Does anyone own or use a Sizzix machine?

[anorak]

I am thinking of asking for one for my Christmas present. I'd love to hear what people who have used one think of them.

[AuntyQuated]

no, they are very expensive and then you have to buy each die separatly....look on ebay and you can buy the diecuts for a quid for 10 or similar. sometimes you get mixed bunches of diecuts around a theme, eg. baby cards/cards for men.
for the prce of the machine you could buy a hell of a lot of diecuts.

sorry, that probably wasn't what you wanted to hear

[morningmayhem]

I use one at my scrapbooking class and I love it, but I would never buy one as like Auntyquated said it would be too expensive to buy all the dies I would want/need. I think buying the diecuts from ebay is a great idea.

[champs]

haven't got one either anorak, way to expensive for me. I was very tempted until i looked into it and saw how expensive the diecut thingys are. I think I saw one in a magazine about £20 of rrp £40something. If you are going to sell your crafts then it may pay for itself.

[champs]

forgot to add, i would love to try one out tho. they look brill when i saw demo on tv

[Dingle]

Can't you buy the cartridges(!!!don't know what they're called) so that you can do dry embossing too. I thought that looked a good idea. But it still didn't justify paying all that money for the machine!!

[champs]

yes dingle, you can get the embossing ones.

[champs]

would be good to have if you ran a crop or class or something like that as you could make the money back after a few months.

[Dingle]

Shame we're not closer together, we could all rally round and make our own little production line of dies!!!! (and cards!)

[anorak]

Yesterday I looked at some on the internet, clocked the prices and thought, it'll cost me hundreds just to buy a few dies. No.

Then I went to buy a card, tried two shops in my local city centre, can't get anything nice for less than £2.50, even a plain little card is £1.25. I can make a lovely one for under 50p.

I thought, how many cards do I buy and send a year? Probably 150 - 200 at least (if you include Christmas). I also make and sell for craft sales at Christmas, and we are looking to increase the number of sales we do per year. I walked out of the card shop without buying. Even paying £1 for 10 die-cuts seems extortionate to me. If I had the tools I would be making and selling die-cuts and card toppers myself.

The only question is, should I get sizzix or just buy a few hand-held cutting dies? Are they as good as sizzix?

[champs]

there's a hand held machine called quick kutz haven't used it though. I have a magazine that lists some die cutting machines. I will search it out and post about them if you like.

[anorak]

Yes please Champs. Or if you tell me what mag it is I will go and buy a copy.

[champs]

finally found it!! this just proves that i have too many magsLOL
aswell as the sizzix machine there is one by Accucut called the Zip'eMate which comes with a cutting/embossing platform, full cutting mat, embossing mat.
The QuickKutz is handheld and portable but comes with a craddle that makes it a table top machine.

Have you seen the paddle punches by sizzix? they're little hand held paddles that you hammer with the special hammer yo make the punch outs. They come in different shapes.

Looking through my mags (while looking fo the diecut article) I came accross the sizzix sidekick. It is a smaller machine and rrp is £40 but you can get free with a subscription to simply cards and papercraft(£42 fro 13 issues) or..... you can get it at a special price (£29.99) from grimsby craft.

I sound like i swallowed my stack of mags

[Dingle]

Funny enough I was looking through some of my mags today for some xmas inspiration. I saw the sidekick advertised there. I may have to do a bit more investigation!! Might have that on my xmas list rather than the whispers ink pads!!!
DH will think "OMG-not more stuff!!"

[champs]

lol dingle

[Carla]

There was a thread on here a couple of days ago about speaking in tongues. Is that what's happened here?

[anorak]

I have decided to go for it! And I am going to learn to make handmade paper while I'm at it!

[champs]

arrrrrgg!!! i am very jealouslol
please let me know when you get it and how good it is etc. and can you also post some cards you made with it.... please, please, please.
I am sounding quite sad aren't I

[anorak]

Where do you live, champs? If you're near enough you can come round and try it out for yourself.

[OLittleYurtofBethlehem]

Very ignorant question - What is a sizzix and a die cut? I have absolutely no idea

[anorak]

Sizzix is the brand name of a company that makes various paper cutting and embossing machines. Dies are the cutters that you insert into the machine. Using these you can cut shapes perfectly out of paper, card or fabric. If you use scissors it takes longer and rarely comes out perfect, normally you would end up bending the paper whereas die-cuts come out perfectly flat.

[OLittleYurtofBethlehem]

so even a complete clumsy clot like me could achieve excellent results - sounds like a very useful and fun thing to have if you are going to sell lots and lots of cards - I love handmade cards but am too obsessed crafts with thread and material!!!!!!!! Also im rubbish with scissors!

[champs]

anorak--- I am in North London.

hi Olittle, didn't want to seem like i'm ignoring you

[anorak]

Fantastic, champs! I live in a village between Watford & St Albans. So you can easily get to me and spend a couple of hours in my workshop playing with my Sizzix machine! Bring paper! .

Remind me after Christmas and we can arrange something.

[DingleAlltheWay]

Good luck with the sissix anorak! I had a look in one of my little local shops but the range of dies they stocked didn't exactly inspire me. I'll take another look on the net before I decide I think. I have seen a few adverts in magazines and like the look of the Quick kutz(sp?)Haven't seen that in the shops either!
Have you had a go at papermaking before anorak? I'm afraid I'm such a hoarder I have been collecting paperscraps for ages now, but the box in the garage is now full to the brim! I have only done 1 batch and really enjoyed it, got ds to help me and we got in such a mess but had so much fun with it.
I haven't got the "proper" equipment-I just used an old embroidery frame and some netting. I have told myself that I can't justify have more "stuff" around the house unless I really plan to put it to good use.
I want to have a go using plants from my garden, and of course, some glittery ones for xmas!
Cutting the time a bit fine now! I still have all my xmas cards to make, made 20 little felt and lace xmas stockings last night!

[champs]

anorak!! oooo thanks!! can't wait.

Dimgle--- Look\link{http://www.craftsshop.co.uk\here}just click on the sizzix sidekick at the bottom and you'll get to the sizzix page. I am verytoo!!