Directly from the source:
INTRODUCING
Cricut Mini™
Cricut Mini is a small, lightweight, ultra-portable way to make almost anything you want – out of many different types of materials, including thick and thin paper, fabric, vinyl, magnetic material, craft foil, and lots more. With Cricut Mini, it’s easier than ever to make projects and be more creative!
- Small, portable, and lightweight for ultra space savings.
- Works with any computer PC or MAC with a standard wireless or wired Internet connection.
- Simply plug it in, turn it on, connect to Cricut Craft Room – the online design tool where you can see and design with every Cricut cartridge – and start making projects..
- Cuts up to 8.5” x 12” paper and other materials. Cut small shapes and fonts from ¼” to larger cuts up to 11½”!
This is going to MSRP for $119.00, making it more affordable for people to get into the Cricut world. This machine is very small and quiet! It is designed to fit on the users desktop without being obtrusive.
I am a lover of Provo Craft products, as you know. Jinger Adams was at their booth drawing tickets for giveaways and guess what... I won something! I never win, but this time I did! I went home with a Cricut Expression Ultimate Essentials Kit (paper cutter w/extra score blade, spatula, deep blade and housing, mats, black vinyl, transfer tape, tool kit, stencil material) and the Kate's ABCs cartridge. Thank you PV and Jinger!
So while I'm on the topic of die cut machines, let's check out the eCraft die cutting machine.
Now I know this was featured in previous CHAs, but like I said, this was my first and I thought it was pretty awesome. This bad boy doesn't need cutting mats, can cut up to 12" wide and according to the salesperson, can continue to cut for ANY given length. The machine even can cut thousands of the same shape - in mediums such as vinyl, cardstock, velum and fabric - to make into dresses! The ladies who "manned" the booth were wearing dresses covered in circles cut by the machine then sewn on to look like disco dresses. I could kick myself for not taking their pics. But I did get a pic of their display dress:
The ladies had dresses on almost identical to the one featured on the craftwell website:
 |
| Picture from http://www.craftwellusa.com/ecraft-projects |
This machine has a MSRP of $249. It comes with a themed SD card of images and shapes, a rechargeable battery (so you can go cordless at crops!), 4 replacement blades, a pen, tweezers, feeding tray and roller. That reminds me, the machine cuts and draws at the same time. You can buy themed SD cards, or images from their website for 99 cents each. You also can create your own projects and import SVG files and access True Type and Open Type Fonts.
Craftwell also displayed their embossing machine that works up to letter and A4 sizes, which makes it the largest folder size currently available in the craft embossing world. Their machine will also work with most other embossing and cutting dies available (e.g. they had a Cuttlebug folder at the booth to show). The machine at the show was a prototype and if my memory serves me right, this will MSRP at $199.
Spellbinders showed me how their Presto Punch worked. This machine will punch and emboss without hand cranking manual labor. Just insert and press the buttons on top - the machine does the rest.
 |
| Picture from http://www.spellbinderspaperarts.com/presto-punch.html |
WAIT!!! There's more! Check out my next entry (tomorrow!) for the Make-and-Takes and my mixed media adventure!
