Cricut Expression

Okay, so, I had to do a blog about this. This is the Cricut Expression. I've wanted to get one for the last several months and I FINALLY was able to get one. This is such a cool die-cutting machine. Prior to this, I only had the Xyron Personal Cutting System. The main things I disliked about the Xyron are that it will only cut out shapes and letters as big as about 3 1/2" and each time you want to use it, you have to cut out 4"x4" pieces of paper and put them on the cutting mat. You can also only do one letter or shape at a time. Now, with the Cricut Expression... you can print a shape almost as large as 12"x24". You can also do more than one letter or shape at a time (depending on the size you're cutting). With the Expression, you can also position the cutting blade where you'd like it to cut on the paper so that you can use almost an entire piece of paper, very easily and it's much less wasteful. So far, I've only been able to do a little with the Expression as life hasn't been very eventful so there hasn't really been much to scrapbook. I am, however, very excited about all of the projects I can do over the next several years, using the Expression. I'd say that the biggest "problem" with the Expression is just that the cartridges are very expensive ($50-$100 each). However, at least we have eBay. :-) So, you can get the same cartridges for half the price (or better). I also think that owning an Expression can save lots of money in the long run. Some of the main things I spend my scrapbooking money on are stickers and paper embellishments. With the Expression, I don't have to buy as many stickers or paper embellishments because now I can just make everything I'd like to use on a page very easily. It's pretty cool. I'm SO glad that I got this machine and I look forward to many, many years of creative scrapbooking projects with it.