Cricut™ Vinyl Home DecorLast year for Christmas my husband surprised me with the Provo Craft Cricut die cutting machine. I was surprised because I already own the Sizzix cutting tool made by the same company. He knows how I am always looking for something new as far as scrap booking supplies go. I love trying whatever I can find that has to do with this craft. I tend to look for quicker and easier ways to make scrapbook page layouts. I am a mother of 4 and have little time. I sure do have a lot of photos as I take pictures of every memory making moment.
Some of the advantages of owning the Cricut machine are that it was made for in home use. It is a little pricey but well worth the investment. My husband was lucky enough to find it on sale for 179.99. Provo craft sells a storage bag that has wheels so you can take it to scrapbook cropping classes or scrapbook parties. It is cartridge based and has a large variety of styles of letters, shapes and phrases to choose from. The Cricut cartridges sell for around 90.00. The cartridges come with an overlay that is applied to the Cricut machine. These overlays offer a variety of 3-d effects. Some of them are Signs, charms, tags, shadowing, negative and positive imaging. Everything is right at the touch of a button. It’s only limited to ones imagination. You can also cut the image as small as 1” or as large as 5 ½”. You can use many different thickness of paper but I tend to use more of a medium card stock. The cutting blade is adjustable. There is a pressure setting for thicker papers. Also a speed setting for how fast you want it to cut. It has an expansion port for future upgrades. The replacement parts for the machine are reasonably priced. For example the cutting mats can be bought 2 in a package for 10.00. The cutting machine does come with everything you need to get started. I did have to play around some with it a little because there is a learning curve. For example, for thinner paper you should use the slower speed or it will rip the paper. Another example for thicker paper you will want to adjust the blade and put the speed button on a slower cut. Once you get used to it, it’s lots of fun to use. I especially love the fact that you are able to layer the die cuts for easy paper piecing techniques. The ideas you can get for new scrapbook page layouts are endless. A few of the disadvantages are that you cannot customize your own die cuts. You can only use what is available on the cartridges. The mat that comes with the cutting machine is sticky. I found that the sticky wears off quickly. To get more use of the mat I use a repositionable spray on adhesive. You are limited to using just card stock paper. Whatever brand you choose. The blade cannot cut through any other materials. I like to make chipboard monograms and am not able to this with this machine. I am so glad my husband purchased the Cricut cutter as a gift for Christmas. I really do love this cutting tool. It helps me to get through my scrapbook pages quicker. The cartridges help me to come up with different ideas for layout pages in minutes. I don’t have to cut things by hand. All I have to do is press a button. I have extra time then to focus on taking more memory making pictures of all 4 of my beautiful children. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nicolle_Kramer
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