Communication from Craft Edge

I received this email this morning addressed to all affiliates explaining what has transpired (I used to have the SCAL2 sales link on my blog):

Dear Craft Edge Affiliate,

This is to provide notice that, as of May 13, 2011, Craft Edge Inc.
has agreed to stop selling, offering to sell or distributing its
software product, Sure Cuts A Lot™ major versions 1.0 and 2.0, in
accordance with the terms of a confidential settlement agreement
entered into with Provo Craft and Novelty, Inc. The litigation between
Provo Craft and Craft Edge will be terminated with all claims
dismissed. To ensure compliance with this settlement, Craft Edge
requests that all our distributors, partners and affiliates completely
stop selling, offering for sale or distributing these versions by no
later than May 27, 2011

Craft Edge greatly appreciates and values its relationship with you
and desires to work together now to close one chapter of that
relationship and open a new one. We will continue to provide quality
software for our shared customers in Sure Cuts A Lot™ version 3.0
and beyond.

Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and
you will not receive a response. If you have any questions, please
email us at affiliates@craftedge.biz

Sincerely,

Craft Edge Inc.

Just an FYI.....SCAL2......

......is no longer available from craftedge.com. The only download available is for SCAL3 which DOES NOT SUPPORT the Cricut.

If you or anyone you know has not purchased SCAL2 and still would like to do so, I've heard that there are a limited number of copies still available at Pumpkin Cart Crafts

SCAL or MTC - your opinions please?

I have been pondering all of my options in light of everything that has happened with MTC and Provo Craft. I'm really kind of in limbo right now waiting for an official statement from Andy at MTC. I am seriously considering the purchase of a Black Cat cutter but I want to be assured of the future of MTC before I take that step.

I have to state that I was never a cartridge user - think I bought 4 or 5 and I have personally used only ONE of them. I gave all the others to my daughter because she had access to a cricut at some crop nights she was attending. I'm left with Plantin Schoolbook that came with my machine - and when I just need some quick text without welding, etc - I like the font and will use it.

I love the combo of SCAL & Inkscape and have become quite competent at creating the files that I want/need for my pages. Even before the advent of the cutting machines - I made my own intricate paper-piecings rather than purchase stickers and die cuts - I'm just not a "cutesy" scrapbooker. Don't get me wrong - there is adorable stuff and I love a lot of it - it just doesn't fit with my scrapbooking style.

While I wait for an official statement on the future of MTC, I decided to download the trial version of the software and see if I can figure it out. I keep reading how it is more user friendly than SCAL. I don't see it yet - but maybe it's just because I've used SCAL from the beginning.
I will say that the trace feature seems to work very well - I haven't tried breaking any images yet to clean them up and separate them ( I haven't figured out how to do this yet).

I'd love to hear from any of you who own and have used both software applications - which is your favorite and why?

FYI - Print & Cut with SCAL2

Been reading a lot about the new print and cut capability of SCAL2 so I decided to play around with it some today.

A couple of days ago, I upgraded to SCAL2 v2.041 which includes a calibration feature. Before trying the print and cut, I went through the calibration steps and after several test cuts, finally found that I got the best results with offsets of 6 and 18 - but this will vary with each machine. You will find the calibration feature under the cutter menu in SCAL2. I've included a screenshot of my settings below:


And, here is a scan of the little label with text that I was playing around with. It's not 100% perfect but I think it looks fine. (compared to the cost of buying an Imagine and for the little that I would probably use this feature, I can live with it!)