silhouette

so i've been looking at die cutting type machines for some time now and haven't been very pleased with what is available. everything i've found seems so...constricted. not a whole lot of room for creativity or flexibility...until now. thanks to "oh, hello friend", i've been introduced to the silhouette digital cutting tool!

source

very versatile and it looks like i'll be able to create my OWN designs and cut them with this awesome machine...instead of hand cutting with scissors. (ugh) go check out the silhouette website and the blog "oh, hello friend" - she's doing a GIVEAWAY!!!!!!

paper cutter suckiness

i received the stack paper cutter i ordered a while back (and wrote about it here) and was SO excited to get it open & in use. i imagined stacks of perfectly cut paper & book board just waiting to be made into books. i saw images of the blade cutting through 10 sheets of book board like butter. tons of ideas floated around in my head - new books i could make with trimmed, flat edges. and then reality kicked me.

first off, i thought the cutter would come assembled, due to the many reviews i read online. umm NOT! so we (meaning bfff) pieced it together fairly easily, following the rather minimal instruction sheet. then we had to square the measuring piece up to the blade (pain in the ass). so it was square & done & we left it alone for a couple days.

well i realized that some other adjustments needed to be made - measuring piece had to be moved so that it would cut 2" and not 2.5". then the cutting wasn't so good. in fact, it sucked. book board was a huge hassle. i couldn't get enough leverage to cut through the board. bfff adjusted the blade so it was more level. cutting still sucked. the board edges were mangled. the clamp had to be locked down so tight that it left ruts in whatever i was cutting. and even so, the stack still moved. a lot.

fed up with the number of adjustments & the fact that this machine wasn't performing up to my expectations, i called the company and laid it out for them. basically, the rep made it sound like operator error, that i needed to make more adjustments, and finally, he reluctantly gave me a return authorization number. i had ordered a refurbished cutter but they actually sent me a brand new one because they were out of the refurbished ones - not that it mattered. SO disappointing. and frustrating. and irritating because i now have to pay an asinine amount of money to ship this stupid piece of crap back to the company that they WILL NOT REIMBURSE ME FOR.

lesson learned: order from a trusted company, be wary of amazon reviews, and get free shipping.

paper cutter awesomeness

i finally ordered a super cool stack paper cutter. i have a guillotine cutter that is super awesome too - i heart my kutrimmer. however, i wanted to get something else that will cut stacks of paper, specifically for the insides of my books and possibly some stacks of book board. that would save me SO much time, plus be a bit more accurate since there isn't a curve in the cutting blade. it'll be mailed out tomorrow and take about 12 days to get here...i can't wait!

here's a pic of the 50 pound beast:

photo credit

my work is doing well at artique (the most recent gallery to carry my art) and i'm thrilled that they already asked for additional merchandise! bella also wants to try some new products too. and on top of that, i have a handful of custom orders and some more on the horizon! hooray!