I'm in LOVE!!!

As a small business owner, a mom and a housewife my time is limited and well there is never enough of it, as I am sure ALL moms can relate! My business is a "crafty" business we do everything from sewing to heat press vinyl, and of course birthday invites and party supplies.

We have always had a vinyl cutter, but it was a very basic one that I used/use for fondant (the blade and sheets are different so there is no cross contamination), we loved it and used the crap out of it, still have it on the shelf downstairs as a just in case.

This year after a mountain of research I decided to buy an upgraded version, well oops I guess I didn't research enough because the one I bought (Cricut air explore) wouldn't do what I needed it to do. So back to the research bored I went. After Extensive research I finally decide to go out and buy new, a Silhouette Cameo 3. I got mine off Amazon as it was a better deal than Micheals because it came with all kinds of neat add-ons.

It arrived fast (I am a Prime member) and as soon as it got here my excitement turned to dear god how am I ever going to figure this out. Please keep in mind we were going from a non-digital easy to use machine that I had been using for 8 years! So many parts and pieces and of course the instructions are online and I am that person who if there is no paper instructions I just fiddle around until I figure it out, oh who am I kidding even if there are paper instructions I do the same things.

I get it all set up and excited and installed the software, update the machines software and here I am ready to go! Well dang it the whole reason I bought this thing was so I could design anything I wanted from any image I wanted. Well it turns out after googling and reading post after post, in order to do that I have but the paid for software. Okay I can do that! Buy the software now I am lost because how on earth do I make the file type it needs without buying expensive software. Within my search I found a free program with easy to follow instructions and easy to use it is called inkscape  .
The instructions on how to create the .dfx file you need is here.  It is a lot like using my embroidery software.

I couldn't be happier with my decision and it is so much fun to use. I have used my machine with construction paper, card stock and vinyl so far but my next task is going to be print and cut stickers!!!