Lately, though I do love my Cricut, I've been considering venturing out into the world of cutters. I've heard so many great things about so many of the cutters, and there seem to be perks about each one... so, my contenders are:
The ECraft: $200.00 and up on e-bay
No Cutting Mat Required, cuts and draws with pens. NO length limit... you can even stack paper or insert a paper roll, and it will just keep loading and cutting. To me, this is the biggest perk to this sucker... I HATE my Cricut cutting mats, and the new ones (for the IMAGINE) are barely sticky at all, which is terrible for card stock! The downfalls of course, the cards are about as much as a Cricut Cartridge on e-bay, (30 bucks) and there seems to be no altering the image at all (no shadow feature, blackout feature etc.) In just now looking at their website (yet again) it seems that they are now offering single images for purchase. Though how they are loaded, I'm not quite sure!The Silhouette $299.99
This is the one that my friends have been raving about the most lately. The biggest perk is that you can buy each image on it's own, for less than a dollar. You can get software to manipulate the designs however you want, and you can also cut out your own designs. This is the biggest perk for me, as I've made quite a career for myself using photoshop. Cricut Expression 2: $299.99
This Cricut has some differences from the original Cricut Expression... one that may be worth it for me to sell my Expression and get the Expression 2.
Their 'upgrades' include:
You'll enjoy these great features and many more:
- Sleeker design with all-new colors and finishes
- Cuts with all Cricut® and Cricut Imagine® cartridges
- Wireless compatibility (optional accessories)
- Full-color LCD touch screen display with stylus
- No keypad overlay required
- Mat preview
- Material setting
- Cutting area light
- Exclusive cartridge content preloaded on the machine
- Swappable side-trim pieces
- Settings menu
Now, for me, the best upgrade on here is the Material setting. I'd love to stop guessing what speed and pressure to set, and stop wasting paper with the mistakes!
So, these are my three 'considerations' for when I win the Lotto that I don't play ;) While the cost on all 3 is comparable (the e-craft has a wide range of prices on e-bay, but none listed on their official website), the start-up cost seems to be lowest for the Silhouette since you can purchase singletons. For me, as I already have a dozen or so Cricut Carts, I've got a decent start, so I could use it right away.
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