The party table is topped with a multitude of paper crafts, paper lanterns, cake toppers, banners, napkin holders, the works! Everytime I see it I start searching around Pinterest and crafting blogs for other uses. Could I cut fabric? Well, it sounds tricky but I found a great tutorial for cutting freezer paper patterns to make applique a breeze.
The past two years I have purchases some adorable items for birthday parties off of Etsy. Though this was nice, they carried a heft price tag. The Fire Truck birthday banner for my son was over $30, the cupcake toppers were $12 and appliqued shirt I have my heart set on is another $40. Since I am still not made of money, making these items for myself is very appealing. And the product tutorials make it all look so easy.
Of course I was drawn in by the advertising for the Cricut... and it is sold everywhere. From Walmart to Amazon, the Cricut products kept calling to me. At $200 - $300 for a machine, I don't want to make a hasty purchase.
Some crafters are using the Silhouette Cameo, which doesn't run without a computer. Not portable, but it does allow for more freedom and personal design creativity.
There are stock images for purchase off the Silhouette site, and at .99 cents or less, that is appealing. The Cricut cartridges can get a little expensive, especially if I only want a few images off it.
I would love to hear from any readers if they own either of these machines. Do you enjoy it? And do you have any problems or gripes about either machine?
Also, what have you made with your die cutter?
I have the cricut. I bought it off HSN for cheap and made payments on it! ;)
ReplyDeleteI have both (fyi - I'm not made of money either, these were both "hand-me-downs", lol). I love the slhouette for being able to pick and choose the designs I want to download. Other than having to use it by the computer, I really had no complaints. UNTIL...we upgraded to a Mac computer. The silhouette software does not run easily on a mac. There are ways around this, using Adobe Ilustrator and whatnot, and apparently they have or are coming out with Mac compatible software. In the end, I found it a pain and ended up acquiring a Cricut. I like it, but as you mention I don't use all of the designs on a cartridge. I also don't find it as user friendly, but I think I just need to spend more time getting to know the machine. But I do like that I can have it in my crafting area and not taking up space at the computer. In the end, if I had to pick between the two, I'd probably go with the silhouette.
ReplyDeleteI have been researching both and also came across the Slice Elite & Slice Fabrique. Did you every hear of them - if you did why did you not decide on them?
ReplyDeleteAfter research I chose the silhouette;)
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