Craft cutting machine (silhouette cameo, Portrait, etc,) questions

[margecat]

Anyone here have one of these? I want to "print" cat-themed canvas shopping bags to donate to an animal shelter thrift store (I am currently making jewelry that I donate every few months to 3 shelters). I think these would sell for them, which would help the animals.

As a crafter, I pretty much make jewelry, bookmarks, and decorative backing cards for the jewelry I send them. I know you can make lots of stuff with these machines, but I may not have a need for that. However, if these machines are easy to use, I may branch out into keychains, magnets and other printables to donate to the shelters.

I saw a youtube video where someone unboxed the Silhouette 3 for her business use (she uses hers to make stick on vinyl shapes for glass water bottles). I know very little about these machines, such as Cricut, but I wonder if I can use them to apply pictures and lettering to fabric--or do you use special paper, similar to iron-on transfer paper? Would I be better off just printing pictures onto that instead? Would be be an advantage to using one of these machines?

Thanks for your input!

 

[Jem]

I know very little about these machines, such as Cricut, but I wonder if I can use them to apply pictures and lettering to fabric--or do you use special paper, similar to iron-on transfer paper?

I'm not "first hand" familiar with those small home cutting machines either, however I do know that if you want to apply whatever you printed and cut out to fabric, you need to make sure it's heat transfer vinyl, it's basically "iron on" stuff. Regular vinyl will not stick to fabric, it's basically just a good quality sticker...so it only sticks to hard surfaces. Anything that needs to be applied to fabric has to be heated into the fabric, so you want to make sure you have the proper product, otherwise you'll just end up with a melted plastic mess.
You can get an actual heat press if you think that branching into this line will be a somewhat regular thing, but I know some who just use an iron...a heat press does provide a much more even press, so you get a better adhesion that will last longer than with just an iron.
Another option for you for decorating fabric if you don't want to mess with all the little machines would be to buy a bunch of stencils and fabric paint...just a thought.
Another thing to consider is what you will be heating your prints onto...some fabrics will melt under the heat of the iron/heat press so do your research on what fabrics are best for heat transfers.

As for what else a cricut (or similar) machine can do....I have no idea...