Thinking about trading my Pazzles Inspiration for a Silhouette Cameo

can someone one tell me pros and cons.

I have had my Pazzles for quite a while and used it less than 10 hours.
I love the fact that it is made by the same manufacture as the Cricut and mats and blades are interchangeable however the software seem very cumbersome to me.

Any thoughts??

I can give you my opinion. I'm a machine junkie, and own all of the top brands: Cricut Expression, Cake, Imagine, Gazelle, KNK, eCraft, Silhouette SD, and a Cameo. If I had to give them all up except for one, it wouldn't be my Cameo.

I really love the Cameo. There's no other machine on the market that has the "print 'n cut" accuracy, and I can cut cereal weight material without any issues. The software "Silhouette Studio" is a breeze to use, so user friendly. I don't think you'd be disappointed.

LOVE the cameo!

One site, has it for 20% off right now too.... which makes it a total deal, IMO.

My own opinion, stay away from Cricut unless you have tons of money to spend on cartridges reporting to have 700 images on each one only to find in actuality the cartridge may only have 1 or 2 images that you would really use! Plus the Expressions 2 eats mats. Mine never last for 40 cuts like advertised, they usually last about 15-20. There are ways to reuse the mats, but it is a messy process.
If I had to do it all over again I would have bought an eClips because of:
1. Tim Holtz's line of cartridges called Stamp2Cut's which has all of his stamps as electronic dies
2. You can cut individual pieces of of the image instead of the whole thing, like from a stack of movie tickets you can cut out any one fo them you want without doing all of them.
3. Only one adapter needed to use gel pens, markers,Distress markers as well.
4. Sure Cuts A Lot software makes the Cricut Craft Room look like roadkill (and about as useful).
5. Where Cricut advises you NOT to resurface your mats and to buy new ones, Sizzix sells the mat adhesive for you to reuse the old mats.
6.eClips comes with its own handheld device in the starter kit, Cricut sells theirs separately.

Yep, if it were me, I would buy an eClips.

Hi. I realize I am rather late to this post, but I do want to give some information for people who might read it later.

Pazzles Inspiration and Cricut are not made by the same manufacturer, nor the same designer, and the blades and mats are not the same either. Chris Vander Woude, founder of Pazzles, invented many of the features you see in electronic die cutters. Because of this, Pazzles had a relationship with Provo Craft many many years ago, where they licensed features from us. This relationship no longer exists.

We do not recommend using blades and mats interchangeably between the two systems.

If you are having trouble using your Pazzles Inspiration Studio software, I recommend calling our customer service at 1-866-PAZZLES between 8am and 5pm MST. Any questions you have, they can answer. You may also email to [email protected], or use the Live Chat on http://www.pazzles.com We are more than happy to support you in use of the Inspiration Studio software, and want your experience to be as pleasant as possible.

Some people prefer to use Sure Cuts a Lot (SCAL) or Make-the-Cut (MTC) instead of the Pazzles Inspiration Studio software. Perhaps this is the case for you? Unlike other companies, we do not discourage our customers from using their software of choice -- we will not void your warranty for using SCAL or MTC. Unfortunately, we can't provide phone support for alternative software -- we have suggestions for how to use it, but actual technical support for alternative software would need to come from the software provider.

The print-and-cut feature was mentioned, and for learning to do that, I recommend watching this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyOwazMQe3E. It's true we don't utilize a laser registration mark detection system, but it's not needed. You will get very accurate print and cuts with the Pazzles Inspiration if you follow the method shown in the video.

I guess I stand corrected as I remember purchasing my Pazzles Inspiration when their was a relationship with both Pazzles and Provo Craft. I even purchased items directly from Pazzles. Cricut cartridges and such. When Pazzles were out of their own brand mat they sold me a Cricut mat and Cricut blades and told me that they were interchangeable as I would not use another brands mats or blades if I was not told that by a Pazzles member.
Anyway thanks for the you can call us up with any questions and we will gladly answer them for you however what you failed to say is you will gladly answer any questions up to a certain time allowance per month if you purchase technical support package (not sure what they are actually called)some sort of a membership per month that allows you technical support.
Me personally I do love the tech support that Provo Craft is willing to give you FREE and they will help you problem solve whatever the issue is. That being said I have to say no matter what the machine will do it the customer support and the manual or tutorials are not the most informative I prefer to have less freedom on using true type fonts and I will go right to a Cricut just because of the ease of the machine and their software.
Now you mention SCAL and MTC that maybe another story as I have heard many speak of how easy their software is.

Thanks for that bit of advise I may research those software product rather than using the WinPC that is on the Pazzles Inspiration.

I love my pazzle and I love the Pazzle team. I have never owned any other machine so I can't vouch for them but I can tell you that Pazzle is a customer oriented business. Twice I have met Klo who is their front person at expos, training and support for software and she has been amazingly helpful and resourceful. People contact her and she does online support on her own time and will literally log onto your computer remotely to help you. Never had that type of service anywhere with anything and I am an IT manager. I love my machine and have turned several of my friends onto it. If you are computer literate you can use this machine. And yes you can pay $20 a month for all the training, graphics and support you need. They do offer one on one help 3-30minute sessions per month. After you initial purchase of monthly support contracted when you buy your pazzle, the monthly membership is optional. You can find all the graphics you want on the web and turn them into cutable files....genius!

I would encourage anyone looking for a machine to at least research the pazzle...all my cricut friends are in awe of it! just saying...lol

• creater1 Said:

I talked to our founder about the time period in which we did sell Provo Craft products, where we were a wholesale distributor, and distributed them alongside our own products. According to our founder, at corporate we've always maintained that the two products are not interchangeable... we deliberately designed the blade holder and carriage to be different sizes than theirs. But this doesn't mean that a retailer (someone who bought from us wholesale and doesn't work for us directly) or someone who was a contractor and worked a show for a couple of days would know that -- they might see the similarities and assume they are identical or 'close enough'. I would be interested to know if you bought from us here in Kuna or from someone who bought wholesale from us? That might explain the discrepancy.

Our policy has been that using non-Pazzles product in any of our machines would void the warranty. As far as she knows, this has always been policy, but it doesn't mean that someone somewhere along the line misunderstood. We also stopped being a distributor before we launched the Inspiration, and cleared out the last of our stock around the time of its launch. If you've been having luck with using their products in our machine, and it's caused no damage, that's good luck, I guess. We have had tech support calls where people couldn't cut only to discover they were using 'alternative' blades. It's just something to know in case you ever do have an issue. Hope that helps.

Yes, our documentation states that your warranty is only for a year and we won't provide tech support outside of that... but we're fairly lenient on it!!! (No promises, but we do try!!) Every so often we'll get a call from someone with a Pazzles Mini or Mighty and we try to help them out, even though those products are discontinued. We'd rather have people be happy and able to use their machines than not happy at all, even if it means doing a little phone or instant message-based tech support outside of warranty. Of course, Craft Room members get more access to tech support, including Designer Chat, where you can instant message with a designer if you need help with a project. They also get discounts on repairs. I am interested to see the details on what kind of support Provo Craft/Cricut provides outside of their 90-day warranty. As far as I can see, it is only on their forums. But I could be wrong. Our warranty is much longer.

Regardless, I'm glad you have a system that works for you and makes you happy. Everyone should be able to paper craft in the way that makes them happiest, whether it's with us or not!

• Jaci67 Said:

Aww, Thanks Jaci! I'm glad you like your Inspiration. And I hope you are a Craft Room member because our project today is so super-awesome, I squealed in joy and awe every time I walked by it. I don't think we've ever made something so BIG!

We also may be doing something with image cutting files outside of the Craft Room, and I just might be making that announcement on Monday! Shhhhh! I didn't say anything and you heard nothing...

I have been waffling back and forth between the Cameo and Gazelle. I have a Cricut and I can vouch for their customer service for years after the warranty expired. On more than one occasion, I have had some poor representative on the line for a long period of time. It is honestly the reason I stayed with the product line for so long. If all companies had their representatives be half as good as Cricut's, they would probably start outselling Cricut. (I didn't have such good luck with Slice.) That being said, I have been told that the Cameo and Gazelle are similar, but the Gazelle cuts out thicker materials as well. If I am going to switch machines, I think I would like the one that cuts the most. The two people I know that have both machines say they like the Gazelle better. We'll see. I have been on the fence this since this summer. Need to make a decision.

• 950nancy Said:

I might be biased, but the Pazzles Inspiration cuts quite a bit! It can also draw, emboss, engrave, pierce, distress, and cut pastry. Here's just a few of the things we've cut before: http://pazzles.com/products/creative-cutters/inspiration/what-it-cuts/

The Inspiration also has a lot of performance power: http://pazzles.com/products/creative-cutters/inspiration/specifications/

Pazzles also has an innovative way for you to buy the Inspiration. You can get it for as little as $99 with a subscription to Pazzles Craft Room, where you'll get cutting files, tutorials, project ideas, designer help, and much more. http://pazzles.com/inspiration-for-99/

Sorry if I've put you back on the fence again!

Thanks Pazzles for your input and correction regarding interchangeable blades and mats. Although I have only used my machine for probably less that 10 hours total I have never had to change my blade so I am grateful for the correction. It would have been frustrating had I thought this was possible.
Having so little time on my machine and the software it seems cumbersome to me. I always want to do this right now and rarely give myself an opportunity for a learning curve.
The times that I did cut with this machine I did create some awesome titles using true type fonts (the reason I bought this machine).
After revisiting this and checking out my titles that I created I think that it would be wise to spend some time learning the software and getting to know it better.