Well I finally got this little puppy unpacked and while Jackie was over on Saturday decided to play with it.  WOW!!!  What a fun machine! 

The “joy and love” come from the long “peace and joy and love and cheer” that is one of the SU exclusive Sizzix dies.  I just cut it apart to get the joy and love.  I tried it out in a variety of papers before I decided that I wanted some Bravo Burgundy.  The little birdie is one of the small SU exclusive Sizzlit (or however you spell it) dies that come 4 to a pack.  The wings are cut separate from the body and you layer them on (I used glue dots - such handy little buggers!).  The bird (and the paper along the bottom) are from the Bella Rose designer series paper that will be available to everyone starting Monday, August 11th!  The scallop along the bottom edge of the white card was done with the new scallop edge punch.  The wide grosgrain ribbon is the burgundy ribbon and is what inspired me to use this particular color combination.  (Wow...it is almost traditional Christmas colors!) Oh...to make the little eye show up on the bird, I glue a teeny tiny piece of the burgundy paper to the back of the bird and it really helped.

So what do you think?  Pretty cool!  I’m sooooooo excited that SU has made this partnership with Sizzix.  Honestly I have now both the Cricut (my dear, sweet husband got this for me for our Anniversary) and now my Big Shot.  In some ways they do the same thing, but the Big Shot can also emboss!  (I LOVE embossing...think Cuttlebug folders.) On the other hand the Cricut allows you to make different sizes of the same image that is in the cartridge.  I think there was also mention of Sizzix doing more of the embossing folders.  If you pre-ordered a catalog from me, the little 20 year medallion that is on the front cover I made using an embossing/cutting folder from Sizzix/SU.  LOVE IT!!!!

Jackie and I had a fun time playing!  She came over at 10 am and didn’t leave until a little after 6 pm!  WOW!!!  She made 12 cards and let’s just say - I didn’t!!!  Stay tuned this week for the really cool cards I made using my new Inspired by Nature set.  It is one of the sets we got at convention and can you say “AWESOME”!!!

Happy Stampin’!