[Angel48]

Hi All!
I'm new here & just trying to make some Rhinestone T shirts with some friends for a hobby.

We wanted to make a custom stencils, my friend has a Cricket Scrapbook cutter that she received as a gift & has never used. Can we use that to design & make custom stencils with that?

I was also looking at Boss Cut Gazelle which comes with sofware to do Rhinestone projects.

I have a Kandi Kane & would probably be using that to apply the stones.

Any feedback, tips or tricks on both these machines would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Angel

 

[SandyMcC]

Hi Angel!

First of all, you might want to start posting at this link since it's dedicated to rhinestone applications:

Rhinestone Forum

I have a LOT of experience in supporting cutter owners in the hobby market, so I think I can provide you with some good advice.

First of all, seriously consider using the Cricut to actually cut permanent templates so that you can brush in the stones, lift with transfer tape and then press onto shirts, jeans, etc using your own home iron! Hand setting rhinestones is fine, but I teach my scrapbooking customers how to design and cut their own templates so that they can make a dozen shirts (usually as gifts) in a fraction of the time it would take to apply the stones one at a time.

I'm not a big fan of the Gazelle... it does use one a variation of Funtime, which can do Rhinestone designing... but make 100% sure that the version you would be buying DOES have the rhinestone feature. It's a relatively new addition to the Funtime software and you could easily end up buying a Gazelle that doesn't have that upgrade.

Back to the Cricut which is made by Provo Craft (who ONLY wants their customers purchasing image and font cartridges made by them)... There's an excellent third-party program called Make The Cut that allows you to import SVG, vector PDF and I believe EPS files for cutting to the Cricut. Thus, you could do your rhinestone designing in another program, even possibly Inkscape (which is free) and then cut to the Cricut from Make the Cut. You should join the user forum at Make the Cut and then ask then about rhinestone designing and I'm sure you'll get a quick response from a member or two. It's a very active forum!

Make the Cut Forum

Let me know if you have other questions.

 

[Angel48]

Hi Sandy!
Thank you so much for your feedback. I have re posted this message in the Rhinestone section.

I recently saw a video from BossCut that the Gazelle now ships with the Funtime software for making Rhinestone designs.

I'm hope we can get this all figured out, were getting anxious to start designing

Also trying to figure out what would be the minimum amount of money we would have to spend on all this, do you have any idea?
Thanks again,
Angel

 

[SandyMcC]

I believe Make the Cut is about $60, so that would be your least expensive option... Inkscape is free.

The Gazelle costs like $300 - $400, as I recall, if you go that route.

 

[Angel48]

Thanks again Sandy, I will look into all my options here.
Have a bless day.

 

[k m toydarian]

Contour cutting on a Cricut acheived!

I just picked up a Cricut Expression from Wal Mart this week for 100 bucks. A little research pointed me to "Make the Cut" that Sandy mentions.

It's awesome, and I just used it to contour cut a pic. I have a large vinyl cutter from US Cutter (not Contour) and a small Optical eye craft Robo ( but only a 7" cut width)

Now I can print a full 8.5x11 light or opaque transfer and contour cut the full image. Cutter has a 12" wide cutting area.
I am happy with the result. Any white around the image is actually mostly in the actual design ( was just a real quick trace from an internet pic for fun and on plain paper)

I am sure it will take some getting used to and maybe not be 100 percent accurate, but maybe with a little bleed on the pic can be quite effective.

 

[SandyMcC]

Congratulations! I have been impressed with how well Make the Cut can do a contour cut on a Cricut, considering it's technically only a 1 point registration print and cut, versus a 3 point like on your Craft Robo. But Cricut owners who use Make the Cut are making it work! : )

 

[JBuchanan]

How did you get the Cricut for so cheap? I have looked and they are all close to $200.

 

[binki]

we love the curcut, cricket, crucut or whatever it's name is. anyone who has one comes to use for their orders after they find out how much work this really is.

but seriously, you can cut pretty much anything with it as a stand alone. it is just really expensive to do.

 

[k m toydarian]

How did you get the Cricut for so cheap? I have looked and they are all close to $200.

A local WalMart had 4 of them marked down to $100. It is the plum color, walmart exclusive. They also had the regular expression full price.

 

[JBuchanan]

My local store had them regular price still. I'll keep checking back.

 

[Nick Horvath]

The Cricut is a great little cutter. We have one here and enjoy working with it.