Saturday, May 9, 2009

Cricut crafting joy

By Mark Cartis

If you love arts and crafts then you need a Cricut Expression! It is a wonderful cutting machine that can be used for a wide variety of projects. It can cut paper or vinyl and is the crafting tool all arts and crafters should have.

Even for those few people left who do not own a computer this machine can meet your needs. It does have the appearance of a printer but in actual fact works completely independently from a computer. The cartridges that work with it have font or shape designs on them. You decide which letter or shape you want, what size and on paper or vinyl and then the machine does the rest.

You tell the machine what to cut, and it will obey! Upon first buying the Cricut you get two cartridges with it and a cutting mat. The cartridges are one of each shape and font. However there are over 78 more cartridges that you can buy for more designs at a cost of just $35 each.

There is software that can link a computer to the Cricut should you have one. This software called Cricut Design Studio offers users the chance to design fonts on your computer and then when you are finished sends the designs to the Cricut to cut them. There is a starter kit to help get the optimum out of the machine as well as particular sized paper and vinyl.

A very exciting add on that can be bought is the Jukebox. A Cricut uses one cartridge at a time, and when you wish to cut shapes you need to remove the font cartridge first and then replace it with the shape of your choice. The Jukebox attaches to the Cricut and fits in 6 cartridges. No more switching all the time! But wait, there's more! The Cricut can have three Jukeboxes inserted and so you can have 18 cartridges attached and ready to be used. Truly no genuine crafter can deny that the Cricut is an essential tool not a luxury.

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