I have heard wonderful things about the Vagabond. It is supposed to cut through anything.

I have a Big shot and I love it. I find it perfect for me and it work well with many different dies/embossing folders. I got it on sale for about sixty bucks on Joanne's website. They often run 40 percent of dies and cutting machines.

Happy shopping!

Starrgazer

http://starrgazercreates.blogspot.com/

I've been trying to find the dies by Tim Holtz. What a nightmare! I'm guessing they're too new at Michael's. Oh how I hate Michael's.

I haven't seen any cutting dies but Hobby Lobby carries the embossing dies.

Ok, so here's the deal now. I have found some of the dies I wanted at Michael's after they got a new shipment in. I bought one large die and a texture thingy. I saw a few sizzlits that interested me but couldn't find anyone who knew how to use the machine to find out if I need some sort of adapter like with the Bigz XL dies. After playing with the machine and doing research on YouTube, I'm in love! I think I could have gotten away with spending half as much on the machine by buying the Bigz instead of the Vagabond, but it claims to be more hearty. But I have been compensating by buying all my dies really cheap with various places online.

SO jealous of your purchase! I heard that thing will cut anything! I have gotten great prices on dies at Joannes.com (they go on sale for 40% off quite often) and also on ebay (found a few lots that were awesome). I find that the dies that the stores usually carry are usually a bit to cutesy for my personal taste. I am a Tim Holtz fan all the way, so I am usually looking for his Alterations line of steel rule dies.

I have also fallen in love with embossing. I never knew the cool things you can do with these folders and a die cutting machine, util I found Tim's blog that is....

Happy crafting! I hope your machine helps you to make some lovely logbooks and other goodies!

starrgazer

http://starrgazercreates.blogspot.com/