Ellison Die Cut Machine Giveaway!
Hi friends!
Ellison Education gave me a great opportunity to try out their SuperStar die cut machine! I’ll tell you how much fun it was, and I’ll tell you how you can win one for YOUR school library!
Personal Die Cutter
You probably already have a big ole Ellison die cut machine in your teacher workroom, right? It’s a work horse, and everyone on campus uses it. Every day. The machine cuts through multiple layers of paper, cardstock, fabric, or felt, quickly and perfectly. The All-Star SuperStar machine is a personal die cutter that you can keep in your library and use on your library projects!
This award winner is easy to use, sturdy, portable, and lighter than the model in your work room. I’ve only had my die cutter for a few weeks this summer, but I’m already attached to it!
It only took a couple of minutes to assemble out of the box. All I had to do was attach the hand crank. You’ve got a handle on top to hold while you crank the die “sandwich” through the machine. Two acrylic sheets (called cutting pads) go on the top and bottom. You’ve got the die cut (foam side up) and paper (or card stock or fabric or felt) in between the two acrylic cutting pads.
Then you crank the “sandwich” through the SuperStar machine! (At first, I was worried that the design was “etched” into the acrylic cutting pad, but I learned that was normal. Whew!)
Here are the great dies that I’ll use in our school library.
The first two on the left are different bookmark designs. Next are an envelope and gift tags. And on the far right are speech bubbles.
Here’s how I’ll use the Ellison All-Star SuperStar in our elementary school library. I won’t leave it out unsupervised for student use. It would be extremely difficult for a student to touch the sharp parts of this machine, but not impossible. I WILL allow student library leaders to cut out shapes at my check-out desk, while I’m near by.
We’ll stock our library makerspaces with these cut shapes, so students can use markers, stickers, and stamps to decorate their own bookmarks, envelopes and gift tags. They are gonna love these! I can’t wait until our students come back to school and create their own masterpieces!
And the speech bubbles? Those will be a library center to create speech bubbles for books. What would your book say? How would it grab the attention of readers? I can post these speech bubbles on a bulletin board, with dust jackets or printed book covers.
More Ideas
I’d love to read YOUR ideas in the comments. How would YOU use a personal die cut machine in YOUR library?
And check out the Ellison blog for more great ideas and videos.
Your Chance to Win
Would you like to have your own Ellison All-Star SuperStar die cut machine, with these 5 dies?
Ellison Education has offered the chance for one of my readers to win their OWN All-Star SuperStar Machine AND the same die cuts that I chose – valued at $200!!! To enter just fill out the Rafflecopter form below! This giveaway is open from August 19-31, 2015 and ends at midnight EST. Open to US residents only.  Winner will be chosen randomly and have 48 hours to claim prize.
Disclosure: I was not compensated for this review. I received the above products to use in order to form my own opinions. All opinions are my own.
Good luck, friends!
I would make the machine available for parents to create bookmark die cuts for students to design and decorate during workstations. I love the speech bubble idea!
My students would love the bookmarks and the speech bubbles would be great for book promotions. Thanks for offering the great prize!
I would use it to create displays in the library as well as materials for my Makerspaces.
I love the idea of letting the kids decorate their own bookmarks.
I like all the ideas I’ve seen here. I’d especially like to use the speech bubbles for students to fill in what THEY think a book would say (instant bulletin board), and use the bookmarks as “make your own bookmarks”. I had a few end-of-pack bookmark shaped papers last year that I snuck in with my other bookmarks. Students were confused by them at first, but when I called them “make your own bookmarks,” they came back asking for more!
I would use it fr so many things………….. art, bulletin boards, tangrams, …………. gosh the list is endless really! Thanks for the chance!
What a great update on an old favorite, Ellison. Bookmarks galore! I’d keep them in my pocket and hand them out all over the school, to students and staff alike, anyone who is in my line of sight that needs one.
This New Hampshire librarian thanks you! (With website, this time!)
i would use this to make the never-ending supply of bookmarks my students use!
These bookmarks are adorable! And what a fun way to get kids to make their own. Cut them out on white and they could make seasonal designs. Having a die cutting machine for the library would cut down time for simple things like alphabet cuts, and other simple decoratives.
I would use it to make displays as well as bookmarks. I am a new librarian with 2 buildings and not much for a budget I know my kiddos would really like bookmarks when they come to the library.
This would be perfect for making new directional signs, and also cute bookmarks! Thank you for the wonderful giveaway.
Erin
I would like to make it available to my GT students to use for their projects.
I was thinking it would be fun to use the speech bubbles as entries for the monthly Caption Contest!
I’m a new to the school library here in town. I’ve been told that when the weather is bad the library is the home for indoor recess. Um, yay? I think having a stash of bookmarks and tags, plus markers and stickers in an emergency recess kit would help save my bacon!
I would use it for students and teachers to write short recommendations of books.
I love the little tag ones. And of course the word bubble ones. Great for book reviews or WONDERS.
Diecuts would be great for picture signage in the library for our littles who don’t read yet. I think it would also be fun to hide them in books for scavenger hunts.
Signage for my gentrified library, thank you.
There are so many things I could do with this diecut machine! I love the bookmark dies. I used to have some of those at a previous school. I would have the my students use the speech bubbles to make their own shelf talkers.
I have made to switch to student created bulletin boards so having a diecut machine to cut out shapes for each months bulletin board would be slick.
I would create bookmarks that say the world of the month.
This machine would get a lot use in my library! I would use the bookmark die for my craft center, speech bubbles for character trait unit and the tags for all the incentives that are given out during Read Across America week.
I would lure teachers in to use it and talk about collaboration while I had them there!
I love the idea of having the shapes for students to create bookmarks in a makerspace.
We would love this in our library! We’re making our high school library more interactive and trying to encourage the kids to read and create for pleasure. We also have a mix of ELD and DHH students and I would love the signage and interactive possibilities this would allow us.
I like to use it to make bookmarks, cards for names (can draw for partners, groups, jobs, etc.), special occasion cards (birthday, Christmas, etc.) that my students will make. All the elementary schools in our district make Chrsitmas cards for the men and women stationed on the USS Cowpens. If I win this, I know it will be easy to come up with a lot more ideas!
This is cool! Ellison also makes a die set called SureCut Books. They are little 5″ mini books with hole-punches for binding. http://www.demco.com/goto?BLS172724&ALL0000&es=20150823123716057238
Those could also be a fun writing activity or center. I definitely want to make the bookmarks and speech bubbles you showed. Also, I usually use die-cut shapes for shape poems during Poetry Month.
I would love to win. I like doing bulletin boards and this would be a great asset to use. Also, my student aides could use it. I am the librarian at a high schooll and the librarian of record for 10 elementary schools. WE could decorate lockers for special games or for drama productions. It would be a fun thing to have.
I’ve been wanting one of these for so long! I work in both a school library and public library. Each year, I have the students create bookmarks and display them in the curio cabinet in the public library. The Ellison and dies would make a much easier job of it! It would also be great for creating personalized shelf sticks when the students are browsing for books.
I use it for our library to create bookmarks, displays, bulletin boards and possible writing prompts or story starters, depending on what the dies are. I love to create things for my students and would love to win the All Star Super Star die cutting machine to have in my media center!
It would be great to make name plates and bookmarks just to start. Thanks for the chance to win!
My kids would be happy to have some more exciting bookmarks than the ones I chop with the guillotine cutter. I could see lots of possibilities to develop my Makerspace and centers with this. Thank you for this contest as well as all of the great ideas you’ve shared through your blog and book!
I would love to make shaped bookmarks! We have a station where the students make their own bookmarks, but they are just rectangles. This one definitely give their bookmarks some pizazz!! I would also love to use it to make displays for the library as well as make cute tags for the prizes students earn through contests! 🙂
love the book mark idea!
I would love to have one for our library makerspace.
This would be perfect to add to my tools as a first year librarian with high hopes for what I can accomplish this year.