You may recall the Twas the Night Before Christmas Pop Up Book from last year that I made just for fun – to put my pop up skills to the test! I ended up giving it to my boss’s boss so her children could enjoy it. Maybe I’ll have to make one for my new niece and nephew this year 🙂
Well, thanks to my husband and the purchase of this fabulous product: The Silhouette Cameo, I have made the new and improved Christmas Pop Up Book version! My hands are happy that I’m finally putting the x-acto knife aside because the Cameo is my new best friend for paper-crafting
PROS:
- You can custom cut and print any design – I mean ANY design that you want
- You never have to buy a die cut cartridge or mess around with expansion packs
- You can download designs from their online store and automatically start printing right from your computer
- Online designs are endless and they are really cheap $0.50-0.90 per design.
- Their customer support staff are super friendly and they respond really quickly through email
- And again…you can CUSTOM create your own design and print out any font, style, shape, or image and it will cut it out perfectly and intricately.
CONS:
- It’s a little tricky to set up…there are white rollers on the sides that you have to slide to adjust the settings for smaller paper designs. These things are so difficult to budge the first time you try it! It finally worked for me when I discovered from another blog that wearing rubber gloves will help you grip them enough to twist the pinchers out of the notches.
* A NOTE to FELLOW ETSY SELLERS: Make sure that if you use the Cameo, you purchase the license for commercial use and avoid the designs that say “for personal use only” if you intend to use a copy-righted design in a product. You can, of course, create your own designs in the Silhouette Studio software that comes with it so that your original work can be used in your own products, but just make sure you don’t incorporate a personal-use-only design in a commercial product!
I actually purchased the Fiskars Fuse (die cut & letterpress combo set) on Black Friday. It was marked down to $179.99 from $299.99, so it was worth the price to try it out. But before I even took it out of its packaging, I came across a Cameo demo video on YouTube and instantly became awestruck. I have since returned the Fiskars Fuse – as it doesn’t even compare to this machine. Most craft stores have this machine on sale right now $100 off – so don’t purchase it directly through Silhouette.com if you can help it.
Here is just a taste of some of the work the Cameo can do 🙂