Cricut?

KaliChick

Does anyone have a Cricut?  We are looking at buying the Cricut Expressions for the preschool but one of my moms was just telling me she thinks we'll be unhappy with it (needs thicker paper, slow, etc .. but she doesn't have the Expression machine).  Just wondering what everyone thinks of it if you have one?  We won't use it everday but there's lots of things we will use it for ... afterall we are a preschool!

Thanks!

Wan-naBe

i've never been able to cough up the cash for a cricut, but recently bought a quickutz revolution. ?it's AWESOME. ?i love it, and it's really easy to use.

if you're willing to trek out to monrovia, there's a store called "scrap 'n yap" (yeah, it's a stupid ass name) and they've got them on clearance right now for like $30 - that's less than half of the regular price! ??

BrandyB!

Sooo jealous! I want a cricut so bad! If you get it, I'll be curious to hear what you think about it.

autumn42

hi,

You should ask Marina,  she knows a lot about them!

 

KaliChick

I figured she might!

MissMarinaT

Hey Kim,

Hi, my name is Marina and I have a Cricut. Okay, here is my take on it.  I have a love/hate relationship with it.  I love that you can cut different sizes (by the way, I have the smaller one) and do the differenter effects.  The machine does not run that slow. There is actually a dial to adjust the speed and pressure of the cut. Which comes in handy when using different types of paper and thickness.  I just found out that there is a new blade for deeper, thicker cuts.  I am assuming that means chipboard or arylic.  But since you are a preschool, you will mostly use it for construction paper and card stock.

I dont like that you have to buy different cartridges for what you want.  Those are very expensive.  About 90 dollars each. But you can find them on auction at ebay.  Sometimes Michaels sells them for 44.. but that is still a lot.  There is also a software that is available (just got mine on ebay for 35 with shipping, retails for about 70.  The software lets you really customize what you cut.  For example, if you want to spell a name, you can merge the letters together so that it cuts in one strip rather than separate letters without the software.

 Ultimately, when you consider the amount of money you will spend to get the machine and the cartridges.. it will equal the amount of one of the more expensive machines.  LIke the Silhouette or Pazzle. 

http://www.quickutz.com/qk2/silhouette/

http://www.pazzles.com/

 Honestly, if I had known about the silhouette before I bought the cricut, I would have gotten that.  The benefit to both those machines is that you can use your own computer fonts to be cut out.  That is a huge plus when you consider how important font is for bulletin boards and such.  The Silhouette holds regular sized letter paper, the pazzles holds 12x12.  The pazzles is a bit fancier of a machine and has more bells and whistles than the silhouette and the price tag shows it.  One plus to these machines, you can cut anything... any image... from any where.  All you have to do is change the image file to vector, then you can cut.  The pazzle has this feature in its software, silhouette does not.  Oh yeah.. one more thing, welding letters together is a little more complicated with the silhouette.  You have to weld it in photoshop and then save it as a vector image.  Again the pazzle offers it in the software.

When I get more money, I am going to purchase a silhouette.  The pazzle is out of my price range (even though it is my dream machine)

If you dont mind the cartridges and want something that you can transport easily, with no computer needed.  Then I would recommend the cricut.

KaliChick

Ai, ai, ai Marina!  That's a lot of info!!! We just want to be able to die cut! hahahaha

I'll email you about it.

Thank you!