Gypsy

I don’t normally fall prey to the Black Friday frenzy. I don’t like crowds and I don’t like the blatant consumerism that Black Friday represents. However… I do like good deals. I actually read all the eamil adverstisments that came through my email inbox this year. And I found a deal I couldn’t resist. Michaels had the Gypsy on sale for $99. That is the lowest price I have ever seen on it (though I have never checked ebay!). I decided now was the time to break down and get one even though I have qualms about it.

What is a Gypsy you ask? It is a hand-held design tool that goes along with the Cricut electronic die cutting system. I enjoy my Cricut as an addition to my scrapbooking tools but I am not a fanatic like many out there. I find the pros and cons to it. And that goes for the Gypsy as well. The major con of the Gypsy is that it loads your Cricut cutting images from the cartridges and then permanently links those cartridges to that one Gypsy. There is no undo for this process. That means that we can not unlink the cartridge in order to give or sell it  to another crafter when we are tired of it. Everyone gets tired of their scrapping supplies and wants to send then on at some point! This will make it so much harder for someone else to use this cartridge. Yes the cartridge will still work in the Cricut machine itself but that person could never use it with their own Gypsy. I think Provo Craft (maker of both tools) really dropped the ball on this one. I hope that an upgrade to the Gypsy will come at some point in time that will change this closed-minded system.

So, if I dislike that business practice, why did I buy one? Well it has features that I find very useful to my crafting. The Gypsy has a search feature that allows you to look for particular images thought out all cartridges that Provo Craft makes. It has a feature that allows you to turn off certain portions of the cutting image. It allows you to combine images for unique cuts. You can even weld images, such as text, together to create one, new continuous cut. It allows you to design and save cut jobs to use later. It is portable so you can design with your Cricut without having to be right next to it. In short, it is a convenient tool. And I like tools!