, Jenny James has tried them all from the electronic to the manual. The Sizzix Big Shot Die Cutting Machine was built tough and can be found at die-cutting-machines.com.