CRICUIT EXPRESSION MACHINE

[dcb]

Waiting for mine to arrive in the mail any day now...looking for advice as to best place/price to buy cartridges...ebay/Michael's. Design Studio..what's that all about and do I need it? Looking for best bang for my buck and any advice/ideas as I am a total newbie to this cricuit process..card maker not scrapbooker..

Thanks,
dcb

[pjw2855]

dcb........I love my Expression. I also have the Design Studio. I would suggest you get used to using your machine before getting the Design Studio. That way you'll be comfortable with the features and better able to understand the Design Studio. Neither is difficult to learn but take it one step at a time.

Give yourself a couple weeks to work with the machine to try out all the features and see exactly what they do before you jump into a real project.

There are lots of places to get cartridges on the internet which are cheaper than you'll find in any store in my opinion.

Cricut.com, Cricut Machine.com are two that I can recommend for good sale prices. Be careful with Ebay as some may not be new in box. Otherwise you can get some decent deals on there also if you have the patience.

Patti

[lylacfey]

Don't pay a lot for Design Studio. I wouldn't pay over $15 for it. Cricut does plan to keep the cartridge library updated for now. They have no plans to upgrade this software. They are instead focusing on Cricut Craft Room. That's the online "Design Studio" that is in beta right now but should be out of beta by September. It was supposed to be April but Cricut is famed for taking twenty years on everything, lol.

Frugal cartridges: I do the Ebay thing. I wait for Michael's sale. There is a online site called CricutMachine you can find some great deals. CricutMachine does have a bad rep with some of the Cricut users when their servers were attacked and credit cards were compromised. After that fiasco they said things are more secure. I have used them since the fiasco with no problems. The prices are too tempting, so I gave it a try. A lot of Cricut fanatics use a prepaid Credit Card when purchasing from Cricut Machine.

I agree with Patti, don't jump in and buy everything with the Cricut. Take your time and learn the machine.

[craftydolls]

Best advice about cartridges: only buy them on sale! You can do well on ebay, but there are some good online retailers too. I like to stock up on Black Friday, Michaels always has a great price starting on Thanksgiving Day, and the selection is usually very good. Check out the information library on Cricut.com to look at the handbooks. It lets you see all the images on each cartridge so you can make an informed decision on what to buy.

I would recommend the Gypsy over DS (I have both), I find it easier to use. You really need one or the other to get the most from your machine. You will love your Cricut, it is so versatile and really is easy to use.

[vdoyle8]

I second the vote for the gypsy! I really liked my Expression but totally fell in love once I bought my gypsy. I find it easier to cut multiple images on scraps of paper by using my gypsy. And I don't have to schlep my carts to crops -- just my Gypsy. And I swore I wouldn't buy one LOL! So glad I did.