(you have been warned)
For a long time now I have coveted the personal die-cutting machines one can buy – the cricut, craft robo, sizzix, there’s a lot of them on the market. However they’re all extremely expensive (even more expensive than say a wok) so I haven’t attempted to buy or hint for one. That was until Making Memories brought out this little beauty, the slice.
It was launched in February at the CHA show in America – gosh what I wouldn’t give to go to one of those, and only recently became available to the public. I threw caution to the wind and treated myself to an early Xmas present.
The basic kit doesn’t come with the cute storage unit or the 12×12 glass mat.
Here are my first impressions of the slice.
It’s cute… very, very cute. A little noisy at times and if you’re thinking of getting away with not gluing (you get a dinky little tube of quick drying repositionable glue with it) the paper down on the glass mat – don’t. It doesn’t work – I thought it might if I pressed down on the machine but all that happened was a very sad crumpled looking mess. Reason why I tried is I find peeling the paper off the glue difficult at times and there is the potential to mess up small bits you may have cut. I guess with a bit of practise I’ll get better at it.
My first attempt wasn’t terribly successful, then again I did decide to go for one of the more intricate designs on the card. My initial impression is the machine battles to cut through really thick cardstock although it claims to be able to cut through virtually anything.
My second and third attempts however were far more successful and another personal recommendation – if you can afford to buy the 12×12 glass mat do. The mat that comes with the starter kit is really small and whilst it’ll be great if you’re taking it on crops and suchlike – it isn’t that great when working with larger pieces of paper.
Another tip – if it seems to have gone wonky and is cutting some strange hieroglyphics – it could be one of two things, either the battery is running low or you haven’t ‘homed’ the blade. Took me several failed tries to work this one out.
The battery didn’t seem to last all that long, but perhaps it is because it has only been charged once. The manual says that you need only charge for an hour and then it is ready for use again. Of course you can also use it whilst connected to the mains but that kind of defeats the whole ‘cordless’ aspect of it.
It may not be as fancy as the expensive ones on the market and you are limited to the shapes on the card, but I have to say there are a lot of choices on the various cards available and for now the two I have (basic card 1 & 2) should keep me busy for a long time.
On a local note.. the American sites don’t recommend we (South Africa) purchase directly from them, we should rather go through a local agent. Something to do with the voltage – well turns out all you need to do is purchase a universal plug adaptor.
Am I glad I bought it? Hell yes!!
