You’ve seen them online and I the craft stores, but what do they do, and what’s the difference?
Sizzix and Cricut are both die cut systems. There are others out there, but these seem to be the most popular, at least for now. The main difference between the two is that one is manual, and one is electronic.
Sizzix, also interchangeable with Elison designs, is a manual system. There are physical dies for each shape or letter. You put a piece of paper across the die, sandwich the two between plastic plates and slide the whole lot through the Sizzix machine aka Big Kick or a Sidekick (smaller version machine). You turn a crank or move a lever to actually cut the die cuts. The dies are different for the two, but there is a converter block available to make the smaller dies (called sizzlets) into the bigger machine.
NOTE: the bigger dies cannot be used with the smaller machine.
NOTE: If you are considering a manual system, consider the “Cuttlebug” by Provocraft. It’s supposedly takes the dies from Sizzix and Elison as well as its own, plus they offer embossing dies.
Cricut, on the other hand, is an electronic version of the above. The machine plugs in and allows you to type in the shape or letter. The big plus here is that it’s faster - you type entire words or phrases, instead of one by one, and you do the set up once. I also think it’s a little more cost effective. You get entire fonts, upper and lower case for about $60-$75 instead of one font/one case for about the same (if you can buy on sale). Plus, you have the option of making your fonts many different sizes.
For both, a Xyron 150 is recommended. Tape runners or glue dots just don’t do the trick here.
Here’s a sample of using Cricut on a layout I created for one of my Page Design classes. I used the “Stamped” font as well as stars from the “George and Basic Shapes” cartridges. Notice, the same star is used but in different shapes. The design for the first page was borrowed from the Cricut site. The companion page is my own design. The Xyron 150 was used to adhere the die cuts.
Products used:
Fancy Pants Designs Vintage Summer paper in “picnic”, “summer elegance” and “sun and sea”.
Fancy Pants Designs Vintage Summer Tags and Titles
White card stock
Silver brads
Sizzix Example:
Cricut Example: