SOLD and still selling Cricut

Evening folks - another quickie from me tonight, well fairly quick

I have sold the Big Shot (possibly to "Amanda" who queried it on a previous blog post, as the winner is indeed called Amanda).  I have also sold 3 copies of Craft Artist Professional.   I am thinking of putting Craft Artist Platinum up (which has a copy of professional included along with another 3 programmes), but have to find the letter that came with it providing the product key,  and also Complete Arts and Crafts Creativity Suite - also by Serif, which includes 5 programmes, including Digital Scrapbook Artist and PhotoPlus.

The Cricut didn't sell so I've now put it on as a Buy it Now for 30 days.  If at the end of that time it hasn't sold, then I will use it for cutting fabric, which was my original intention, but thought that having 2 Cricut machines, both the same size, was not really something I could justify doing if I could sell one. 

And I've been having a bit of a play with my new Cricut and my brand spanking new Flower Shoppe cartridge.   And as soon as I've sorted out my new laptop I will upload some photos for you to have a look at. But until then, have a gaze in wonderment (and amusement) at the following YouTube video of some folks using the self same cartridge

Later folks
xxx

Craft artist professional on ebay

I've got 3 Craft artist professional discs for sale on ebay - starting price £10, Buy it Now for £15.   If you are interested go look for Georgiegirl2012 or go via the links in the previous post.

Such Wickedness - so selling Cricut and Bigshot

Grab a cuppa and a biscuit and settle down for a read about my bad behaviour

I am a wicked wicked woman who will never be able to darken the door of Martin's Money Saving website ever again.  Why? I hear you ask (or is that just the voices in my head)  Well, I've only gone and spent some money.  And not just "some" money - rather a lot of money in fact.

Firstly, after watching Mel Heaton on C&C  I dug out my Cricut and decided it was indeed rather fabulous, and after playing for a little while came to the conclusion that I wanted more functionality.  Now, I had a bit of a browse, and rather liked the look of the Cricut Expression which cuts up to size 12" x 24", as indeed does the Cricut Imagine, but having read various forums it seems there have been some issues with it.

And then there are all those other marvellous electronic cutting machines - the Sizzix eClips, the Silhouette Cameo, the Black cat machines, the Pazzles machines, the eCraft - so many choices, how does one possible decide?   My understanding of the above is that the majority of them have to be connected to a computer for them to work, but you do have the freedom of designing your own images or buying idividual images.   The eClips can be used with cartridges in a similar way to a cricut but can be used with eSCAL software as well.     It used to be the case that Cricut machines could be used with SCAL software, but for some reason Provocraft (manufacturers of Cricut and cuttlebugs to name but two) did not like this, so took legal action and the software is no longer available but, if one still has SCAL software it does work with some of the Cricut machines.

Now, I'm not entirely irresponsible, and thought that maybe shelling out hundreds of pounds for a fancy electronic machine might not be completely sensible, so eventually I decided to stick with the machine I had.

and then I changed my mind and ordered the Cricut Create, which produces the same size images as the original Cricut Personal electronic cutter but has the added functionality I wanted.   And it's arrived, and it's lovely and it's fabulous, so I am going to sell my original Cricut.   fortunately it's free listing weekend on ebay, so that's where it is.  LOOK HERE

And then yesterday lunchtime I went for a bit of a wander round town, and found that my local craft shop has some special offers on.  And one of them is for the Cricut Gypsy  (£99).  How dare they tempt me like that.   Fortunately I am strong, and I resisted temptation.  But not for long, I had a bit of a "chat" with a "friend" who agreed with me that it would be a crime to leave it there and given that it is my birthday in less that a fortnight then he would purchase it for me for my birthday.   BUT IT'S NOT MY BIRTHDAY FOR NEARLY A FORTNIGHT.    So I went back today with my credit card.

Just as well I'm selling my Sizzix Big Shot Express (a manual die cutter, but with a motor instead of a handle) Yes I'm putting a link to that as well HERE

I'll leave off telling you about the new laptop (QVC TSV) because I'm not sure you could cope with it. But what's a girl to do when it has free crafting software with it.

And the TV has died, but who's got time to watch TV when there's crafting to do.

FOR SALE BIG SHOT EXPRESS

I'll post photos tomorrow, but I am looking to sell my barely used Sizzix Big Shot Express, with 10 Bigz dies and a selection of about a dozen cuttlebug dies.  Hoping for about £100 but open to offers.  Have not checked how much it will cost for postage/shipping yet.

Playing Cricut

I probably posted about a year ago how lucky I am to have a sister such as mine who upgraded her original Cricut Personal cutter to a Cricut Expression and cast off her first machine in my direction.  And yes, it was/is a lovely birthday present, however given that it's less than 3 weeks until my next birthday it has occurred to me that I've barely used it.  And having watched the marvellous Melanie Heaton on Create and Craft on more than one occasion during the past 12 months I have decided it's time I take part in her 2012 mission to get people using their Cricuts.   If you are not familiar with her and/or her work, check out her blog Paper Dreams.

I have registered on the Cricut.com website and community so that I can read hints and tips and the like and there is indeed some very useful info (and, as with all forums, a bit of wingeing in this case about Provocraft - the manufacturer of the Cricut machines)

I have discovered, via this forum that there is a website which tells you what image is on what cartridge, which I think is great.  One of the things I'd like to do with my cricut is cut out paper hexagons templates for patchwork.  Yes I know that a cricut is capable of so much more, but cutting out paper templates by hand is a little tiresome, and they are not always as accurate as they should be.   There are companies that have discovered this and so will sell you packets of precut templates.  Ha - have you seen the price of them.

So going to Mycutsearch and typing in hexagon you get the following result   How fab is that?  so if my finances only stretch to one cartridge, I can now choose from the ones which have my hexagon and by looking at the other images on the cartridge I can see which will work out most useful.   And I can see more infomation about all cartridges in the library

There is a poster on the forums called Scrapalette who also posted the following information so I thank her for this

Here's the 411 on carts:

The regular Cricut carts contain 6 full Creative Features and can hold up to 700 images. These carts come in the storage box and have a spiral bound handbook showing all the images.

Lite carts have one Creative Feature key for layers and have 50 base images, some with additional layer options using other keys. These carts come in a plastic storage box and have a tri-fold pamphlet showing the images.

There are also:
Solution carts contain 2 Feature keys (usually a Shadow and a Blackout), one layer option and hold 50 images (not counting shadow, blackout or layers). These carts (initially) had no storage box and all the images are shown of the cardboard packing.
Seasonal carts have no Creative Features but some images have layers or shadows that are on the Character keys and hold 30 images and are usually a limited edition and centered around a theme. These carts have no storage box and all the images are shown on the cardboard packaging.
Project and Event carts have fewer images than full carts, images centered around a theme but these not limited edition releases. These carts have a plastic storage box and a modified (because there aren't as many images), non-spiral bound handbook.

Cake carts are really full carts just with images geared toward cake decorating but they can also be used with papercrafting.

Then, there are the two categories of Imagine carts: one that is images and patterns (Art) or just patterns/colors (Colors and Patterns).

And now, there are digital carts for use with CCR or a Gypsy.

I have a lot to learn and a lot to playing to do.   I think Mel has her work cut out (ha ha) in order to accomplish her mission

Later folks
xxx

ps - just discovered the cartridge I want was sold exclusively with the Expression machine - hmmmmmm - praise the lord for ebay

too tired to type

good evening

I didn't sleep very well last night and today I've spent quite a bit of time painting.   So no words, just pictures. And only 2 of those

Later folks

Much later

xxx

I won I won I won

Hurrah - I won one of the signed Spectrum Noir DVDs

Thank you Marianne Fisher

Now - painting or sewing or cricutting or colouring.   Or reading, or knitting, or crocheting, or cleaning the kitchen.

Decisions Decisions

Later folks
xxx