Customer Reviews

Cricut 29-0001 Personal Electronic Cutting Machine

5 star:		(60)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

This product is fantastic! If you're looking for a personal die cut system I wouldn't bother with anything else on the market right now. It is compact when closed, so it won't take up unnecessary table space. It is also very light and has a comfortable handle for travelling.

Yes, it is a bit of an investment, but it is honestly a better deal than many of the cheaper systems out there. It can cut each shape in 11 sizes from 1 inch to 5.5 inches. Most cartridges are around $90; compare that to quickutz & sizzix alphabets which retail for $150, can only cut one size, and take up a lot more storage space.

Blades are easy to replace and the cutting mats seem to last longer than cricut suggests. You'll get more life out of them by rotating the mat each time you cut and also storing it with the plastic sheet to keep dust from accumulating on the sticky surface.

I've heard of people having difficulty cutting thicker cardstock with this machine, but we have been able to cut bazzil easily by setting the blade depth to 6 and the speed & pressure to their max settings.

I've used both the Cricut and Xyron Personal Cutting System extensively and would recommend the Cricut.

I bought this product after seeing it on tv and reading alot of reviews, everyone seemed to just love this thing. So I bought one, and I played with it and it does cut nice shapes but most everything on the George cartridge is Fonts. When I watched the tv commercial they go to great detail on how this has up to 4500 different images, fonts etc. However, if you just buy the machine which comes with the George cartridge, you have about fourty shapes, all aimed at scrap books or cards primarily, the rest is different fonts, or shaded image or black out image or out lined image of the same shape or font. I feel for the price of this thing I was key on the 4500 different images. But alas you can have more if you buy more cartridges at 39.00 on sale(if you can find them) to 90.00 regular price. Which in my estimation for another 6 cartridges would tally up to at least two or three hundred dollars. So if you buy this machine it is neat, but be prepared to fork over at least another 200.00 for cartridges. And new mats, the mat looses its sticky pretty fast. It also takes quite alot of tinkering to get the cut depth right, I used regular construction paper it worked pretty easily, although when I went to textured cardstock, it didn't cut deep enough, took alot of trial an error. Some claim to use thin sheets of compostion board in this machine, from what I used it I'am highly skeptical. I'am an avid hobbist I work with alot of mediums from paper crafting, upholstry, painting and wood work. Overall I'am not nearly as impressed as everyone else.

I was a little skeptical when I first saw the Cricut at Michael's in the display case. I debated whether or not this machine was going to have a return on the investment. I have manual die cutters (Sizzix, Quickutz, ZAZ, etc.) and many dies that I have invested in to build my collection.

I looked at several personal electronic cutters, some that required connecting to a PC. I thought Wow, I could connect to my PC and print out on my printer, then run through the cutter. After much debate, I decided to go with the Cricut for several reasons. It doesn't require a PC and is portable and lightweight, the cartridges contain so many objects and designs to cut that I could not possibly purchase nor store this many dies, creating titles is a breeze because you don't need to cut one letter at a time...it does the whole word/words in whatever size you want from 1 to 5.5 inches, it's easy to use and while it's cutting you can be doing other things, it also saves on paper. It cuts vellum to Bazzill by adjusting the pressure/depth. The only thing I would change about it is the paper size maximum which is 6 x 12 inches. It would be really fantastic to have 12 x 12, especially with the Bags, Boxes, and More cartridge.

Overall, I'm glad I purchased the Cricut and my whole family is enjoying it. I'm looking forward to future new cartridges. Thanks, what a joy!

The Cricut is wonderful - a great tool to have. I have found a lot of uses for this machine outside of my scrapbooking addiction. My husband is a teacher so it's great to make smart looking bulletin boards in no time at all. It's a big investment, but compared to other die cut systems it's actually a great deal. Just having the flexibility to change the sizes of the fonts is worth the price. I agree that the cutting mat seems to last longer than Cricut says it will - which was one of my concerns when I bought the machine. I didn't want to have to be constantly buying replacement mats - but I'm not so that's great.

This machine is AWESOME! As a teacher, I don't have time to go and cut each letter individually on a die cut machine, now that I have the CRICUT, I don't have to worry about that anymore! With the CRICUT, I can type up the whole word, choose the size I want, as well as the style of font and press the "cut" button, it's that simple! This machine is a teacher's best friend and is well worth the investment! I can't wait to buy the other cartridges that are available.

I bought the Cricut machine when it first came out. I have used SOOOOOOOOOOOO many times. Every time that I use it I love the machine even more. I own a Sizzix die cut machine as well, but it doesn't hold a candle to the Cricut!

I was very excited to receive the Cricut personal cutter. After using the cutter a few times,4 x using typical paper not card stock, the cuts became less clean. Replacing the blade is the answer, but I feel the replacement is much to soon since the first use. However, the ideas and uses from the Cricut can be a fantastic for a scapper, card maker, or even school projects -- as described when researching this product. My disappointment is short life of the blade.

After seeing the commercial I was excited to order the Cricut but quickly found out the informercial was a little misleading. They claim that the machine is light-weight and I have to disagreee. They should state the number of pounds it weighs on its website. When I called customer service to return the machine I mentioned this and they explained that compared to their other model, this personal version is light-weight.
The infomercial also states that each cartridge has around 4500 images but I didn't find that the case unless you count the different font sizes as a separate image. If you really want to try the Cricut I would try buying it off Craigslist and then borrowing cartridges from other people who are willing to share, otherwise count on spending $60 for each one.

After attending a scrapbooking crop where I used the magnetic change the piece for each individual letter tool.. you know the one. I was thinking about how much time I had used up. It was like using an old fashioned printing press. I had been really reading up on what had been winning awards. This machines is awesome! I typed in "love" in small letters on light pink paper. Then changed the height to make it a little larger and then did it again on decorated paper. I simply typed in the word into the screen, checked cartridge was in and layed paper onto the special mat, adjusted the height number. NOW, the problem you will encounter are the mats only have limited use, so if you are going to a crop, bring along a few of them:) I read up on what # to type in for type of paper. You can cut thin to thick paper but you must let the machine know what you are doing. So I would not say, plug in & go with this machine. But then again you don't need to know how to program a vcr either. This machine company knows who their market is .. and most of us scrappers, etc. don't want to invest a day reading to go & play with a new toy. So, I summerize by saying I do not regret this purchase at all. This certainly has revolutionized scrapbooking (IMHO). I also thiink this is great for making signs, science fair posters, etc. I think I will do some internet searching for the many uses of/project ideas and print that to keep with my cricut. This is also a great way to use ugly paper you may have bought (what was I thinking?) or recieved as gift/swap. I'd love for others to post their best use.

Personally, I love my cricut. I have very little artistic ability, but I love to scrapbook the events in my life. As result when I saw this machine that made diecuts of exactly what I wanted I was thrill. My friends and family now praise my scrapbook pages and especially my handmade cards, which are less expensive than store bought and can take as little as five minutes to make. The machine works beautifully and I have had no problems using it at all. You do need to be able to read and follow directions to use it, though. However the whole system-machine, cartridges, mats, blade, etc. can be expensive. Everything except for the machine and cartridges has to be replaced. This is why I rated 4 stars. Both my husband and I were a little taken aback by the fact that the mats you place the paper on would have to replaced eventually. Use baby wipes to make them last longer. Also many of the essentials, like the spatula tool where not included unless you bought the machine from the infomerical. [...]