I Did It...I Actually Worked it Out!

It's taken me about 6 hours, with a lot of head scratching and brow furrowing, but I've actually done it!

I wasn't going to mention anything for a while, but then went to see whether Becks Fagg had updated her blog (which she has) and found that she'd spilled the beans! When I was down in Dorset, I was given a brand spanking new Quickutz Silhouette SD which had literally just arrived in the warehouse and was still surrering from Travel sickness - the poor thing. Do Crafts are now the proud exclusive distributors of Quickutz products on the UK (how exciting!!!). I'm hopfully going to be doing a piece for the July issue of the Do Crafts Creativity! Magazine, and to be honest with you I think this baby could do with a magazine all to itself looking at the amount that can be done with it!

Anyhoo, what I hear you think did I manage to do? The Silhouette works in conjunction with a computer ( but is also portable too, so you can use it without it being connected all the time, that's what the SD bit is all about), so I had to download the driver software for it. Here lay the problem, my CD/DVD drive on my laptop isn't working at the moment. So I went to the Quickutz website to see whether I could download the software there, which I could. However, due to me being a dunce when it comes to computers I saved instead of ran the program and so my problems began. Eventually I worked out the problem and uninstalled that version, downloading the right one. Then, again I failed to read the on-screen instructions properly, and so again I was stumped. Eventually I worked it out and voila! I now have the gorgeous Silhouette SD loaded onto my computer. Of course, none of these problems would have happened if my CD drive had been working, I simply would have inserted the CD and I'd have been well away!

I've had a quick look at the 50 shapes that come with the Silhouette and they look fantastic! The shapes can be resized from 1/4" to 8", you can also make a shadow with the machine for shapes, and the most exciting thing about the machine is that you can cut out any font on your computer, and even weld the letters together to make words!! Also, you can import black and white images into the program and cut them out too! The possibilities are endless! In addition to cutting out paper and card stock, you can also cut vellum, transfer paper (for making transfers for t-shirts) magnetic paper, adhesive vinyl and adhesive papers!!! you can even create a stencil and with the machine you get a bottle of glass etching liquid to make glass etchings! WoW.

As you can tell, I'm a little excited about this momma!!!

I really have to finalise everything for QVC on Friday, so I'm going to have to resist the tempation to play until then. Boo Hoo! Better go and cook dinner now. Hope you're all having a relaxing and lovely Easter Sunday.

Love, Clare x