2 PARTS!!

1) Cricut Pricing Basics and 2) About the Cricut

1) Pricing:  CRICUT is the latest innovation for papershaping in the world of scrapbooking.  Recently online, the price of the Cricut has come down a bit . . .you should be looking at about $235 shipped. . actually as of 10/20 I have seen Cricuts on Ebay for just about $198 (not incl shipping).

The retail stores are still somewhere between $245-$299 and that is, once again, if you can find them in stock and if they are on sale to prevent use of the retailers coupons.  In September, the major stores have EXCLUDED the Cricut and Cricut supplies from their discount coupons.

Here is a helpful hint.  Ask the Ebay seller to provide you with the original receipt of the Cricut.  A buyer who wants the product should not be concerned with what one paid for a product if its something that the buyer wants and is willing to bid on.  Whats the reason for the receipt. . .even thought its debatable, ProvoCraft claims the 1 year warranty is only good with an authorized  resellers receipt. 

Lets elaborate just a bit. . .if the Seller is not an authorized agent of ProvoCraft., there is the likelyhood that the seller is getting the product at a major retailer for resale on EBay.  That is the receipt you need, not an Ebay invoice.

ABOUT THE CRICUT

Its awesome.  No longer do you have to cut individual letters or patterns from bulky and time consuming manual machines - Sorry Sizzix. 

Cricut does it all electronically.  Simply choose your font or pattern cartridge (typically $69-89 Retail and as of the summer from $50-60 on Ebay) and type away:  type thousands of awesome shapes, letters, phrases in wide a variety of styles. 

You do not need a PhD to learn this machine and you will be creating intricate designs and muli-layer shapes from 1 inch to 5.5 inch in no-time, for unlimited professional-looking scrapbook possibililties.  No other machine compares to its versatility.

Each Font/Shape comes with a keypad overlay and the Fonts works just like your computers keyboard.  This may seem to be an obvious reminder but when using a font/shape cartridge, make sure that you are using the corresponding keypad!  Each cartidge comes with Creative Feature Keys like Shadow Feature which cuts additional letters to a slightly smaller size than your standard size in one click.

The Mats (and blades) dont last forever, so for those who plan on making the investment in the Cricut, make sure you get extras.  This SOUNDS TOO logical but I am hearing that when the Mat starts to loose its tackyness, try double sided tape or apply a tacky spray for an extra few uses (I remember the spray from elementary arts and crafts!).  To me, I would just as well invest $10 for a pair of mats.

Also, make sure you register with Cricut for their newsletters which will give you usage tips and tricks

All-in-all you will save time and effort and increase your productivity and quality.

There are 7 Font sets and 6 Shape sets that are available either at the Retail Shop or Online.  The Cricut Machine gets you started with the George Font..  Based on what I have seen, the most popular of the FONTS are Base Camp, Jasmine and All Mixed Up.  As for the SHAPES DoodleCharms is a favorite of most as well as Christmas Cheers and Beyond Birthdays.

Hope this helps. . .You will have fun with this machine!!!!