Cricut Design Studio Software

The big news for “little” Cricut owners is this: Cricut Design Studio has come out. This is an older announcement, copied from the Cricut Chirp December 2007 NEWSLETTER (Volume 80, December 3, 2007):

“Christmas Cheer

Every week I have something to be thrilled about. This is one of the reasons why I’m grinning today. Remember that little USB port on the back of your Cricut? Remember how we kept telling you there were plans to make the Cricut machine compatible with a computer and take advantage of its strengths. Remember, how we informed you, the details of how, when, and what this would be weren’t known quite yet but we would inform you when that time comes. You waited patiently for further information…well patients has a reward! The time has come! The Cricut Design Studio is here!

“Cricut DesignStudio software, is an exciting new way to connect your original Cricut or Cricut Expression machine to your computer! Using an on-screen cutting mat, this program allows you to explore, design, and cut the complete Cricut Cartridge Library. What You See Is What You Cut! With a user-friendly interface and the ability to save your innovative creations, you’ll discover that the Cricut DesignStudio is a must-have addition to your Cricut cutting system!”

Check out the links to our new releases in the announcements below. You’ll be grinning too.
Happy Cricuting,

Lonna Joy Smoot- Editor, Cricut CHIRP!”

Okay, I thought it was just for the little Cricut like I have…

But according to the above article, it’s also for the Cricut Expression…

Here is an article from the Cricut Chirp NEWSLETTER I received today that tells more about it:

“CARTRIDGE EXPLORATION –

This week I finally get to write about the new Cricut Design Studio software that came out last week. I love this software and am so happy to finally be able to share this great new program with all of you. You will definitely want to add this to your Christmas list because this program will be something that you will use with your Cricut cartridges for the rest of your life.

Have you ever wished that you could create your own word and hook all the letters together? Well this new program lets you weld words, letters, and images together. Just think of the fun things you can write and be able to connect them to make your own titles or sidebars for a scrapbook page. Other fun possibilities that you can do with your letters, words, and images are: shearing (make the image go diagonal), Compressing (expand or shrink the image), Kerning (move the letters or words closer together, you use this when you are welding letters together), Stretching, Flipping, and Rotating. Now you have a lot of different ways to create your own project or scrapbook page. There are two ways to weld letters into words. One way is by using the feature called “kerning”; when you use this feature all the letters must be in the same box. When using the kerning feature, start with the farthest right letter and move the letter closer to the letter on its left. You must make sure that you click on each line of each letter; you will see the letter turn into little dots then you know that you can click on the kerning arrows to move the letters. You would follow this process with all the letters making sure that all the letters are overlapping a little and the welding box is checked. The second way to weld letters into a word is by placing each letter in its own box. This way you will need to make sure that each box has the welding box checked and then you will use the top little circle on each box to move the letters to overlap each other. With this way of welding you can turn the letters on different angles to give your word a more creative look.

I decided to experiment with a saying to place on my wall. I can use the vinyl to place directly on the wall or use a frame, either way the experiment turned out really cute (see pic). In my experiment I used the cartridge Alphalicious and typed in the phrase “Family makes a House a Home”. With this software you can use letters from different font cartridges or images; you can mix them all up on the screen mat. I used the kerning for the words to move them together and the word “Home” I welded the letters after placing them in their own box. If receive your own cut file, just click here!

This program will work with both Cricuts and all the cartridges in the Cricut family just make sure that you own the cartridges that you are using in your project or you will have to run out and buy the cartridge you need. You must own the cartridges to get your project to cut what you have created on the screen mat, even though this great software will let you play around and design with all the wonderful cartridges. This is a great way to preview all the cartridges and help you decide which ones to purchase next. Have fun welding words and creating phrases and check out next week as I continue to give tips on the new software and explore one of the new cartridges.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays,
Crafty Kimber”

HERE is where they’re talking about it over on the Cricut Message Board. HERE is where the CKMB gals have discussed it recently. From what I hear, the free trial is not compatible with Macs, so I will wait here patiently to be able to check it out. Will you buy the Cricut Design Studio Software?