Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Cricut Explore Review 4 - The Dreaded Scallop Circle

For folks who have been around for awhile will immediately understand the "dreaded scallop circle" and why it was so dreaded by all of us who wanted nice neat scallop circles but they seemed to be unobtainable! When I got my first Cricut, the baby bug, it cut wonderful scallop circles and didn't have a problem with the ones I designed in Design Studio *okie wonders if she needs to explain Design Studio but then decides not go down that road* but once I got an Expression and started using it the scallop circles were WONKY! If you cut them large enough, usually over 4 inches or more then the scallops weren't too bad but anything smaller and the scallops were all lopsided. Matter of fact I sent back two Expression machines for just that reason. I finally kept the third because I gave up. When I started working with the Pazzles I was excited thinking I would have perfect scallop circles and while they did cut better than what the Expression did I still had slightly lopsided scallops. Matter of fact I even invested in Scallop Circle punches so I would have perfect ones.

Now fast forward from those days to the present crafting day where I thought "OMG! I NEED TO TEST AND SEE HOW SCALLOP CIRCLES CUT WITH THE EXPLORE!" and so I did. I, being the fiendish person I am, chose the dreaded Stampin Up Coredinations cardstock that so many people had problems cutting. My Expression or my Pazzles never cut that stuff very good, especially when it was smaller cuts. It always seemed to rip or tear *okie still thinks there was some kinda degrading in the SU Coredinations since the regular Coredinations seemed to cut very nicely* and cause much frustration.

I opened Design Space and put some scallop circles on the mat and sized them to different sizes and was almost bemused at the thought of "I got this machine now...scallop circles and Stampin Up Corediantions cardstock! TAKE THAT PROVOCRAFT!". I got the circles ready to cut and loaded the mat watching it with a sneer on my face *okie thinks she probably looked like some mad scientist sitting in front of the Explore* just waiting for the scallops to be lopsided and the cardstock to tear!

My sneer soon turned to a grimace as I watched the blade cut through the cardstock like it was butter and the scallops were PERFECT! I think I might have yelled "SON OF A BITCH...NO F'ING WAY!" as the machine finished up cutting the images and as I unloaded the mat I kept looking closely for errors...which I did not find!

Every size cut perfectly! I set a 3", 2 1/2", 2", 1 1/2" and 1" scallop circle to cut and everyone of them were exquisitely impeccable! How could that be? No way did Provocraft finally make a machine that could cut breathtaking scallop circles on crappy cardstock! I stared at the delicious goodness of scallops and even thought about substituting them with some wonky ones but then I remembered I promised to give an honest review *okie curses herself for being an honest Injun*.




Just in case you wonder if your eyes are deceiving you I took a close up of the 1" scallop circle so you could see how perfectly it cut.

MY HONEST OPINION: I am BEYOND IMPRESSED with the Explore's ability to cut perfect scallop circles at every size and especially since I purposely fed a cardstock in the machine that generally doesn't cut well on other machines...even *okie takes a deep breath and exhales slowly, closes her eyes and just says it*.....my beloved Pazzles!

13 comments:

  1. OMGosh, finally a Cricut that will cut perfect scallops?!! Be still my beating heart! I can't believe it and they are so perfect and pretty. I'm so glad you reviewed the scallops, it used to bug me to no end that we couldn't cut a perfect scallop with the other machines. Hugs Brenda

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  2. Shirley your reviews are driving me over the edge!!

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  3. If only I could afford this machine! Your reviews are convincing me that it actually does what they say it does!

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  4. :) they are perfect aren't they. The circles cut great without a flat side too! Love reading your reviews and I bet Ashish does also.

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  5. Wow, loving your reviews of the Explore. I never thought that I would see you use a Cricut again. Glad to see you are using the Explore and your honest opinion of it. Like Star Wars, you are coming to the "Dark Side.":)

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  6. You know this is all well and good but who wants a machine that has to be connected to the internet to work all the time. That is pure crap right there.

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  7. The first thing I did when I got my Explore was to cut a scalloped circle, but I chose one that also had small circles cut out of each scallop. I cut the same design on my Expression and Explore and the difference was very noticeable. Not only was my Explore circle cut perfectly, but all of those tiny circle cutouts within the scallops were also perfect.

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  8. WHOA ... that was what I was waiting to hear. Wonky free scalloped circles at long last! I am truly impressed now. So, the next question is not to you, but to myself .... Carol, what in the hell are you waiting for? Take that Explore out of the box and start playing with it ... do some tests of your own ... create something ... and have as much fun as Shirley is!

    Thanx again for another great (and delightfully humorous) Explore review.

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  9. I'm so glad you are back - I've missed you!

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  10. So happy you're back. You always make me laugh. My hubs bought me an Explore on Black Friday and you make me excited to unpack it and take it for a spin. Thanks for all your freebie files too.

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  11. I'm so excited you like the Explore! I've missed you and your smart mouth so much.
    Seriously, everything about PC is better. I think you'll enjoy being back.

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