Help with Cricut About This Page:

[falene]

I have been wanting to purchase a cricut for a while. I have had some issues that have not scrapbooked in several years. I have watched the informercials and done a little reading on this board. I teach and do art projects at home with my children and can see where it would be helpful. I would like to know from users: is it worth the money, how many cartridges do you have, is the mat with the paper sticky (i'm wondering how that will effect the paper) and what are some of the pros and cons? Thanks in advance for you help. Y'all get my creative juices flowing.

[GATechGal]

LOVE LOVE LOVE the Cricut. It can cut anything. The sticky mats can be pretty sticky when you first open them, and it's sort of recommended that you sort of play patty-cake with your new mats to make them somewhat less sticky so they don't tear your paper the first time through.

All the machines come with at least 1 cartridge that is a font. Other carts that are really helpful (besides the Disney ones of course) are the Paper Dolls one. Even if you don't do a lot of dolls, they have a really wide variety of companion cuts that cover everything from animals to holidays. You can look at the handbooks for all the cartridges on the Cricut.com site under Information and then Cricut Library.

There is 3rd party software that you can use with your cricut machine that will allow you to cut out other images that are not on cartridges. Of course to use it you will have to have your cricut attached to the computer with a USB A/B cable. The 2 software titles are Sure Cuts A Lot and Make the Cut. I've used both and they both have their good points. But in both cases, they really expand what I'm able to do with my cricut. At the very minimum it allows me to cut using any True Type font on my computer. This is VERY helpful especially when you consider how many free fonts there are out there and that many of them are ding-bat fonts that not letters but shapes.

So if you're like me and don't think you do a very good job cutting stuff out or just don't like to, this is a really great machine.

[Carousel96]

I LOVE my Cricut!
I've used it for projects with Girl Scouts and at DD's school as much as scrapbooking. And DD uses it, too. It's easy -- she mastered it early on.
What I love about it: I can make my headlines the size I want. And whatever color I want, or out of specialty paper. I don't have to buy any more alphabet stickers (no more running out of e's and having tons of leftover m's and t's)
What I don't like: It's easy to spend a lot of money on cartridges -- they can be addictive. It's one more thing to take to crops, and can be heavy and bulky when added to the other "stuff" I haul.
I have the basic Cricut. I've rarely if ever wished I could cut things bigger than that machine will do. But I have often wished I could cut letters smaller than 1". So the Expression is more versatile that way -- but I can't justify buying another machine. If I were to shop now, I'd look at the "Cricut Create" model.
Yes, the mats are sticky. They wouldn't work otherwise. I just don't press the paper down as hard when they're new. I've never had a mat ruin a cut because it was too sticky (the lifting tools help a lot). Older less sticky mats are great for vellum. The mat that came with my machine was thinner than the replacements you can buy and it bent pretty easily. I'd suggest buying several mats when they're on sale.

[falene]

Thanks for the info. I guess what I am worried about with the mat is whether it uses a type of adhesive that might damage my scrapbook.

[Carousel96]

Originally Posted by falene

Thanks for the info. I guess what I am worried about with the mat is whether it uses a type of adhesive that might damage my scrapbook.

Provo Craft has been in the scrapbooking business for so long that the possibility never even crossed my mind.

[ripkensnana]

Also check the sticky thread on Resticking Cricut Mats.