Ballerina

These are some pictures of Jackie's recital. The ballerina's are made using the Paper Dolls Cricut Cartridge.

We found a nest!

My sister Sandra made these beautiful pages with the pictures of a nest that they found under the deck. She used the Zoobaloo Cricut Cartridge.

50% off coupon from Joann

Product Review: Design Runner by XYRON

Design Runner by XYRON

This product has been introduced to the Crafter’s market as a portable printer. It is indeed very portable. Its ergonomic design allows easy one hand operation. A portable printer which is as small as this one is a great idea. Unfortunately such great idea has been poorly executed.


The Pros':

• Its Compaq design and light weight makes it a great ‘printer anywhere’.
• It has a great ergonomic design which allows easy one hand operation.
• Battery operated – which makes it more portable. Especially when you’re away from home.
• Beautiful designs to choose from and print.
• Very easy to assemble. Clear and concise directions with ‘pictures’.

The Cons:

• Battery operated only. It would be better if it had the option to use electricity as well. When I’m working at home, I always have an electrical outlet I could use. I hate to be wasting batteries unnecessarily.
• There is no option to change the size of the image or any option to change anything else ~ except for an option which allows you to print the same image several times.
• The quality of the printed image is poor. You’re not going to get the quality of a regular desktop printer. The printed images look more like if you had made them using rubber stamps.
• There are 3 possible ink colors available thus far: black, green and red. The printer comes with black only. If you’re using black and want to switch to red, you have to remove the black ink cartridge and store it in an air tight container to protect it from drying out. Then insert the red ink cartridge. This process will have to be repeated as many times as you wish to change the color of the ink. It’s sure to become tedious real soon. While changing cartridges, the ink might soil the area a little bit, or at least your hands ~ so watch out!
• You can only print the designs that are available in the disk, which leaves little room for your personal creativity.
• There is another tool which allows for you to create your personal messages and store them in a disk. Then you can use this disk in you little printer. The problem is that this ‘disk maker’ is very pricey ($99.00) and at the same time it is also constraint by the lack of character selection or other options.
• The Design Runner is very pricey ($99.00). Then you are likely to buy the tool to make your own disks, which will add $99.99 more. Then each disk costs around $35.00. Let’s not forget the cost of ink. All that money to get just ‘Rubber stamp’ quality.
• The printer does not print the image right away. You pick your image, press the little button to print (which you have to hold down while you drag the printer across the target area) and nothing happens! Then after a few seconds, finally the image appears in the paper. The time/distance the printer travels across the target area does not seem to be consistent. Sometimes the image is printed sooner. Some other times you have to repeat the process because nothing was printed. This is a big problem. You don’t want to miss your target area. To save your beautiful creation from permanent damage, you might want to print the design in a separate paper, then cut it out and add it to your craft work.

Other comments:

It comes with a starter disk which contains 39 different designs to choose from. If each different disk has an average of 40 images to choose from, and we consider that each disk costs about $35 plus tax, we’re talking about 91 cents per image/design.

Conclusion:

This is a battery operated rubber stamper. Although there is not rubber anywhere, but that’s get quality you’re going to get.

Advice:

You might want to invest in a good set of rubber stamps and a good set of colorful pens (for rubber stamping) to go with it.

OR

Wait until the price comes down or improvements are made ~ whatever happens first.

Sandra Sosa

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Valentine's Day Pages

I made this Valentine's Day pages using the Cricut Paper Pups cartridge.