Hi Doreen, well that's exactly why they've bought me it. I love dry embossing, and then cutting out, especially with all my Mattie stencils, but eventually it makes my fingers and knuckles swell, (arthritis), Saturday afternoon, I must have done about 200 embossing folders, (went a bit over the top I think! hehe!) It comes with a large base plate and 2 clear ones. I was desperate to try my new Marianne dies, but when I did those I couldn't get it right, it wasn't too thick it was too thin and they just went through without touching anything.Like you I was worried that something too thick would jam it up, but it can't really because when I put a plate on the made it too thick, it pushed that back and the rest of it went sailing through (without touching!) I got SO frustrated in the end that I put them through my Cuttlebug.
 However, both Jan and Ellen (Melcache) have told me what I can do, and what I need to buy, and it's an adapter plate that helps you use everyone elses dies, or stencils. I bought the No Shims Mat for my Cuttlebug a couple of weeks ago, but you can use that with any other machine too.
There are some demos on Youtube, but they're American and I hadn't sussed out exactly what they were using. I don't think they have the NS mat over there yet.
BTW, mine came from QVC and it's £20-30 cheaper than anywhere else I've been looking xx hth
I'll keep you updated as to how I get on x

The adapter thingy, was £5.49 x