CHA Day 1 - Adventures in Paradise

so far, CHA has been full of adventures!

Today, we were able to get ready leisurely, and head on over to CHA just as they were opening their doors for the first time!  We immediately headed to the Craftwell booth, to get a gander at the e-craft machine.  They have made some great improvements to the machine since it's first demo at CHA Summer in Orlando, and they will be well received by our cutter firends!  We still don't have all the specs on the machines, but Paul, from Craftwell, is going to provide me with all the information we need to get it added to our Machine Comparison Chart sometime in the next week or two.

Some of the features of the Craftwell:

1. Has a roller on the back, attached to the back bed of the machine, above the paper tray, where you can put a roll of material to be cut.  This is great for those rolls of material you may have....or rolls of vinyl.
2. Does not use a cutting mat.  So you don't have the additional expense of having to replace cutting mats.
3. The blades come in packs of 10 and will be at a decent price point.
4. It does come with a software program, the eCraftshop.  It will allow you some limited abilities to manipulate your files.  There will be Shadow, Weld, Rotate, Stretch, Flip, Nudge, Kern & More...(per their brochure)  From what I understand, this software will be distributed with the machine, but please don't quote me, as I didn't get final package items for the machine.  The eCraftShop can use the images on the SD image card, but it does not use true type fonts, and you can not import other file formats with this version of the software
5. You can purchase an upgrade to the software, moving you to eCraftShop Pro.  This includes all of the features of the original software, plus the ability to unlock over 1000 images from the SD cards, it will allow you to utilize all true type fonts on your computer, and you can create new artwork or import images from other design programs to cut with your eCraft.  Though, at this point, and I'll try to get better clarification tomorrow....you won't have complete designability with this program, it will still have some limitations.
6. The machine will also have an eCraftApp for all you iPhone or iTouch users, where you can access your images anywhere.  You can create new designs, make changes, access their online host site for files, and connect with the ecraft community through this app.

A couple of things that we think of as some limitations on the machine, although these are limitations and not everyone would be affected:

1. Because the machines do not have a mat requirement, it does have micro-perforations, or little chads, where the machine does not cut all the way around, keeping the item in place on the paper, and then you would "pop" it out.  These perforations are very small, and for most people, will be no problem!  In fact, if you currently by many laser cut designs, you are used to smoothing out these little micro perforations already, as they cut in the same method.
2. Because the machine has an automatic thickness/material sensor, it cuts ALL the way through your vinyl and backing, so if you have a pretty intricate cut or cut that needs to be applied and pieced together, you can't do it as easily.  With vinyl, it's really important to be able to weed out your parts you don't want, keeping the final design intact on the backing, and from there, use your transfer tape to transfer the image from the backing to your final surface.  Because the machine cuts all the way through, this is not possible to do.  If you are cutting out a piece or two for easy application, then it can be no problem!!  So it really depends on your needs with vinyl, and your application purposes!  We did express some concern with it, and they were very receptive to our suggestions and ideas...so we shall see, it may be something they change on the machine at some point!

All in all, the Craftwell is another great starter machine, and will be a great machine to quickly pop in a SD card and start cutting!

The second stop of the day was for us to hit the Sizzix e-clips machine!  They've been pretty hush-hush about the overall aspect of this machine, so it was really nice to see it up close and personal!  this machine will start shipping sometime in May/June, and as soon as we can start taking some pre-orders we will!  There were a few unique features to this machine....we didn't get to see them all...but maybe we'll pay them another visit tomorrow!

1. One of the unique features of the machine is that it has a "print preview" type feature, where you can run the "blade" though it's steps, and a laser light will point down and mark the position of the full cut around.  Telling you exactly where you image will cut on your paper.
2. There are two blade movement speeds, so you can move that blade over quicker, and then slow it down if you need.
3. The machine has 700 grams of pressure!  SWEET!  this is a great bonus to this machine, as you will be able to cut some light weight chipboards easily!  
4. they are putting their designs that are so popular in their regular dies, and so you can have greater ability to use their designs and cut them to your needed size.  You can resize in pretty small increments!
5. Has a handle on top, for easy portability.
6. The handheld control pad is easy to hold and maneuver in.
7. The starter kit on the machine comes with one machine, 2 blades, the handheld unit, cradle for the handheld unit, starter cartridge with booklet, 12x12 cutting mat and use manual.

Here's a video I did of the e-clips....i didn't have time to edit it, but you can at least see it cutting!



Some of the downfall to the machine currently is that it doesn't yet hook up to your computer on its own with software...so you can't "make your own" files...but they hinted that they are working on something...so maybe in the future this will be a possiblity!

All in all, they are both great machines, with their own pro's!  and they will meet many peoples needs in an ever growing market!  we hope to be doing some orders soon!

We saw lots more things...if I get a chance, I'll post more in the morning before we head out, about some of the other great things we saw!  Wait until you see the new line of stamps I'm going to pick up!  They are just too awesome for words!