Took a break

Last month Provo Craft and Make the Cut made a settlement to discontinue being compatible with the cricut machines. And in the same sentence turned around and sued the makers of Sure Cuts A Lot and The Bug Magazine. All for copyright infringement. The Bug Magazine has been around longer than the Cricut Magazine.
However, now that the dust is starting to settle, and my complete disgust for them bringing the greedy world of "mine" to the creative community, I am ready to get back to work.

I will never be able to look at my cricut with the same excitement that I had before. As a creative person I never looked at the cricut as something limiting, like a apple computer. They have a USB port for plugging into the computer for Design Studio which never worked for me, yet my Gypsy did work fine on the same port. I saw this clutter bug as a printer that did die cuts. While Provo craft may have protected themselves, but they forever divided friends and family much like the North and South conflict. We have forever shared patterns, recipes, county fairs, state fairs. When approached about our creations we gladly shared the techniques, encouraged others. We were free advertisement as a friendly community.

I am still using that green clutter bug and all its carts, spent to much money to just toss it at this point. But it has opened a new world for me. I knew that Die Cutting machines were nothing new, they have been around for hundreds of years. That is why I always felt the Cricut was nothing more than a printer that cut shapes.

Now, the makers of Make the Cut and Sure Cuts A Lot were not destroyed in the lawsuits. The Settlements were just to discontinue use with the Cricut, fine... There are many more cutters out there that are gaining momentum in the scrapbooking world.

My favorite while I have not tried the machine yet, had a lovely conversation with the US owner of www.blackcatus.com. The company, and cougar is amazing. While the initial price is more than that of the clutter bug, you dont have to buy 90.00 carts for a few designs. No this and the others I will be listing have something called the SVG files, many which are free, or a few bucks. Plus with the SVG files you can trace a photo you own, and cut. I really cant wait til I am able to try this with my kids photos..

I will be inviting others to share their opinions and creations of their cutters. I will no longer be mentioning the clutter bug, nor is this a place to debate the issue. As I stated the craft community has had the awful taste of greed thrown in their quiet little friendly community. Sharing idea's may not be the way of Provo craft, but there are many that will still share idea's, crafts, and patterns. They can not kill the county fairs, just have made family functions uncomfortable, destroyed friendships. We will just crop with cutters that allow sharing of idea's.

Here is a list of truly creative die cut machines that embrace the craft community.

Black Cat, Lynx, the Cougar~ personally my favorite.

Craftwell eCraft™

BossKut Gazelle™

Pazzles Inspiration™

Silhouette SD™

USCutter™

Craft ROBO/Graphtec™ machines
including Wishblade™

They connect directly to your PC/Mac for endless amounts of creative ability.

Now back to creating wonderful works of crafts.