Saturday, May 19, 2012

Mama's New Toy: The Cricut

My dear husband gave me a Cricut for Mother's Day.  I love it so far, and I've barely scratched the surface of what this thing is capable of.

The very first thing I made was some letters.  I had a vision in mind for something I wanted to put in the scrapbook of my parents' wedding photos, and the Cricut I got came pre-loaded with the perfect one:


(Those were the photos I got from their reception.)

A few days later, my newest cartridge arrived for it.  I made a card:


I'm planning to send it to my son while he's at camp.  :)  I also programmed it to cut out the envelope, but that was how I learned NOT to use heavy paper for envelopes.  I'll find a lighter paper and try it again.  (The grasshopper in the picture above is also supposed to have a frame around it, but I rather unwisely cut it out of the same light green paper.  So...no frame for the time being.

Then, just to show off the layers feature, I made a little thing:


In the yellow:  the Silhouette feature.  The red paper shows the Layers, and the orange is the Shadow.

Assembled, it looks a little something like this:


(The magnets are a future post--I have more to make!)

The Layers are a little hard to see , but there's two dots underneath the first M, and the other accents are inside the U, the E and the R.

And like I said, I've barely scratched the surface of what I can do.  I know people who have made their own stickers, or vinyl clings, or labels...I could go on and on.

Anywho.  With the number of scrapbooks I have coming up to make, this thing is going to get a LOT of use.  I'm thinking once Adrian's camp scrapbook gets underway, this Summer cutout will go in it.

There are some significant drawbacks to a Cricut--not the least of which is the cost.  The machines are NOT cheap, especially if you want to be able to use all the cartridges they sell.  There is a much less expensive model available, but rather than cartridges, you have to use your computer, and I'm not sure what designs are available that way.  The cartridges are expensive too--if you're lucky, you can find them on sale at the local crafts stores for $35.  Otherwise they're anywhere from $40 to $90.

The sticky mats don't last forever--but I'm told there's a way to re-stick them.  Haven't tried it, will let you know when I do.

What truly sold me on wanting one was when one of the ladies I talk to told me her kids use hers for school projects.  I can imagine this thing will help make any poster cool, no matter how boring the subject matter has the potential to be.  :)  (Cuz let's face it, we all remember some of our class projects being VERY boring.)

My husband is right, my mother would have loved this sort of thing.





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