Looking for a cutting machine that will cut around printed card stock

[Tink113]

OK, I have come to my always helpful DISers for some guidance...

I own a small (only me) company that makes custom invitations for wedding, Baby showers, etc...

I love the idea of the cutting machines and the great things you can do with them, but I can't seem to find too much info on limitations.

I would LOVE to find a machine that can do all the great die cuts for favor boxes, pillow boxes, etc... AND will allow me to tell it where to cut. For example, if I am printing offset (meaning the print bleeds to edge by way of overprinting and cutting it down to size), I need something that I can tell to cut 0.5 inches for the top, 0.5 inches from the bottom, etc... Like if I have 4 3.5 x 5 cards ALREADY PRINTED that need to be cut out of a 8.5 x 11 sheet.

One of the projects I am working on now is cute peppermint patty favors with my company logo on them. However, i can't figure out what machine to buy that will allow me to cut circles or scalloped circles from heavy card stock that already been printed. Trust me, hand held die cutting 600+ circles - sucks!

An example of what i am talking about can be seen here:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=23517514

Any ideas! I think the CriCut seems to be the most appealing, but open to any of the machine cutting machines out there.

HELP!!! I know if anyone knows, it's my DIS family!

 

[rlovew]

If you don't print on anything larger than letter paper then I would look into a craftrobo, shiloutte, or wishblade (they are all the same machine with slightly different software so I would base your decision on the price you can get any of them for. Each of them allow you to import a jpeg or btm image and then either autotrace or handtrace and then you can print and cut from the machine- I don't know that any of these would be able to cut just .5 inches off the edges of a paper as they have a mark that is needed on the paper to tell the machine where to cut and the cut must be inside that area.

I don't know if cricut does print and cuts in the same way.

I actually own the larger craftrobo- a pro that cuts much larger and is designed for sign companies and the like- large scale cutting and heavy duty stuff.

You can also look at the gazelle and kliknkut both of which have more than one size (if you want larger cutting areas. I don't know if they do print and cuts as I haven't looked into them.

If you have any more questions I can try and answer them.

www.visualdesignsbychris.com has a forum and in the forum there is a spot where people discuss the machine- she sells files for all types of machines but doesn't sell the machine. You might get a better answer trying to post there as you will get responses from people that own a variety of those machines and can tell you how the print and cut works on the machine.

Rebecca
Rebecca

 

[Mom-to-2-Princesses]

Wow, Rebecca gave you a great detailed answer. But here is my 2 cents --

I just got the Silhouette SD for $117 (ebay). It does what you want (just used "print and cut" for a swap!). It is going to be great for scrapbooking. And I am going to love it for swaps because it doing multiple items fast for me. But if I was looking to do 600 items I would NOT be buying one of the craft machines, I would look for a more professional machine.

As Rebecca said, the machine takes 8.5x11 paper, you import your item into the program, and print it. The printed paper uses space on the top and bottom to print marks called "registration marks". You then place the paper on a sticky mat, and when you run the paper through the cutter it optically reads the registration marks and knows where to cut. You would spend so much time placing paper on the mats and wasting paper on the edges.

But if you got a system going printing 10 pages and then cutting it would work. The cuts are clean and beautiful! They came off the mat easily. I guess it just depends on how many projects you will be doing. It wouldn't bother me feeding the pages in one-by-one, but placing them on the mat could get old. Maybe someone else will know of a machine that doesn't use mats?

If you google for tutorials on some of the brands Rebecca mentioned you will get a clearer idea of the process. I would make sure you use and play with the machine before buying.

Your items are super cute! Good luck with everything!

 

[rlovew]

there is a machine from Austrailia coming out in the next few months that does not use mats- I don't know if they can do print and cuts or not though. At scrapperupdates they were mentioned in the cha round-up as I don't remember the name.

Rebecca