Cricut questions from Newbie

[M_I_C_K_E_Y]

Hi fellow dis'ers. I am a designer from the Creative DISigns area of the Dis and have ventured to this board in need of your expertise.

My mom and I are contemplating getting a Cricut and I had a few questions. Would you recommend us starting with a small or large one? We don't live together but portability is not a real issue. Which is easier/better? Is the cartridge that comes with the machine enough to get us started or do we need to buy any others right away?

Also, is it as easy as they make it look? Or is it tricky and it takes a while to get used to it? I don't think Mom would have as much patience and I am a little afraid of getting something too complicated?

Can you use any paper in the machine or do you need to buy special paper? How hard is it to get the shape off the sticky backing?

Sorry for the hundred questions but I want to give her a true picture of how it works and trust that you all will be honest about what she can expect. It's just that the informercial makes it look so easy but am afraid of "you can't always believe what you see on TV".

Anything else a true beginner would need to know? Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[rlovew]

Paper- If you get the small machine then you need to cut down 12 by 12 paper to 6 by 12 or buy there special paper. If you get the big machine you can use any 12 by 12 paper or get the larger mat and buy the special 12 by 24 paper.

It is very easy to use- I had it working within a few minutes of taking it out of the box although you do have to spend some time layin g with the right speed and pressure settings for the paper you are using.

I would recomend the large machine especially if your mom gets frusterated easily. It will allow you to cut many of the same item at the same time or a row of items that are all the same size. It will also automatically cut more than once for thick material (if you tell it to). It also has a screen so you can see exactly what you are cutting. Since you use the shift to change between some of the different characters I find the screen helps me to see if I choose what I really wanted to cut before I start.

I am not sure what cartridge the large machine comes with as I bought the package at AC Moore that came with 4 cartridges. The orginal cartridge should have some shapes and an alphabet on it so whether you need other rightaway depends on what you are using the machine to do and what you want to cut out right away.

I would not recommend buying it from the infomercial- they sell it cheaper in many craft stores. Look around and see when they have a goodprice if you are willing to wait a bit. I suspect they will have a sale before Christmas or right afterwards. If you don't have craft stores near you AC Moore and hallmarkscrapbook.com are both good as well as man other sites. If you look through recent threads you will find some notes of when we find the machines or cartridges on sale.

Buy an extra mat and blades when you get the machine.

Rebecca

 

[LindaBabe]

I second that - buy the expression - on sale - as part of a bundle with carts. The carts you don't want, you can sell on ebay, easily.

It's VERY easy to set up and use - initially, you'll have difficulty cutting thick cardstock, especially bazzil - use the multicut feature (cuts more than once in the same place) and increase the speed and pressure until you get a clean cut.

You can clean the mats with baby wipes, after use - when dry they'll be tacky again. When the mat starts to lose the tackiness, spray with quilters adhesive to get more uses out of it.

There's a cricut users yahoo group with lots of helpful info and also a website, at cricut.com

 

[LindaBabe]

Oh, and get the little tool kit - it has a great hooky-doo thingy that pops the cuts right off.

 

[aroyer]

I agree with the Expression. My favorite feature is that you can see what you are cutting on the screen whereas you can't on the smaller Cricut. The cartridges that come with it normally are Plantin Schoolbook and Accent Essentials. I have used both of them on a regular basis. AC Moore has a special bundle that also includes Paper Pups and Stretch Your Imagination. Hope that helps!

 

[M_I_C_K_E_Y]

with the right speed and pressure settings for the paper you are using.

It will also automatically cut more than once for thick material (if you tell it to). It also has a screen so you can see exactly what you are cutting. Since you use the shift to change between some of the different characters I find the screen helps me to see if I choose what I really wanted to cut before I start.

Buy an extra mat and blades when you get the machine.

Rebecca

Rebecca,
Is finding the right speed and pressure difficult or easy? and while you are finding the right speed and temperature, are you wasting paper? Or can you just do a small shape to 'test' it out?

How do you tell the machine to cut more than once? Is it easy to do? If it's easily explained in the material that comes with the machine, you don't have to go through a step by step for me - I just want to know - easy?

I assume when you say extra mat and blades, you mean the sticky mat your paper sits on - is that right?

You can clean the mats with baby wipes, after use - when dry they'll be tacky again. When the mat starts to lose the tackiness, spray with quilters adhesive to get more uses out of it.

There's a cricut users yahoo group with lots of helpful info and also a website, at cricut.com

Thank you very much for the helpful tips and information. How long does the sticky mat typically last? and are they expensive to replace?

I agree with the Expression. My favorite feature is that you can see what you are cutting on the screen whereas you can't on the smaller Cricut. The cartridges that come with it normally are Plantin Schoolbook and Accent Essentials. I have used both of them on a regular basis. AC Moore has a special bundle that also includes Paper Pups and Stretch Your Imagination. Hope that helps!

I may have to buy from AC Moore. We don't have one here but I was on their webpage. My only question was shipping and would it be worth it. I was on their site and where it listed their shipping costs - it was pretty screw-y. It listed different purchase amounts and then the shipping charges. It went up to about $9.00 for something like $50 and then at anything above $100, it said $5.00. Could that be right?


Thanks to all of you for your input, it is greatly appreciated! The only other question I had was, do the cartridges fit both machines? Or if you upgrade to the bigger machine, do you have to buy all new cartridges?

 

[Faerie]

Carts are interchangable between both machines.

The mats (2 pack - $9.99) and blades (2 pack - $9.99) replacement time depends on what kind of paper you're cutting, and how many full page cuts you do. I try to only use the size paper I need and rotate my mat to use the whole thing. I also clean them after each use with baby wipes.

 

[aroyer]

Yes, I am pretty sure that is right on the shipping for AC Moore. My MIL and 2 SIL's are getting the bundle from AC Moore's website and I think I remember the shipping being really reasonable. (We really thought they should give us a family discount! ) It's a Cricut Christmas!

The cartridges fit both machines!

 

[wdwdancerwannabe]

Subscribing!!

I have a secret!! I found out on accident that my mom got me one for christmas. Not the Expression, though, but I'm sure I will enjoy it just the same!!!

 

[rlovew]

Rebecca,
Is finding the right speed and pressure difficult or easy? and while you are finding the right speed and temperature, are you wasting paper? Or can you just do a small shape to 'test' it out?

How do you tell the machine to cut more than once? Is it easy to do? If it's easily explained in the material that comes with the machine, you don't have to go through a step by step for me - I just want to know - easy?

I assume when you say extra mat and blades, you mean the sticky mat your paper sits on - is that right?

I haven't had trouble finding the right speed and pressure but there is a list that comes with the machine and many of the ladies on the community have some lists of pressures for the machine, I think AlexWyattMommy posted she had a reference list she used but I haven't asked for it. One of the reasons I have an easier time with it is that I have a computerized machine (craftrobo pro) so I have been playing with pressures for materials for awhile.

You can test it out by cutting a small item (you can cut as small as 1/2 an inch and certain shapes at 1/2 and inch are even smaller than that., If you do that you can move the blade over (using buttons on the machine) and start your actual cutting beside it.

I only have the expression but on the expression you simply push the multicut button and it cuts over your design however many times you have that set for (2-4).

Extra mats are the sticky backing you put the paper on to keep the blade from cutting through the paper into the machine. The extra blades are for cutting and changing out blades if it gets dull. I have heard the blades need to be changed fairly often but I don't know as I haven't had to change them yet and fairly often to me is a lot smaller a threshhold than many other since I have a different machine that I can do well over 2000 cuts before I need to think about changing my blade (but the blades are more expensive).

Rebecca

 

[vanyel]

I'm a newbie also and I love my cricut. I do have the small bug. The one thing that I was warned about when I posted that I had gotten it, was that I'd want more cartridges and that is certainly true. I haven't bought any more yet, but it's all I can do to hold off I have a friend who wants one for Christmas and we're going to share cartridges when she get her's.

All of the above advice has been very helpful. Thanks!

 

[M_I_C_K_E_Y]

You can test it out by cutting a small item (you can cut as small as 1/2 an inch and certain shapes at 1/2 and inch are even smaller than that., If you do that you can move the blade over (using buttons on the machine) and start your actual cutting beside it.

Rebecca

On the infomercial, it says something about the machine knowing where to cut to preserve paper and not cut off the edge.

Is that automatic or is that a setting you have to make, like when you say you can use the buttons to move the blade over?

Thanks for all your help!

 

[aroyer]

On the Expression it automatically knows where to cut. I use the "load last" button a ton- basically if you unload the mat and then want to cut on the same paper, it will load where it stopped last. On the Expression you can also use arrows to move around on your paper for the cuts. Hope that is clear as mud!

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

There is also a button called paper saver, it will cut as close to the previous cut as possible. So say I type "yesterday" see how the "t" goes up and the "e" sits lower? If you use the paper saver button it will cut the "e" near the top of the "t".
If you go to www.cricut.com, click on view demonstration and it will have a list of videos on the left hand side of the screen. This might help you get a better idea of some of the this it can do.