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I asked for it for my birthday and my sisters got it for me. I had wanted one so bad. However , I didn't realize that design studio would only cut the one cartridge you owned. I thought you could use your cartridge , i guess like a gateway , and then cut any of the images.I could have sworn that I saw someone on a video or a message board talking about how they wouldn't have to buy cartridges anymore. Now I have downloaded the trials of scal and mtc and I can tell you right now , i won't be able to figure those out. I will never be able to afford any other cartridges , so I am stuck with plantin schoolbook and serenade. I just wanted to do the paperdolls. I am so bummed..........I feel so stupid having thought i could cut anything with the design studio.
Oh my gosh! I love my cricut! I have had it for 3 1/2 years! Sorry about the mis understanding about Design Studio. Really if you could buy design studio for $69 and use all the cartridges then I don't think they would sell many cartridges.. If the $89 price tag on the carts scare you, keep in mind that I have about 70 carts and I have NEVER paid $89 for a cart. They go on sale all the time. Plus you can find some of the older ones for very cheap! check out the Cricut Message board. There are lots of ideas there. I personally do not have SCAL so can't help with that but there are plenty of people that can and will help you. I hope you don't get discouraged! I love my cricut!
I do not have a cricut, but I see the cartridges on sale at walmart for $20-30. Also, here in the Seattle area, we have craft stores that will rent cartridges. I only have a Sizzix, but my friends and I share all of our supplies, stamps, punches, etc.
I don't have the design studio for cricut so I can't help you there but like another poster said, cricut carts go on sale all the time at Mike's and Joanns. Some buy them very cheap online...I"m not an online shopper but I bet someone else could offer a suggestion where to get them. I will have my cricut a year this april and have 8 carts...only one did I pay 60 for and that's cause I couldn't wait any longer to own it LOL. The rest were under 40 each.
avajo......Design Studio is a wonderful program and no you don't need those other to programs at all. Even with just the 2 cartridges you have you can do lots of things. Just sit down and practice with them for a few hours. You'll soon discover what you can achieve.
CricutMachine.com is currently running a sale on lots of cartridges and some for really, really cheap. I have nearly 40 cartridges for my Cricut and Expression and like others, have never paid full price for any of them. Actually, I've never paid over $49 for any.
I can't imagine what you read or saw that gave the idea you could cut everything with just 1 cartridge and the Design Studio.
The Design Studio is very easy to learn and gives so many options for expanding what ever cartridges you do have.
Don't be discouraged, you made a great investment and just need to settle down and work with what you have. Check out all the other sites that run sales on the cartridges also. Just be certain that you only purchase new, in the box cartridges. I would not advise purchasing anyone selling used or unwanted ones.
Give it a chance, I think you'll find the enjoyment in your Cricut that everyone else has.
Thank you all for the encouragement. I did wonder why provo-craft would make a program that made purchasing they're cartridges unnessesary. To add to my confusion , when I recieved my cricut we were at my sisters and my niece said that she had a friend that had to have all the cartridges.She said her friend was obessed with owning them all even if Misty (niece) had them the girl didn't want to borrow it cause she had to have her own. Then she said "I have the design Studio , so I don't nee all those cartridges." That , and other stuff I've heard just confused me I guess.........it doesn't take much,lol.........
Well if you have friends that have cartridges that haven't been uploaded to Gypsy then you can borrow as needed.
I love my Cricut but don't use it nearly enough. Two things I have to sort out is to have it linked to computer in my crafting area and that computer to have internet access. I think having it permanently linked (at the moment I have it on a trolley and move it near the computer when I need it). As a stand alone tool I don't like using it I prefer to look on a computer screen to see my cuts.
If you upload them to gypsy no one else can use them? Just curious. No , I don't have anyone to borrow from. Mysister and niece live in La. I was there for Thanksgiving , which was also my birthday. Thats how I happened to be there when I recieved my cricut for my bd.
Yes, if the cartridge has been uploaded to a Gypsy then it can't be used normally by someone else you have to use it through your Gypsy.
Personally I don't like that. Even though I have cartridges that I doubt I will get rid of I don't like buying a cartridge and having it tied specifically to a Gypsy.
There are however, scrapbook stores that rent them. Personally I just try to save up and buy older ones that I like in the sales - it keeps me from impulse buying as well.
If you want to use your machine without cartridges the SCAL and MTC are available and you can buy or get free files off the internet. I have link on my own blog to a guy in England that makes files and he tends to have a free file about once a week that can be used on a cricut/sillouette/craftrobo etc.
ETA - even with the Gypsy you still have to upload cartridges at this time - I presume at some point they will have a way that Gypsy owners can directly download from the Provocraft site but who knows.
My understanding is that, if a cartridge is uploaded onto a Gypsy, you can't upload it to another Gypsy. You can still use that cartridge in your Cricut and with Design Studo.
I agree with ScrapJenny. If you upload a cartridge to a Gypsy, you cannot upload it to ANOTHER Gypsy but can use it on any Cricut. I have uploaded cartridges that my friend has borrowed to use on her Cricut or I use on my older Cricut. (Have an Expression but keep the older Cricut to take to classes)
Good luck with you new tool. Just look through the cartridge manuals and you will see that there are LOTS of options to cut.
Have fun!
Last edited by Crafter 4 Life; 02-07-2010 at 08:07 AM..
Reason: correct typing
I asked for it for my birthday and my sisters got it for me. I had wanted one so bad. However , I didn't realize that design studio would only cut the one cartridge you owned. I thought you could use your cartridge , i guess like a gateway , and then cut any of the images.I could have sworn that I saw someone on a video or a message board talking about how they wouldn't have to buy cartridges anymore. Now I have downloaded the trials of scal and mtc and I can tell you right now , i won't be able to figure those out. I will never be able to afford any other cartridges , so I am stuck with plantin schoolbook and serenade. I just wanted to do the paperdolls. I am so bummed..........I feel so stupid having thought i could cut anything with the design studio.
That's one of the older cartridges so you can probably find it on sale. I got mine at Michaels when they had all the cartridges on sale a couple of months ago. Also check "Oh My Crafts" - they have very reasonable prices.
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Join the Cricut Message board. There is a BST forum on there where you can buy carts. Also try customcrops.com they have sale all the time. A word of warning about the Gypsy. If you don't own the cartridge do not load it on your Gypsy. Provo craft will not replace it if something happens to the Gypsy. The Gypsy and cartridge have to be registered to the same person.
HTH
Suzi
Last edited by bunnystamper; 02-07-2010 at 12:47 PM..
Ladies.....There seems to be some confusion. If you have installed a cartridge on your Gypsy, you or anyone else can still use that cartridge on any Cricut or Expression with no problem.
You can't install a cartridge on more than one Gypsy.
There are two paper doll cartridges. Paper Doll People (older one) and Everyday Paper Dolls (newer one). I have both and they are both great. Lots of "extra" images to use for all kinds of situations.
CricutMachine.com also has very good sales, but I feel their shipping is a bit high. Delivery time is pretty quick though. I get it within 2-3 days in NJ.
The whole gypsy thing scares me. Even if you can use it on it's own after loading it on gypsy, the idea of not being able to load it on another gypsy is not cool. What if your gypsy meets with an unfortunate accident. Now your cart can't be loaded onto your new gypsy...sounds scammy to me. I know they are trying to protect themselves from copyright issues around the cartridges but they have not thought everything out if this is the case.
AS others have said - if you load a cartridge to a gypsy it can only be used with that gypsy OR any cricut machine. You can still take them and use on another person's cricut but not to another gypsy ---make sense?
To be honest - Until I got my gypsy I wasn't using my cricut nearly enough to justify the cost - If you take the time to learn design studio I think it will be the same for you.
I havent bought SCAL or the new Make The Cut(? is that the name) but lots of people love it cuz you can download files and images from the internet and NOT have to use a cart - personally -to date I have preferred the cartridges which I always keep an eye on to see whats on sale - tip - it takes a year or so for the newer ones to get on sale below $30.
MTC is easier than SCAL. I suggest you play with that for a while. Like another poster said, watch the videos a few times, then play with it. There are a lot of baby boomers that create their own SVG files using MTC so don't give up! I don't create my own, I just download files others share for free. It's like getting a new cartridge every week for free!
I have Sure Cuts A Lot 2 and love it. It's so awesome that I can cut my own designs with it on my baby bug. But, I'm sure if I didn't have SCAL I wouldn't use my Cricut much, but because of SCAL I use it all the time. Once you learn the program, it can do awesome projects. Check out the forums on the Craft Edge website and on utube. Also, the latest SCAL update has lots of free shapes and projects already built into the library in the program and there's tons of free cutting files on the Craft Edge website too so you don't have to spend money to buy cartridges.
I really want to encourage you!! You can use SCAL or MTC. It might be too much for you right now to design the stuff yourself. You can buy svg's or find free one (I publish in one of my blogs some svg's, scal's, etc... almost daily (it is the cutter one)). Try one of them. See how it goes, and let us know. You can do it, ok? Drop me a comment if you visit my blog.
The whole gypsy thing scares me. Even if you can use it on it's own after loading it on gypsy, the idea of not being able to load it on another gypsy is not cool. What if your gypsy meets with an unfortunate accident. Now your cart can't be loaded onto your new gypsy...sounds scammy to me. I know they are trying to protect themselves from copyright issues around the cartridges but they have not thought everything out if this is the case.
Why on earth does it sound "scammy"? If there wasn't that protection in place, a cartridge could be loaded to an infinite number of gypsy machines, and almost no one would buy a cartridge. Why shouldn't provocraft be allowed to protect its digital media? It's just like various protections in place for DVDs, iTunes, video games...
Actually your little Plantin cartridge is a wealth of cutting files. Look for Design Studio blogs and over at the Cricut Message Boards for files made with Plantin. You can get everything from Faux Nestabilities to Boxes.
I am sorry you had a misunderstanding about Design Studio. ProvoCraft would have been sued if they sold a software allowing us to cut from all the cartridges without owning them. The customers that had already spent thousands of dollars on carts would have flipped.
Most of my cartridges I buy are only $25-45 dollars. Also included with many of the cartridges are reward certificates where you can get more cartridges just for the price of shipping and handling. You can use your reward points on S&H too.
Also around the holiday times Cricut offers great deals on cartridges such as buy 2 get 1 free. I own 51 cartridges and probably have at least a dozen that were free.
SCAL & MTC are great additions to your Cricut. You can cut out any font, shape or coloring page using those programs. Both programs have very helpful forums with girls and guys who will help lead you through all the complexities of the program.
Don't give up on your Cricut yet. You are just frustrated right now. You do have a powerhouse for a machine.
Gypsy- You can use your cartridges after the cartridge has been loaded to the Gypsy. There is nothing wrong with the cartridge at all. You just can't use that cartridge on another Gypsy. You can use it with Design Studio or alone in your Cricut.
I have all my carts on my Gypsy and I used a cartridge this week to cut with Sure Cuts Alot. You do need a cart in SCAL. Not sure about MTC since I do not have that program.
If your Gypsy should fail Cricut will replace it. They reserialize the number. Over at the Cricut board there are some excellent posts about this.
Thank you all for such good information. I know it seems silly that I thought I could use all cartridges without buying them if I had ds.I was just overwhelmed and became confused. I did think "well how can they do that-it makes no sense.......they won't sell anymore carts and the people that bought a bunch are gonna be po'ed.." so all those thoughts went through my head , but like I said , I was confused about all of it. So much information , and then I began reading about scal , ds , mtc and I think theres one more although I'm not sure about that. Now I have to decide which program is best.....oh my.......
Yes, if the cartridge has been uploaded to a Gypsy then it can't be used normally by someone else you have to use it through your Gypsy.
Personally I don't like that. Even though I have cartridges that I doubt I will get rid of I don't like buying a cartridge and having it tied specifically to a Gypsy.
There are however, scrapbook stores that rent them. Personally I just try to save up and buy older ones that I like in the sales - it keeps me from impulse buying as well.
If you want to use your machine without cartridges the SCAL and MTC are available and you can buy or get free files off the internet. I have link on my own blog to a guy in England that makes files and he tends to have a free file about once a week that can be used on a cricut/sillouette/craftrobo etc.
ETA - even with the Gypsy you still have to upload cartridges at this time - I presume at some point they will have a way that Gypsy owners can directly download from the Provocraft site but who knows.
Cartridges that have been linked to a Gypsy can still be used in any Cricut machine on the planet. They can be used "normally" not only in the owner's Cricut machine, but in any other Cricut machine.
What they cannot do is be linked to another Gypsy.
__________________ Hi! I'm ISO the Fun Stampers Journey stamp "Say Cheese" AT-0167. Thank you!
Last edited by TheOtherMeg; 02-08-2010 at 05:21 AM..
Regarding DS, there have been posts on the Cricut message boards by people who thought that if they owned DS, they would not have to buy cartridges. It's not an uncommon misunderstanding.
What contributes to the misunderstanding is that you can DESIGN with all the Cricut cartridges when you're using DS, but you can only CUT the design if you have the cartridge(s) you used to create it.
__________________ Hi! I'm ISO the Fun Stampers Journey stamp "Say Cheese" AT-0167. Thank you!
Cartridges that have been linked to a Gypsy can still be used in any Cricut machine on the planet. They can be used "normally" not only in the owner's Cricut machine, but in any other Cricut machine.
What they cannot do is be linked to another Gypsy.
This was already addressed - no need to bold at me. - I even apologised for my mistake in either this thread or the other running concurrently. I guess I'm not allowed to be mistaken.
However, I still wouldn't have cartridges linked to a Gypsy when I can upload them to a laptop/netbook and CDS and take that everywhere with me and not have my cartridges affected.
I'm sorry about the bold. I don't know why the entire post was bolded.
You can upload your carts to your laptop/netbook? Would you explain how you do that, please? Can you cut from the laptop/netbook, as well (sounds like it, if you can leave your carts at home).
I've never heard/read of this possibility and am very interested as I have DS on a netbook and can only design on-the-go. I don't know how to cut on-the-go unless I bring my carts (and E, of course) with me.
__________________ Hi! I'm ISO the Fun Stampers Journey stamp "Say Cheese" AT-0167. Thank you!
I'm sorry about the bold. I don't know why the entire post was bolded.
You can upload your carts to your laptop/netbook? Would you explain how you do that, please? Can you cut from the laptop/netbook, as well (sounds like it, if you can leave your carts at home).
I've never heard/read of this possibility and am very interested as I have DS on a netbook and can only design on-the-go. I don't know how to cut on-the-go unless I bring my carts (and E, of course) with me.
You can't upload your cartridges to your netbook. The only way you can upload your cartridges is to a Gypsy. You can use Design Studio on your netbook but you must have the cartridge to cut your designs with.
I'm sorry about the bold. I don't know why the entire post was bolded.
You can upload your carts to your laptop/netbook? Would you explain how you do that, please? Can you cut from the laptop/netbook, as well (sounds like it, if you can leave your carts at home).
I've never heard/read of this possibility and am very interested as I have DS on a netbook and can only design on-the-go. I don't know how to cut on-the-go unless I bring my carts (and E, of course) with me.
I use CDS and the jukeboxes - I don't tote my cricut from home but as one of the Gypsy's selling points is designing on the go - you CAN design on the go with CDS etc. Yes, to cut you would need your cartridges still but that is assuming you are somewhere without them which doesn't apply to many Cricut users. That is why for me the Gypsy isn't necessary. I have all the tools I need to use the Cricut as I need. Everyone else needs to assess for themselves, but the Gypsy isn't as necessary as some way of manipulating images on a larger screen for me.
You can't upload your cartridges to your netbook. The only way you can upload your cartridges is to a Gypsy. You can use Design Studio on your netbook but you must have the cartridge to cut your designs with.
Yes, that's what I thought, but River Isis said. "However, I still wouldn't have cartridges linked to a Gypsy when I can upload them to a laptop/netbook and CDS and take that everywhere with me and not have my cartridges affected."
I was hoping she had figured out some way to upload the carts to a laptop/netbook. I have absolutely no idea how that would/could be done.
__________________ Hi! I'm ISO the Fun Stampers Journey stamp "Say Cheese" AT-0167. Thank you!
Is there a favor box I can cut from ds using plantin schoolbook? There are a couple on schoolbook but I don't really like the look of them-is there something prettier from ds?
Yes, that's what I thought, but River Isis said. "However, I still wouldn't have cartridges linked to a Gypsy when I can upload them to a laptop/netbook and CDS and take that everywhere with me and not have my cartridges affected."
I was hoping she had figured out some way to upload the carts to a laptop/netbook. I have absolutely no idea how that would/could be done.
And what I said is true. I didn't say I could take that as a stand alone to cut with the machine as the Gypsy is marketed heavily as designing on the go tool. Glad we got that all straightened out :-D
avajo.....If ds you are referring to Design Studio, then the response is no. You can only use the Design Studio to edit or enhance the images on a cartridge. You can add images from others cartridges to change the look of something you find on Plantin Schoolbook. The only image I see on the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge that could be used as a favor is a tote bag. That could be cut then add images from the same cartridge or another cartridge to it. You could also cut out something on the side of the tote bag using the Design Studio (if you know how). That would also change the look of a plain tote bag.
I still don't understand how you're uploading your carts to a laptop/netbook.
By using Cricut Design Studio. You don't have to hook up your Cricut to your computer everytime to use it to design. You do have to hook it up to your Cricut and the Cartridges (in my case through jukeboxes) to cut. As I said for designing you don't need the Gypsy and as I don't travel with my cricut that is the only selling point. If I travelled to crop then I could see the benefits, but its a non-issue unless you are travelling to crops and don't want to tote cartridges(and Jukeboxes).
"By using Cricut Design Studio. You don't have to hook up your Cricut to your computer everytime to use it to design. You do have to hook it up to your Cricut and the Cartridges (in my case through jukeboxes) to cut."
CDS doesn't upload your carts to your laptop, netbook, or computer. The program itself has all of the cartridges available to purchase for the Cricut.
so dissapointed in my cricut...
