Work that Big Shot!

So, how many of you have an old fashioned die cut machine collecting dust after getting a Cricut? How many are sick of paying big $$$ for embossing folders? Well hold on to your hats! You can emboss with your old Sizzix/Big Shot etc with a brass stencil or Fiskars Texture plate. Heres How: First I tried a brass stencil. I placed my spacer down, the a cutting plate then 2 sheets of rubber gasket material (plumbing section of the hardware store) then my paper (orange in demo photo) then the stencil and top cutting plate. Crank her through and you get this:

Embossed with a brass stencil + Big Shot

Stack rubber paper and stencil in this order

Then I thought ” Can I emboss with a texture plate or will it crack?” so I chose a lame raindrop plate thinking “if it breaks oh well, I’ll never use it” and it worked! And I made this cute baby shower invite with the embossed paper, It would be easy to make a bunch for a shower! Plus the Fiskars plates are cheap, a 12 texture pack for around $10, they have them at Oriental trading and I’ve even seen them at WalMart. It’s done the same way as the stencil method but if you are using the Big Shot you need to eliminate one spacer.

Embossed with Big Shot and Fiskars Texture plate

Texture plate embossing method