Choosing the Best Machine(s) for You

There is a lot of chatter in the online crafting world about the Cameo and the new Portrait machines by Silhouette.  Many long time Cricut fans have added one of these machines (or others like the eClips, Zing or Pazzles) to their tools.  For people who are heavily invested in Cricut machines and cartridges, this is unsettling.  It's only natural to be attracted to something that "everyone else is doing" and to want to be up to date with the latest and greatest.

However, you really have to take the time to evaluate the available options considering your personal needs and wants.  Crafting is meant to be a relaxing hobby and if you are stressed about choosing your tools and other issues it will distract you from enjoying the process of creating scrapbooks, cards and other projects.

Do you work on a computer all day?  When you have time to craft do you want to look at a screen or play with your papers and embellishments? If you are reading my blog regularly, you most likely own some sort of electronic die cutting machine in additional to one or more of the manual machines like the Cuttlebug, Big Shot, Grand Caliber, etc.

If you are a long time Cricut user and wonder if you are missing out on something, consider why you chose the Cricut system in the first place.  For many people, it was the ease of use and the fact that the machine did not have to be connected to a computer at any time to operate.  You could use it in a room far away from your desktop computer and you didn't need to find space for a laptop to work with the first Cricut machines.  The Original (baby bug), Create and Expression are simple to operate and produce results quickly.  Cartridge content is themed with many images on a cartridge so you could make all sorts of baby items with New Arrival and holiday decorations with Joys of the Season (two of the popular cartridges when I first got a Cricut).

You do need to purchase cartridges to use the Cricut (unless you have a version of a third party software program such as Sure Cuts a Lot or Make The Cut that predates the settlement of the lawsuits against the developers of these programs which required them to remove the capability of cutting with the Cricut).  Many people complain that cartridges are too expensive and that you have to buy a large group of images in order to get the one or two that you want.  I don't agree with the price objection, especially at the current normal selling prices for cartridges.  The decision to purchase a cartridge for just one or two images is a personal one - if it is worth it to you then it is worth it to you...but you could find a cheaper alternative such as a purchased embellishment for a one time use.

You can get most full cartridges on sale for less than $30.  If the cartridge is truly full, there are spaces for 700 images, making the cost per image a little over 4 cents.  Some cartridges do have repeated shapes (squares to make backgrounds on every key) or empty key positions but even if there are only 350 images the price per image is about 8 1/2 cents.  There is a perception that the Silhouette images (or images that can be cut on machines that accept SVGs and other common file types) are cheaper.  The basic price of images is 99 cents through the Silhouette online store but this price is brought down considerably if you buy a subscription plan ($9.99/month for $25 worth of images, $14.99/month for $50 worth of images and $19.99/month for $150 worth of images).  At the highest subscription level the cost per image is about 13 cents and if there is a sale on subscriptions, the price can come down to about 10 cents an image.  (I believe that the code
"summer" will get you a 20% discount on subscriptions right now - it did when I tested last night).

The detail that is often overlooked is that the subscription plan is an annual commitment - you can't just buy a one month "deal" to get the images you want.  Over the course of the year, the highest level plan will cost $240 (or a bit less - if you pay for the full year in advance there is a 5% discount).  At the current average cost of cartridges on sale, the same amount would buy about 8 cartridges (or even more if you are a good shopper or find cartridges on Ebay, etc.).  I do believe that it is easier to find free images that can be cut with other machines since there are many sources of SVG files and most of the sellers offer some freebies.

The attraction of the Silhouette and other similar machines is that you can create your own files easily with the drawing tools in the software.  You can also use fonts that you already have on your computer to make welded and shadowed words very easily.  So, if you are like me and  prefer to make your own designs, a Silhouette type machine is a great addition to your crafting tools.  The free software for the Silhouette has been trouble free for me and the program updates automatically as needed.  You do not need to be connected to the internet to use the free Silhouette program (but you do have to be connected to purchase images from the store while using the program).

I think the reason many people are turning away from the Cricut machines has to do with the problems that have been caused by the need to update the machines fairly often.  This requires you to connect the machine to a computer (or sometimes a Gypsy if you have one) and many times the process is slow or the update creates a new problem.  People are afraid to update because of issues that others have - even though the vast majority of updates probably go smoothly since you usually only hear from the users who have encountered a problem.

If you have a large collection of cartridges that you enjoy using and you are happy with the way your Cricut cuts (more about that another day) then you should just keep using what you have and make the most of the time you have to craft.  There definitely is a learning curve for the Silhouette (though the software is very intuitive and most people pick it up quickly).  If computers make you stressed or you can't put your cutting machine in a location by a computer - why mess with a system that works for you?  There certainly are so many cartridges available now that you are almost certain to be able to find any standard category of image that you want.  You could probably buy some cartridges very cheaply from someone who is "selling it all off and moving on!"

I'll go into more details about why I could never go back to using just a Cricut machine in another post.  I do like using the computer for designing and I have the time to work at making my own designs.  However, as I said yesterday, there are times when I find it very convenient to pop in a cartridge, turn a few dials and quickly cut exactly what I need for my project. 

I do find that the Silhouette machines cut extremely fine details very well - this card shows one example. (You can read about this design in the original post HERE.) 

If you look at this lace that I designed and cut on the Cameo you can see the level of extremely fine detail that I was able to cut - this was the first attempt at the cut and it was perfect and easily lifted from the mat.  (The original post about these "cobweb" cuts I designed is HERE.)


Digital Sales

Creative Memories is offering a 4 day sale on the photo editing software (Memory Manager) and digital scrapping program that I use (StoryBook Creater) for digital pages and other projects.  Content CDs and downloads are also on sale - click HERE to go to the Pixel's Holiday Hijinks page.  Artwork and Software (including upgrades) are 25% off until November 30th.  You'll find the pages with the digital downloads for artwork HERE - the prices will be adjusted in the shopping cart so don't be confused by the full price on the item description pages.

One of my favorite sources of vintage images, Twisted Papers, also has a great offer right now.  If you sign up for their monthly subscription for $24.95 you can download up to 500 of their over 7000 vintage images and collage sheets - that's just 5 cents a download!  This is their usual super deal - individual images or collage sheets are normally $1 each.  The subscription does not automatically renew - you just have to pick out your images and download them within a month.

The special Cyber Deal this week (good until Saturday December 1st) is that they will send everyone who signs up for the month long subscription a free copy of their newest CD, Victorian Children Illustrations (yes - absolutely free - they pay the postage to you).  This CD normally sells for $9.95. I have found their images to be of very high quality - the scans are carefully restored and many images can be used at large sizes.  I use them frequently in my Creative Memories Storybook Program (on sale above!).

I hope that these posts are helping some of you who are struggling with decisions about purchasing - or not purchasing - new machines.  Please let me know if you have specific questions you'd like covered and I'll do my best to give you a fair and balanced explanation along with my opinions.

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