Silhouette SD Digital Craft Cutting Tool (QuicKutz)
October 22, 2010 by admin
Silhouette SD Digital Craft Cutting Tool (QuicKutz)
- 16 inches long by 5.5 inches deep and 4.5 inches tall
- Weight: 4.5 lbs
- Can handle media up to 11 inches wide by more than 1 yard long, with a cutting area of 8 inches wide by 39.4 inches in extended mode.
- Has a removable SD Card media slot so you can cut saved files without a PC.
- Portable, cost effective, & durable.
BUYER TAKE NOTICE!!! This product comes with a download card as per the manufacturer, and not the download card as stated in the prior description. The manufacturer has chosen to change the amount of the download card. However, Amazon’s SKU still shows the old description.
Rating: 
(out of 15 reviews)
List Price: $ 299.99
Price: $ 169.99
Colossal Barrel of Crafts®
- Includes modeling clay, clay cutters, pom pons, feathers, chenille stems, wiggle eyes, buttons and glitter glue pens
- Also wonderfoam shapes, sequins, spangles, glitter poms, pony beads, rainbow cord, wonderfoam sheets and jumbo craft sticks
- Made of non-toxic material
A tremendous assortment of popular craft items in a durable reusable storage container. Includes feathers, pom pons, chenille stems, wiggle eyes, buttons, dough cutters, modeling clay, glitter pens, craft sticks, WonderFoam, sequins & spangles, pony beads, rainbow cord and glitter glue pens.
Rating: 
(out of 16 reviews)
List Price: $ 56.99
Price: $ 46.84
Review by LaurenMarie for Silhouette SD Digital Craft Cutting Tool (QuicKutz)
Rating:
Quick summary: great for average to above average computer users, like creating my own designs, like not having to buy cartridges, cheapest way to go for die cutting machine (in my humble opinion), overall good investment
First, a little about me. I’m a graphic designer with training in Adobe Illustrator. The Silhouette appealed to me because I could create my own shapes and it was cheaper than buying a more expensive machine plus a million cartridges with something like Cricut. I did a lot of research on Wishblade and Silhouette and found the most positive reviews for the Silhouette so I decided to buy it.
I bought the SD because I liked the idea of an auto-load/eject vs. the original Silhouette manual crank. Now, though, I think it’d be ok with the manual crank. I’ve never used the “SD” feature of this Silhouette.
I was a little nervous about the learning curve with this machine, but it hasn’t been a problem for me at all (I consider myself about a 7/10 for computer savvy). I think this cutting machine might be more frustrating for people who are less computer literate or those who don’t want to hassle with setting up shapes to cut in the most economical way (so to not waste paper).
I use the red cap (for “thick” paper) most of the time as the yellow cap just wasn’t cutting well enough. I think I use average cardstock from the craft store, like the DCWV stacks. If you have really thick paper like bristol, the plugin I linked to below allows you to set the blade to run over the design multiple times. I haven’t tried cutting vellum yet, but supposedly this machine can do that with the blue cap. I tried to cut out some pre-printed designs, but it seems like it never cuts exactly the same way twice, so I gave up trying (even after creating the template I talk about below). This is the biggest reason why I didn’t give it 5 stars.
PROS:
- make my own designs
- not much else to buy after the machine except cutting mats (see my tip below) and paper
- can cut very long designs (not even sure how long because I’ve never had paper longer than 12″)
- small and light, super easy to store
CONS:
- with the proprietary cutting software that comes with it, paper is wasted
- a little difficult to use with Adobe Illustrator
- proprietary software is PC only Mac users need a plugin
- for some, may have to buy shapes through the Silhouette store, but they are inexpensive
- only cuts up to 8″ wide (if you cut the 1/4-1/2″ wider they claim it can, you have an indented line from the wheels)
- loud
- lint and pet hair clings to the cutting mats pretty easily. They are hard to keep clean, but still work fine when dirty like this
- when I bought in Dec 09, Vista users had to download a new driver from the Silhouette website (not really a con, just an FYI)
Even though I listed more cons than pros, this is a GREAT buy. I think the pros still outweigh the cons and I would buy it again and recommend it to friends. I guess I’m just paying more attention to the down sides that you probably won’t read about anywhere else online.
I downloaded a free plugin for use with Illustrator (on PC, may work for Mac too) from the GraphtecCorp website: [...] .
You’ll have to test and set up a template to get everything to cut on the paper with this plugin (I made a 8 x 12 document and added a small box to be cut just outside these borders and make sure all of my shapes are within a 1/4″ margin of the document and haven’t had a problem. The box doesn’t cut on the paper, but it lines up everything else to cut properly. I can set shapes to cut almost right at the edges, so no wasted paper!!). If you know Illy and like the freedom it gives you, it’s worth the frustration of figuring this out. This plugin gives you a lot of control over the cutting. You can set the paper type, pressure, how many times the blade runs over the design and even the line type (solid, dashes, dots!!).
My best tip: buy the Cricut brand cutting mats. They are thicker and I feel like they last longer. They are a lot cheaper than the Silhouette brand cutting mats. The only down side is that you’ll need to trim them to fit in the Silhouette, but it’s very worth it. I thought the Silhouette brand cutting mats were too sticky and pretty thin; I felt like I was cutting through them after a dozen uses. Paper doesn’t stick to the Cricut ones but they hold it just fine.
Review by T. Norris for Silhouette SD Digital Craft Cutting Tool (QuicKutz)
Rating:
One reviewer downrates this because it is complicated. Well duh! It’s a piece of software that controls a precision razor blade. All computer programs must be learned prior to use. This comes with a basic manual that lets you install the software, load the blade, load paper and cut a pattern. Horay it works! That’s about all the “Basic Instruction Guide” does. Load the Instruction CD and a video pops up in your browser. This is about as detailed and well paced training video I have ever used. After viewing it I was convinced I had found the best thing since scissors…
Now for an honest admission: After I had my HORAY IT WORKS moment, I quickly opened Photoshop, did a mask of a profile picture I had, checked the import files supported and moved the mask JPG into the Silhoutte SD. Loaded paper. Selected the cut icon (called craft robo via ballon name) and the thing made some noise and the carriage moved and nothing happend. Hmph. So I did what any male would do, I hit the cut button again, and again some noise and some movement, but no cut image came out.
Oh. Must need a png file instead of jpg. Created that and the thing wouldn’t import it. Tried a tif. Noise and movement, but not cutting!
Ok. I give up. Maybe I should send Amazon a note and send the thing back. I wasn’t feeling so HORAY anymore. Maybe I should try the instruction disk. HMMM. It needs to rasterize the jpg before cutting, which it did nicely. (they didn’t call it that, but duh! anyone knows that it should need to do that). Cut the silhoutte profile. Cool. Horay again.
So, to avoid the fun I had, do the unconsumerly thing and listen to the Instruction CD video. You might learn how to actually use the damn thing…
I suppose if you want something simple, get a pair of scissors. But I imagine it’s OK to run with this thing…
All in all it will take about two hours for you to be able to use this for some pretty complicated designs and be able to import your own graphics and clipart.
AGAIN: take the time to view the videos, at least quickly. There are some details like different color lines for solid or perforated cuts. How to really line up landscape and portrait cuts so you don’t waste paper and other little things that you might stumble upon eventually with trial and error.
Neat machine.
Thanks for reading my review.
Oh, BTW I bought the one with the extra mats and blade.
This one comes with two mats (for non backed media NOT ADHESIVE VINYL). The $275 one come with two mats, a cutter, and some pens (I guess for people who don’t have a printer … )
Review by Chen Clan for Silhouette SD Digital Craft Cutting Tool (QuicKutz)
Rating:
I have both the Silhouette SD and the Cricut Expressions. I love the fact that Silhouette doesn’t need any more cartridges and Quickutz offers reasonable image subscriptions. It does take more time to learn to use the Silhouette. I went through all the tutorials on [...] and was amazed with what it can do. The tutorials will take time but definitely worth it. The cutting mat was a real pain, it was too sticky and thin besides the replacements are expensive. I’ve found a solution though but cutting up a Cricut 12×12 mat to use with Silhouette, it works perfect. There are many ways to make your own mats, just do a search online. There are also ways to make your cricut mat sticky again so one mat lasts almost forever.
Review by Slate for Silhouette SD Digital Craft Cutting Tool (QuicKutz)
Rating:
After having used the Silhouette SD for a lot of cutting projects on vinyl, I’d say it’s not a bad machine. However, I think there’s an interface issue between the software and firmware of the cutter. If I use it to cut a few letters out on a 10″x6″ sheet of vinyl, there’s no problems. As soon as I try to do a bunch of letters, (the same word repeated), the cutter begins to miss parts of some of the letters. I tried the max of 8.5″x24″ and had 30 decals cut out. out of the 30, I was able to use 26. I then tried a larger size of the same word and font. In the 8.5″x24″ sheet, I was able to fit 18 decals, of which, only 15 were usable.
The software doesn’t take to importing images very well. After importing an image, I found myself having to use the Robocraft software to redraw the lines in the image because the software didn’t import the image as a solid image. Very time consuming if you have to sit and play connect the dots. There’s also a lot of prompts to cut your piece, which can become annoying as well. Another large gripe is that there’s no actual scale to the project you’re working on. They give you a grid, but no numbers on the grid to determine how large the piece will actually be. That makes the grid next to useless if you’re working on something that requires certain dimensions. Make sure to reboot your computer after installing the software. Even tho it doesn’t ask you to reboot, if you don’t, your custom TTF fonts will not work in the software.
The only reason I gave it a 3rd star is because it’s far less expensive than other plotter/cutters in the same category and works relatively well, despite it’s flaws. I purchased mine for $170 shipped.
Review by Debra L. Davis for Silhouette SD Digital Craft Cutting Tool (QuicKutz)
Rating:
I’ve had my Silhouette for about a year and a half now, and I Love It! I’ve cut shapes and letters out as small as 1/8th of an inch without any problems. I’ve used everything from very thin scrapbook paper to 110lb card stock.
I’m really mystified that anyone would find this machine or the software that it comes with difficult to use. When I first got it, I had it up and cutting in less than 15 minutes. I really understood how it worked in less than an hour. One thing that may have made it easier for me is that when I first started using the cutter, I didn’t immediately try to start cutting patterns that I made myself. At first, I only cut the patterns that came with the machine. I then moved on to cutting patterns that I downloaded from the Internet (there are a ton of free patterns out there). By doing this, I was able to see how various designs were created before I tried making my own. I now make most of the designs that I cut out myself.
The other thing I did when I first started was that I focused on cutting regular weight scrapbook paper before trying heavier card stock or really light weight papers. Doing this really gave me a much better feel for the cutter and its capabilities.
The software that comes with the machine is pretty basic, but if you really get into it, there is 3rd party software that has more capabilities that can be used with the Silhouette (KNK Studio GE, Funtime 2010, etc.).
There are also a lot of online groups that you can join to get help from other Silhouette or Craft Robo users if you need it. These are particularly helpful should you decide to try some more advanced techniques. Yahoo has a number that are very active where everyone is quite friendly.
Overall, I highly recommend the Silhouette. It’s inexpensive, a lot of fun and a lot more flexible than the Cricut.
Review by for Colossal Barrel of Crafts®
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Rating:
Imagine a plastic barrel full of markers, colored paper, googly eyes (different sizes yet), pipe cleaners, fuzzy balls, cut out shapes, glitter, sequins, popsicle sticks…okay, there is more, but we haven’t reached the bottom of the barrel yet. Basically, it’s full of cool stuff that kids LOVE to goof around with. It’s messy, and you’ll be picking up sequins and various “shiney” things for days, but the kids will be absorbed for at least an hour, if not more. We’re homeschoolers, and when we don’t feel like doing “formal” art, it’s so much fun to pull out the giant barrel and say, “Okay, get the glue!”
Review by for Colossal Barrel of Crafts®
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The kids can really be creative with this, and the adults can have fun, too! There are plenty of each item in the barrel, so you can complete many different crafts. This would be a great birthday or holiday present. Just get some glue, and you’re ready to go!
Review by for Colossal Barrel of Crafts®
Rating:
This barrel of crafts is great.No matter what the bad reviews say,they are wrong.It is totally worth the money.Your child will love it if they like to do crafts.I have made a lot of cute things with it.I even made an adoradle gift for my teacher who is going to have a baby!
If there is one word to describe this toy it is…….PERFECT!
THIS TOY IS DEFINATELY WORTH THE MONEY AND IS TONS OF FUN!!!!!!
5 STARS ALL THE WAY!!!!!!!!!!!
PS-It IS educational because it teaches kids to use their imagination and create new things.It is also very durable.Great for road trips!!!!!
Review by Stephanie for Colossal Barrel of Crafts®
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I took this on a 5 day camping trip where I knew it would be a challenge to keep 3 and 4 year olds occupied – and not begging for the TV! They had a great time making things! My only complaint is that it didn’t come with paper and glue so they would have more options. I bought them separately and am glad I did!
Review by Nina Schmitter for Colossal Barrel of Crafts®
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I bought this for my 5 year old for Christmas. It comes with SO much stuff. Well worth the money. It keeps her busy for hours and really encourages creativity…a must have for your little artist!