Talking Bigz

When we mention the Sizzix brand what springs to mind, The Big Shot machine closely followed by Bigz dies perhaps? 

Sizzix kicked off the die-cutting revolution some 15 years ago and as many of you remember, all the dies were steel rule (deep steel blade). We have come a long way since then but the Bigz dies are still as popular as ever.

I have used this blog to highlight the versatility of Bigz days many times down the years, not just the vast range of materials that they cope with but the amount of different applications they can be used for.

Today I want to share with you a few pieces made with one such Bigz die and old favourite of mine namely Flower Layers & Leaves (657690). This die contains seven separate elements and as well as being incredibly gorgeous it's also very, very versatile.

Cardmaking is as good a place to start as any, not only can cut card up to and including mount board but you can cut multiples in one pass through the Big Shot, up to 100 layers of tissue paper!!!

Die-cutting was developed for the scrapbooking market originally and it's still a must have tool for any serious scrapbooker.

Fashion applications are many and varied. The Big Shot has a growing fanbase all over Europe amongst the textile fraternity. Some people use it for textiles exclusively!

I cut dozens of small flowers from gold lame  (I knew it would come in handy one day!!) and folded each one into quarters before attaching them to this plain white t-shirt in the shape of a heart.

Here I have die-cut the flowers from craft foam backed onto mount board to make our very own disposable stamps.

Alternatively, you could use the negative shapes as stencils as shown below.

The quality of cut that you get using felt is fabulous, here's a little layered embellishment added to a beanie hat which just happens to be the right size for my daughter!

The flowers on this hair band were cut from voile, up to 10 layers at a time. the flowers were folded and stapled before the edge was run over the flame of a candle (this takes a little practise!)

this brooch is die-cut from very thick felt and the edges are finished with blanket stitch which I find very therapeutic!

Shrink plastic is an amazing material for creating jewellery, charms, bespoke buttons etc. I die-cut all the elements before punching a hole in the top of each. After inking and stamping I shrank them to size using a heat tool.

For the 3-D flowers Simply die-cut the large flower in several shades of red/pink felt and cut from the edge to the centre in a spiral before rolling them into shape with my tweezers.

This is a work in progress and I have another half dozen ideas to go but I thought I would share the story so far. Why not take out your Big Shot and stretch your creative muscles too?