One of the reasons I got a new cutting machine, an 18" Cougar from That's Scraps, (the North American Dealer; see Dawn at Thyme Graphics regarding international orders) is so that I could do many more really cute things that I couldn't do with my Cricut machines like engraving and embossing as well as much larger items and some awesome print and cuts or using free graphic images and fonts from the internet or things I create myself from scratch. The problem though has been first time and second "bravery". LOL Now, I know many of you can relate to that statement. How many of you get some really cool new tool, a gypsy, an imagine, a gazzelle, silhouette, or better yet, a Lynx or a Cougar and then sit there and look at it for days, weeks or even months before FINALLY pulling it out of its box and turning it on?! Well, I'm not that bad, I do usually pull it out of the box immediately and then get it all set up but then stare at it for a while! LOL
Actually, I have had my Cougar out of the box for many months and have used it for quite a bit of regular cutting and it cuts really great. (It is easily setup out of the box but it does take some getting use to how to load and where it will cut, etc. especially if coming from the land of Cricuts). However, I hadn't been brave enough to try the engraving on plastics and metal, or the embossing. A lot of the time - my excuse was I didn't have enough time to devote to figuring it all out. However, I finally decided to give it a try yesterday and I must say once I started the engraving I thought, "Wow, that was EASY!" and wondered why I had waited so long! LOL Now that I have done it, there may be no stopping me! Still have some other tools to try as well as some really neat crafting supplies that I just bought from Tyler over at a new online store called "All that Jazz". He has some neat textured papers that look like animal skins and other things, velvet paper, thin and thicker sheets of acrylics, metal, and so much more. Now, just to get brave and try some of that as well! LOL
Now that summer is here, I hope to have some more time to create and share here on my blog. I have been doing some vinyl crafting of late, making tumblers and ice tubs for gifts, as well as some cards and other "gifts" that I will try to share in the next little bit. Some will only be for inspiration and some will have some cut files to share if you use MTC, SCAL or SVG files with other programs and machines other than Cricuts.
If you would like some real inspiration of some things to do checkout
Thyme's galleries, PennyDuncan's Blog, as well as Rachell's Blog to name but a few! If you go to Christy's blog, you will get links to LOTS more blogs with projects. First, Christy has several projects of her own but she also hosted a month long blog hop during the month of May showcasing projects from lots of other wonderful crafters. Once you have gotten your fill on those, you will see why I am so excited about all that my Cougar will let me do with software like MTC and SCAL. Don't worry though, I still have my Cricut machines and way too many cartridges so I am sure that you will still see some projects made with those again as well. In the interim, please feel free to leave me a comment if you have something specfic you would like to have done and I will give it a try.
As always - Thanks for stopping by!