What a glorious day today!  I'm itching to get outside once all my work is done.  I may have to take an extended break because work is never "done", right?  As you will see, there is a lot of Stampin' Up! news to share.  I think I have it all in here, but will be sending out more in depth info during the month too.  Good luck to all of those who have school aged kids and their "new normal" school year.  I know each school, town & state are all doing it differently.  My son, who is in his senior year of college, will be home doing a remote fall semester.  My daughter, who is a senior in high school, will be going in person every other day with remote on the off days.  Both of their senior years are not what we envisioned one year ago.  But, we are very lucky to be healthy and have all of those in our lives healthy too.  I hope you are having the same experience with those in your lives. 

First, I think we need to rename this machine as it is very long.  Any suggestions?  This machine replaces the Big Shot that retired over a year ago.  We have been waiting a long time for this day, but the wait was worth it!  Here are just some of the highlights:

• Durable with high-quality results. The solid steel construction frame and rubber feet that securely grip the work surface produce crisp, clean, precise cutting and beautifully detailed embossing.
• Easy to use. The machine and tools are designed for an intuitive die-cutting and embossing experience. For example, all plates are labeled with a number and are color coded for easy reference and use when building your sandwich. And just like the name suggests, our Magnetic Cutting Plates have fully-magnetic surfaces to make it easy to securely position your dies and keep them in place.
• Simple to store. The platform folds for space-saving storage and  looks pretty too–the sleek, clean design suits any crafting space.
• Portable. You can use at home or on the go with the folding platform and ergonomic carrying handle.  It’s also convenient if you like to attend crops or other crafting get togethers with friends.

I was prepping for my September Club meeting and discovered a good way to conserve the precious glitter paper - no sparkle gone to waste.  I traced the bats dies onto scrap card stock (shown in yellow) and cut out.  Then I traced this template on the back side of the black glitter paper.  Cut each traced piece out to put in your die cutting machine.  The little scraps that are left behind can be used to cut extra smaller bats.    This newly designed glimmer paper is so much easier to work with than prior glimmer papers.  It's much thinner which makes cutting a breeze.  Comes in colors: Rainbow, Black and Balmy Blue.