Sure Cuts A Lot 2.0 - New User Perspective

After realizing that Provo Craft was never going to enable the Cricut Imagine to use stand alone software like it did for the Cricut Expression, I decided to buy an Expression and Sure Cuts A Lot 2.0 (SCAL).  I got a great buy on a used Expression on eBay ($63) and SCAL was a very reasonable $60, so my buy-in price wasn't too bad.  I had also read on some message boards that the Roland cutting blades were superior to the PC ones, so I bought 5 of those for around $2 per blade on eBay (versus almost $4 for the PC blades).  I bought the 60 degree blades although you can easily buy the 45 degree blades (60 degree = PC deep cut blade; 45 degree = PC regular blade).  Both sizes fit in the regular blade housing.

Operating the Expression and the Imagine are very different and I was a bit intimidated.  Same with SCAL, but I'm not real big on reading manuals at first.  I'd rather dig in and try my hand at things and see what I can come up with.  My first order of business was to find some files that worked with SCAL.  The Internet is a treasure trove of all sorts and getting free graphics is no exception.  I found some very nice (FREE) .svg files that would work with SCAL and downloaded to my hearts content.

My first cutting attempts with SCAL were made using my regular card stock and I wasn't very happy with my results.  I had to experiment with pressure and blade settings to get things right and then find paper that would release from the cutting mat without making me spend too long struggling to ensure it wouldn't rip.  I ended up giving up on my regular stuff and started cutting some pearlized paper end cuts I bought from Paper Works.  WOW!  Nice crisp cuts, fine details.  comes right off the mat.  OK, now I'm happy.  Here is a picture of a heart.  It is made up of three cuts:  the base, the heart, and the swirl.  I used a glitter pen as an experiment.  I usually don't use glitter as it is a no-no for Operation Write Home cards (glitter can put our troops in harms way - 'nuff said).

I then decided to try to print and cut.  This is without benefit of reading any directions from the poster of the graphic and template.  I would imagine those are available but I'm not even sure where I downloaded the items from, so I had to use trial and error.  I cut out the template as-is on my first cut.  Boy, that was one big cut and I had the paper in the wrong position - ugh!  Then I printed out the graphic.  OK, no way they match up!  Fortunately, SCAL is very accurate about showing you where your cut will happen on your mat IF you take note of the unique perspective.  I don't know if the Expression is always like that but what you see at the top of the screen is NOT what cuts at the top of the page.  The Expression's starting point is upper right on the cutting mat and cuts sideways as you look at the mat, so top to bottom is actually right to left.  The Imagine's starting point is upper left on the cutting mat and cuts just as if you were reading a book, that is, left to right.  Long story a little shorter, I finally came up with this nice printed graphic of a tea cup with flowers and then cut it.  I trimmed a little here and there with my craft knife and then glued it to some white card stock that I cut out after making a couple of slight modifications to the template.  Here is a photo of the card I made from the tea cup.

First impressions:  I'm loving the flexibility of SCAL and the Expression.  I'm really glad I have both the Expression and the Imagine.  I think I have the best of both worlds.  I'm very happy with the added capabilities of the Expression and look forward to exploring those in the future (you'll see my posts on my experiences).  Thanks for reading and please come back soon.  If you want, go to the bottom of my blog and sign up for the RSS feed.  That way you'll know when I've added something new.