Showing posts with label crafts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crafts. Show all posts

Monday, May 24, 2010

Slice Digital Crafting Tools

Slice Cordless Digital Designer

Do you remember taking Shop or Home Ec in high school?  Those were the times when creativity was encouraged.  If you really wanted something, the first thing you tried to do was to make it yourself.  These classes gave you the foundation for the skills that not only developed your creative ability, but also enhanced your manual dexterity.  The schools today don’t seem to have the money to fund these types of classes, although we spend about more money per student than any other country in the world.  Is there any formal education where kids today can be introduced to these skills?  I don’t think so.

My wife pointed out the Slice Digital Designer on an As Seen On TV spot.  It's a digital machine that cuts, draws and embosses.  I immediately thought of my granddaughters who are very computer literate.  I hoped that the digital aspect of the gizmo would interest them enough so they would really see how much fun being creative could be.  The 30 day trial was $14.95 with free shipping and a money back guarantee, so I ordered one to see if I could pique their interest.

It arrived, and I couldn’t believe all the stuff that it came with.  The Slice Digital Designer Kit came with the 3-in-1 machine, power cord adapter and owner’s manual.  The other goodies included alphabets, geometric shapes, glass cutting mat, grids and replacement blades.  To make it even more interesting, they sent a ton of freebees too.

Although I listened to the commercial and read the info before ordering, I really couldn’t conceive of all the creative things it would do until I actually had it in front of me.  The Slice Digital Designer cuts, embosses and draws.  It will cut through anything up to 1/2 mm thick and even some fabrics.  The cuts are accurate and precise, and there’s little waste because of your ability to position your project medium. It operates on either a battery or power cord, and it doesn’t take up a lot of counter space. You just insert one of the design cards, choose a shape on the graphic interface, preview your selection on the two inch window, and push the button.  You’ve literally got thousands of images to choose from so your creative possibilities are endless.

Since it was my idea to try it out, I thought I should at least be a part of my granddaughters’ first project.  Working with their digital cameras and small printer, they are creating their own personalized picture albums.  It’s a project that they can enjoy for a lifetime, and remember who helped them get started on it.  It’s coming along so well, that I decided to go ahead and buy the Slice Digital Designer as a birthday gift for them, and have sent in the first of my three monthly $66.65 payments.  Being able to help my granddaughters is wonderful; not only to watch them initiate and follow through on a project, but to see the satisfaction they are getting from creating something unique for themselves.

Posted via web from As Seen On TV Stuff

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Cricut Expression

The Cricut Expression

The Cricut Expression is an absolute life saver for me, because I got so tired of searching through the pile of tools in my office and never finding the right tools for my scrap booking projects. I know I sound like a complainer but this is a serious issue for me. In fact this happens very often, especially for secretaries, school teachers, principles, housewives, artists and those who have to use their imagination most of the time to portray something in and for their business. You could spend hours going from one crafts store to the next trying to find the right kind of materials; an exact-knife, stencils, colored paper, markers, etc, and spend even more hours working on that one simple bulletin board. But in modern times we need something better, more practical, handy, and portable that can do a better job for us in a fraction of the time it would take us to do it. This is where cricut expression comes in the picture.

It is handy and quite portable in case you don't have enough space on your desk. It replaces some basic office tools and does the job for you. It is a personal cutting system which will greatly increase your productivity. It has options for thousands of designs that you can cut into many sorts of paper, card stock, plastic, chip board and vinyl in many densities, from a very intricate and small design to a large 23 ½" design with precision. This machine is also smart and will use every single extra scrap without ever going off the edge of the paper. You can create greeting cards, bulletin boards, etch on glass, design and add a personal taste to the décor of your home. Create a wonderful personalized photo album for your family, and add a touch of you to your surroundings with this wonderful office tool. cricut expression is a great little machine to have at home as well, to decorate your children's room, make an anniversary present, a birthday card and gift, and label your cook ware, cabinets and shelves.

In scrapbooking and art cricut expression is the ideal tool and almost a must-have, it increases your speed at finishing a long desired project even better than what you had imagined. It is a fun way to spend time with your kids and help them increase their creativity and skills. They could create their next science expose, a father's day card, create invitations to your next party, a personal home calendar, a yard sale sign, a welcome-home banner or even cut out fabric to decorate quilts and other home accessories.

Right now there is a trial offer for the cricut expression which makes this a great time to test it out. you n. With this trial you receive for free a set of DVD's on how to create your own designs, two rolls of transfer tape, a 12" x 12" cutting mat and more. By taking advantage of the trial offer, there are some bonuses which include a free Deep-Cut Blade which is really cool and allows you to create even more great stuff so I encourage any serious crafter to look into this thing. The projects you can create with the Cricut Expression are mindblowing.

Read More about the Cricut Expression or Watch some Cricut Expression Videos.

Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Cricut-Expression&id=4310199

Posted via web from As Seen On TV Stuff

Friday, April 30, 2010

Cricut Expression Tutorials

Cricut Expression How To Tutorials

So the Cricut Expression is the coolest crafts machine out there and we all know it. But, is it really as easy as they say to use? My answer is yes and no. You can do just about anything with this thing but it's important to realize you don't have experiment completely on your own.

There are tons of cricut tutorials out there to help. Some are professionally made, and some are made by some "crafty" people who film themselves completing their crafts while explaining every step.  There's really nothing you can do that hasn't been done before by someone. Not to say that original ideas are non-existent, but the basic steps in creating a type of project are probably documented somewhere online and can be found with a simple search. The Cricut community is huge, and most of its legions put out a lot of helpful material.

I first got a sense of this when I tried to cut fabric. I really wasn't sure my Cricut Expression would really do it like it said in the ads, but I found several tutorials showing exactly how to do it. The best part is that I didn't just find 1 tutorial, I found tons. I was even able to see some really inspiring fabrics which of I course I stole for my project. I haven't worked with fabric since and I don't plan to anytime soon but it's nice to know that however I choose to use my cricut expression machine, I will be able to find a video to follow along with.

I invested quite a bit in this little machine and my worry was that I would set out to sea all by myself. This couldn't be farther from the truth. I've never been much of an instruction manuals and I admit I have the attention span of a goat, so having these grassroots resources available online 24 hours a day.

I guess I'm like a lot of other people out there having fun with my cricut expression.

Posted via web from As Seen On TV Stuff

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Yudu Review

Forget The Yudu, my usual idea of creativity is to use strawberry instead of grape jelly on my peanut butter sandwich, but I’ve got a couple of nieces that are super creative that this would be perfect for. When the AS SEEN ON TV people picked this up, the little lady saw it first, and suggested it as a Christmas gift. These girls are teenagers, and are always being very inventive with ways to express themselves. With this YUDU SCREEN PRINTING gizmo, they will be able to create personalized designs on their own shirts, and express themselves with whatever art work they want transferred to almost any surface they want. As I think about it, I imagine the YUDU would also be a great thing for a parent buy to provide innovative “together” time with a child. There’s got to be a ton of fun artistic and useful projects that parents would enjoy creating and working on with their children.
WHAT IT DOES

The Yudu Screen Printing Machine allows you to create designs with artwork that you made yourself, or to use others that you really like. This little printing system gives you the freedom to print all of the transferable designs that you want on most any surface you choose including tee shirts, posters, flyers, clothing and more with very little clean-up problems. The wonders of technology! Used to be you had to go to a printing shop to have any of this done, but not any more. It will be interesting to see what my nieces do with this.
IS YUDU WORTH IT?

The Yudu appears to come with all the supplies you need to start personalizing and transferring designs. Then, there’s a whole list of extra stuff that they list that comes with it; in fact they value the extras at $120. The machine will set you back $33.00 plus shipping, but if it provides a creative outlet for the young and young at heart, I think it’s worth it.