Scrapbooking Cutting Tools
If you are looking at your options for scrapbooking cutting tools you may not be sure which tool best suits your needs. The main items you need to consider in a cutting tool is where you scrapbook and how much you want to invest.
If you scrap with a friend or group make the most of it by sharing! In my case I have the cricut and my friends have the quickcuts revolution. It really gives us the best of both worlds. We can use either one but since we share the cost is much less.
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Cricut **** average cost $200 $50 for an alphabet on sale
This is an electronic tool which cuts letters and shapes out of paper. I personally own one and use it frequently. I have about six different alphabets which give me ample variety and you can dial the size of the letters being cut out from 1” to 6”. I have the older model that is smaller; I have never felt the need to cut any letters larger than I can do on my machine. Personally I am not sure if the newer larger machine is worth the extra money over the smaller version which is now available at reduced costs. Since it doesn’t need a computer to operate it can be carted to a crop if needed. I also don’t feel the need to purchase the add on for storing and plugging in all my cartridges at once. I use mine mostly to cut out titles for my pages. This scrapbooking cutting tool works for home or travel.
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QuicKuts ***** average cost $150 (revolution), $80 for an alphabet. This is a manual cutting tool which uses dies to cut letters and shapes. The old style hand punch will work with the smaller 2” dies. By far the revolution which is a hand crank machine is far more efficient. On the standard base which it comes with you can cut up to four 2” dies at once. This device is portable and easy to crop with. They recently released a 4x12” cutting base allowing for longer 12” dies for borders or you can cut out an entire title at once. They have made continuous product improvements making this system better and better. This scrapbooking cutting tool works for home or travel.
Just released July 2009 - QuicKutz Epic Six average cost $80. This is a cheaper version meant to replace the revolution. pros - it will cut other companies dies including sizzix. cons - faceplate is not magnetic like the revolution is and there is no carry case. It also doesn't seem as well made (plastic vs metal) as the revolution.
Silhouette *** average cost $350 This is an electronic tool which cuts letters and shapes out of paper. It must be hooked up to a computer to work. The biggest benefit of this machine is it will work with any true type font on your computer. If you crop at home and have a nice selection of fonts this may be a good option for you. This option is one of the more pricy options since you don’t have to purchase fonts individually, you do however need to purchase shape packages which are comparable to the prices of the dies for the quickcuts system. This cutting tool works for home.
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