First Edition Christmas Craft A Card Die-Advent Calendar, (Steel, Magnetic Storage, Cuts Paper, Cardstock & 2mm Foam), 6 x 6

Beautiful die and cuts well

If you were looking for an Advent Calendar die in order to make Advent Calendars, then this die is not what you want. Whilst it's true that it does cut tiny doors in your 6"x6" cardstock, the cuts are so intricate that they are too flimsy to use them as calendar doors. Also, the die cuts the day's number in the door, so you can see what's underneath. But you could use it to create an Advent Calendar card if you want to, assuming you can get it to cut cleanly through your cardstock; a virtual impossibility, and believe me, I tried every single combination of card/cutting plates/shims in my Big Shot without much success.In the end, and purely so that I hadn't wasted my money, I used the die to emboss the cardstock instead of cutting it. After some more trial and error this worked. So then all I had to do to make the doors open was to cut along the embossed lines. With a craft knife. By hand...Advent Calendar dies seem to be a thing this year and there are a few others on the market that seem to be better than this - one even comes with an accompanying stamp so you can easily prepare the tiny pictures to go under your die cut panel. This one has not been thought through properly and is virtually useless. Maybe I'm using it incorrectly, but I'm not a beginner and there are only the briefest of instructions that could apply to pretty much any intricate die. My advice is, avoid this one and go for one of the others out there on the market. You might get an Advent calendar then.