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Wednesday, April 7, 2010

I *heart* Cricut

I love my new Cricut.

Last Friday my Cricut Expression came in the mail.  After failing to find a better deal on eBay, I bought it from www.cricutmachine.com for $239.99 with free shipping.


This machine is primarily targeted to scrapbook and/or paper craft fans.  You can modify this machine to also cut out fondant, gumpaste, modeling chocolate, etc. for cake decorating.  There's even a new Cricut Cake machine coming on to the market just for those purposes, but with more versatility and is 100% food safe.  My machine, however, is strictly for paper ... if I really want to get into cake decorating, I'll buy a separate Cake version for that.

If you don't know what a Cricut is, imagine your computer printer but instead of an ink jet head, you have a blade.  The Cricut can cut out shapes from paper, cardstock, and even fabric.  The Cricut Expression is the biggest version of the ProvoCraft's Cricut product line.  It can cut maximum 12"x24" shapes. 

Unfortunately there are some hoops to jump through to go from intangible shape to cut-out paper.  Cricut offers fonts and shapes via cartridges at a heart-clutching $60-80 a pop at full retail price.  The Expression came with 2 cartridges, but I don't plan on getting any more.  I'm going the more tech-savvy route.

If you want to avoid buying expensive cartridges, you can purchase one of the 2 available 3rd party software made for the Cricut machines that allow you to cut any image or true-type font you want:
  • Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL) v2.0
  • Make the Cut (MTC)
After lots of research and demoing both trial versions, I purchased SCAL while they still had their Easter special ($59.95 plus 10% off with coupon code 8774959 => $53.95).  MTC was very easy to use, but I found SCAL had more features that I liked.

Anywho, what's all this go to do with cake???  Easy.  My cupcakes will never be naked again.  I found templates for cupcake wrappers that you can set your cuppies in after they've been decorated.

Here are a few that are too cute:

(photo from website below ... I'll replace it with one of my own next time I bake cuppies)

http://www.iloveknk.com/2008/12/free-files-cupcake-wrappers/

I can't wait to expand my creative horizons with this new toy.  Let me know if you have any tips or favorite SVG (scalable vector graphics) sites!

3 comments:

  1. I've been drooling over both Cricut machines. Jealous! Can't wait to see what you create!

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  2. Haha I should have said that I got a bonus at work, so I had money to spoil myself. It's nice to have a new toy!

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  3. I'd recommend that if you do want to use the machine to decorate cakes, that you use the icing sheets instead of gumpaste. They're much easier to deal with, and you can stick them to the adhesive like it's regular paper, no special babying of the cutting mat needed.

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