Scrapbook / Sign / Mask cutters – are there hobby options other than Cricut

[ttubbs]

My wife has mentioned she really would like one of these machines, but gave up on them after seeing the price tag. She has said she doesn’t want anything for Christmas again this year, but I was thinking maybe Santa could leave something for her too.

This seems to be the only option at scrapbook stores, but I would think there must be some sort of hobby level plotter type cutters used for making stencils and masks for signs or other arts and crafts sorts of things. Do you know of any, and, if so, how they compare to this machine? What I’m thinking is a plotter type cutter would hook to the computer, and paired with Photoshop or something like that, you could cut out anything you could dream up (or at least find clip art for).

Idea, opinions, random thoughts all welcome!
TIA

[sneezles]

There's a machine on eBay (http://cgi.ebay.com/CRICUT-MACHINE-Brand-New-Includes-George-CARTRIDGE_W0QQitemZ170060020361QQihZ007QQcategoryZ 71228QQcmdZViewItem)

[hrk]

ttubbs- Such a machine exists that will cut anything you can dream up, it is called a wishblade or craft robo. It hooks up to your computer and whatever you can design, you can cut. It will also cut any True type font that you have on your computer. In the short run it is more expensive than the Cricut machine, with a price tag of around $400, but in the long run it is much cheaper than the Cricut, because with the cricut you have to keep buying font, shape, design cartridges etc. You will not find the wishblade or craftrobo in a store, they are only sold online or through independent consultants.
I do a tremendous amount of scrapbooking and personally I own a craft robo and absolutely love it. I use it all the time and can honestly say it was worth every penny. Feel free to email me at hrkalish@hotmail.com if you want more info.
Heather

[ttubbs]

I knew there had to be something! I looked up the Craft ROBO, and that sounds just like what I’m looking for. It’s on sale for $339 most places I looked, so not much more than the $299 Circuit (though it is also on sale for $239 right now I think).

So, questions…
One review said Craft ROBO and Wishblade are the same with different branding, but that there are packaged fonts, clip art, etc you can buy specifically for Wishblade. I don’t care about that really, but it was mentioned that the Wishblade had something that would (oh, what word did they use?!) merge letters together, but there was a free download for Craft ROBO that would do this too. My question here is a curious one - why would you want to do that? Other manual die cutters, just cut individual letters, what is the need to have them all attached?

The Craft ROBO says it is compatible with Adobe Illustrator. Is Illustrator common among scrapbookers? I know Photoshop or Photoshop essentials are, but Illustrator? What software have you had success with?

It also says all you have to do is print it on your color inkjet, then run it through the cutter. Can you not just have some black and white clip art/line art in some paint software that you say output to the cutter? Then you run whatever color of card stock through you want. I know there is some printing then cutting out in scrapbooking, but a large part is just building up your design out of cardstock w/o printing, right? Since Cricut doesn’t print anything, I assume that is what it does, cuts shapes out of cardstock. It doesn’t require a printed image to cut from. Am I off here?

One more for now, in your opinion, who’s a good distributor I should consider buying from?

[Goin' Coastal]

If you are still considering cricut - JoAnn's price is $189.99.

[ttubbs]

If you are still considering cricut - JoAnn's price is $189.99.

Their web site says $209 this morning, and the flier in the paper said to come to the store for pricing. I've only been looking online, so maybe there are some good deals like yours our there.

I think I am leaning toward the ROBO thing. I like that it can use any TTF and most images you can come up with, and all without buying any more cartridges. I want to make certain it doesn't require Illustrator to do this though.

[hrk]

ttubbs- I will try and answer your questions.
1) First the craftrobo and the wishblade are the same machine. Craftrobo is manufactured by Graphtec and comes with the machine, the cutting mat (a sticky mat that holds your paper in place), three different blades for cutting different thicknesses of paper and the robomaster software, which runs the machine (more on the software in a minute)
The wishblade is manufactured by Xyron and comes with everything mentioned above, except it comes with a different software program written for the wishblade. This program is different in that it will recognize graphics and fonts from SD cards manufactured by Xyron. So you can buy premade cards ( as long as you have a card reader) and use it with your wishblade.

I own the craftrobo and I have more fonts and graphics than I know what to do with. There are tons of sites on the net, one of the best being Scrapbookcutters.com:
http://hiddenjems02.no-ip.info/scrapbookcutters/default.asp If you explore that site ( you might have to register) by should be able to get an idea of that amount of graphics available for free to download and there are literally thousands of fonts available for free on the web, so you can actually get overwhlmed by the choices available.

From here on in I am just going to refer to the machines as cutters:
As for what the cutters can do:
They can cut anything, any size up to 81/2 (the width of the machine) by any length. You can cut any True type font you have on your computer, you can cut any graphic that is in a file format known as a .gsd. These in themselves are fantastic. But beyond that you can do what are called print and cuts. You can print out any graphic on a color printer and they have it cut it out on your cutter. Now I know most people would say just use scissors, but for example, I did a layout with a font that had flower blossoms in the middle of all the letters. I printed out all the letters with the the flowers all colored in and then put it through the cutter and while I was busy doing something else the cutter cut out all the letters. Does this make sense?

As for your question about software, both the cutters come with software that will allow you to do any cutting and simple tracing and "welding" (attaching letters together) You do not need any other software. That being said, you will see lots of references to Illustrator and a program called Inkscape. Photoshop will not work with either cutter. Illustrator and Inksape are both design programs that will let you do more than just the basics. Inkscape is available for free off the web and Illustrator is $99 if you know a student whose ID you can use for the student discount. Both these programs have features that make designing your own files easier, but as I said neither of them is necessary. But if you think you may ever start using Illustrator, the craftrobo software works with it as well, whereas the wishblade requires a "bridging program" and that is an extra $100.

Finally where to buy it. I bought mine from an independent seller and she was fantastic. She was very comporable to the prices I was seeing online from scrapbook retailers and she included a couple of discs of extra fonts, followed up with me to see how I was doing and I would not hesitate to recommend her to you.

If this is what you want let me know. I will see if I can get a picture uploaded of some of the files I have designed and cut uploaded.
Heather

[hrk]

ttubbs-
These are some files I designed using Illustrator and cut on my Craftrobo. Jus a couple of things to point out:
1) The star with Eight Nights in it is all one piece the letters are all attached to each other and are attached to the star.
2)The dreidel and menorah are traditional paper pieceings like you refering to where I just cut them from different color papers and then pieced them together.
3) The happy Hanukkah is all one piece and then the package is cut from a separate color.
The letter ebing attached is what is called welding and like I said it is very popular, one because it looks great and two you can them make mats to put behind the words to create "shadows"
I hope this helps show what the cutter is capable of doing.
http://hkalish.photosite.com/~photos/tn/721_1024.ts1166204544843.jpg

[ttubbs]

That was very helpful, and the info I was looking for. Thanks! Yes, please make your recommendation for distributor.

[hrk]

ttubbs-
The woman I got mine from was Martha Jackson. She is a direct distributor and I got great service from her. Here is her email:
marthajackson1970@yahoo.com
I hope your wife likes her new cutter and tell her there are numerous groups on Yahoo, wishblade, wishblade venting, craftrobo and wishbladecafe where she can come to for help with problems, advice and lots and lot of graphics to download.
Heather

[ttubbs]

ttubbs-
The woman I got mine from was Martha Jackson. She is a direct distributor and I got great service from her. Here is her email:
marthajackson1970@yahoo.com
I hope your wife likes her new cutter and tell her there are numerous groups on Yahoo, wishblade, wishblade venting, craftrobo and wishbladecafe where she can come to for help with problems, advice and lots and lot of graphics to download.
Heather

Thank you very much! I decided I just wasn’t comfortable enough to spring for this without talking to my wife first. If I’m getting mail order, I wanted to make sure she really wanted something like this. She liked it, pondered it for a day, then let me know she’d rather get some furniture first. She just uses a fold out table and plastic tubs to do her scraping in the basement. She’d like to start fixing up a more comfortable environment with shelves, desk, and especially organized storage. The cutter is on her wish list though.

I’ve shown her the links you’ve provided, and I know she’ll start looking into it. She is very curious about the graphics that can be downloaded, and wants to start checking that out just to see what is available.

Thanks again,

[DanaSD]

bumping this up to see if there is any new input. With so many stores with cricut deals this weekend I bought one but I do so much with graphics on the computer it seems a waste not to be able to use the computer. I use photoshop but I do have illustrator - just don't know how to use it.

My biggests questions are these still the 2 options, is there a specific model I should get?, and how is the learning curve (cricut looks very simple).

[hrk]

Dana-
The cricut is not the only option, but it certainly is the most popular. It is a great machine and can do a lot in terms of cutting, but you either need to buy their design software that goes with it so you can design your own files or you need to buy their cartridges, which can add up to a lot of money fast.

There is a new cutter on the market, that works with computer software so you can design your own files. It is called a Gazelle and the nice thing about it, it cuts up to true 12x12 files, it can cut light chipboard and the program it uses will read Illustrator files.

HTH, let me know if you need more info.
HEather