Slice cutter

Well, today was interesting, and I'll keep the long rambling to myself, but suffice to say my mother has an idea for an art project/collage she wants to work on that involves flowers and origami, and we ran around to every craft store in the area trying to find just generic punches in flowers and leaves.

With no success, we wound up at Michaels (craft store) and saw something new - a Slice cutter by Making Memories. We were debating the merits of buying a Cricut machine, which I can't justify spending the money on, especially since you need to go 3rd party for the ability to create your own designs (it's basically a giant paperweight without my being able to custom-make designs, or a "just for fun" kind of thing... ironically, I don't like scrapbooking, but that's besides the point ;P) when we saw the Slice cutter.

Now, it did everything my mother needed it to do, and I found a pretty cartridge that was all swirls (something that I couldn't find with the Cricut, either) - and, in the end, it's significantly cheaper (retail is $150 for the machine, and $40 for the cartridges, but they were all 30% off). We figured, if it worked for her art project, we'd be happy (and my swirls would just be icing on the cake!)

I am happy to say that it's quite a bit of fun. Following the instructions is utterly vital, though, as we blew through a lot of paper just trying it out without putting the goo down on the glass mat. But, it's easy to use, and fun, even if you don't do scrapbooking (hint: you'll see some corsets with heat-set vinyl shortly, methinks)

If you're thinking of it, though, buy the hands-free set that they have, too - we're going back tomorrow to see if they have it, because holding it in place becomes ... well, a bit of a challenge, to say the least.

Otherwise, I have to say I'm rather happy with this little gadget, and I hope it helps my mother with her project, too... ya know, since she bought it for her own use ;P