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Review: Cricut Personal Electronic Cutter

As I posted here a few days ago, I made the decision to buy a Cricut machine. The regular one, not the newer, pricier “Expression” machine. I really don’t need anything that big, and I didn’t want to spend $400-500 on this thing.

The regular Cricut (pronounced “Cricket”, BTW) retails for around $300, which is still more than I wanted to pay. But when I saw it on sale at A.C. Moore for $129.99, I decided that it was a good time to get one.

I bought it this past Thursday night, and on Friday, it came out of the box so that I could play with it.

This machine is pretty much ready to use right out of the box. Unlike some other electronic die-cutters, the Cricut does not require a computer, so there is no software to install. So how does it know what shapes you want to cut out? Easy…there are collections of fonts and/or shapes, which come as cartridges, which you plug into the machine. Since each cartridge is different, they also come with a keyboard overlay which corresponds with that particular cartridge. Included as well with each cartridge is a detailed handbook.

The machine comes with one cartridge, “George & Basic Shapes”. “George” is a nice upper-case font, and ‘Basic Shapes” are just that…circles, squares, hearts, stars, flowers, etc.

Now here is where Cricut differs from non-electronic die-cutting systems such as Sizzix and Quickutz…with those systems, you are limited to the size of the dies. Not so with Cricut. You can set it so that you can cut shapes as small as one inch tall, and as large as five and a half inches, with half-inch increments in between. This range of sizes is enough for just about any scrapbooking/cardmaking needs.

Each cartridge also has “creative features” which enable you to cut out the letter/shape in different styles. These are all clearly spelled out on both the keyboar5d overlay for that cartridge, as well as the handbook. They vary from cartridge to cartridge.

The “George” cartridge is very basic, but it’s plenty to get you started right away. Other cartridges, sold separately, offer more options. After I bought the machine at A.C. Moore, I headed over to Michaels, which had them on sale for $49.90 each (they normally go for about $89.99). After looking over what they had, I selected one called Opposites Attract. This one give you a LOT of bang for the buck font-wise…it’s really THREE fonts in one cartridge. The main one is a long flowing script, which can also be cut as am upright script. They can also but cut within shapes, such as a circle or trapezoid.

BUT…one of the “creative features” is the option to cut bold, block letters…the “opposite” here. And once again, all letters can be cut in various sizes. I love this cartridge, and it was definitely a smart buy. It would have been worth paying ninety bucks for, given what Sizzix and Quickutz alphabet sets cost. But how sweet to get it for just $50?

Read the rest…

Someday…

…Mike and I will be moving to Maine…as soon as we can manage to get a decent mortgage. We’ve had some credit issues in the past (mostly due to his working for a crook who didn’t pay him his salary on a regular basis), but things are looking better now.

We’ve decided that we want to live in the Munjoy Hill section of Portland. That way, we can walk or take buses to a lot of things, including the Old Port and the Sea Dogs ballpark.

Mike could probably work from home most of the time, for his current employer. As for me, I haven’t worked full time in years, and I don’t know if I can do so anymore. Mike has excellent life insurance so that me and the cats will be taken care of should something happen to him. But when we buy our house, mortgage life insurance will be a must-have. This would pay off the house should Mike pass on. It’s not a pleasant thing to think about, but it’s always smart to be prepared, just in case.

I just want to move from this place so badly! It’s really turning into a slum. Last night, there were little kids outside, playing, at 11:30 PM. Only really skeevy parents would allow this…I bet they were hanging out at The Skeevy Corner Bar, while their kids were out running wild late at night. I was about to call the police, when the kids went away. I wish I’d called right away, and the kids were still out when the cops came. I would have liked for them to find out who the parents were, and have them get in trouble for letting their kids run around unsupervised late at night.

It’ll be another couple of years or so before we can move, and that day won’t come soon enough for me!