Information

[Merryscrapper]

 I am looking to buy one of these machines with my tax refund.  I am interested pro's and con's from people who may have them.  I know I can get the Cricut locally at Walmart, but I know there is the added expense of the cartidges.  I have hundreds of fonts on my computer, that's why I'm leaning towards the Sillouette.  Does the Cricut connect to your computer like the sillouette?  Thanks for your help

[deerewife]

 The Cricut can connect to your computer, but the software is extra and then it only cuts for the carts you have.
If you buy a non Cricut software it will cut any font your computer has - but there is an issue of your warrenty being voided and some say this causes the machine to have problems.
I have no experience with either software.

If money wasn't an issue, I think I would go with the sillouette.  Of course, I have a Cricut...

[MLee]

 I have the Silhouette and love it, now that I've actually started using it!!

I'm a computer font freak and it's fabulous just hooking it up and using any TT font or ding to cut anything I want. I like that there are still downloads I can get from QK if I want to purchase them ( I have only once) and otherwise I just do my thing with it. It's easy to understand and the initial set up was a breeze.

I don't make recommendations one way or another because I think ultimately it's what will fit you and your style best but for me there was no comparison at all.

[jenniwren32]

 I have the Silhouette and absolutely love it. So far I have mainly used it to cut letters, but I've been experimenting cutting out my own designs too.

[bamablue]

 I have the Cricut and Design Studio.  I think I'm getting Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL) for my birthday, but not sure.  If not, I'll be buying it at some point in the future.  With the Cricut, you can use Design Studio to take any image from any Cricut cartridge and resize, weld, create with it.  You can be pretty creative - however do have to have the cartridge to cut out the design.  With SCAL, you don't need the cartridge and you can use any font or dingbat or if you're creative, you can use InkScape (a free vector graphics program) to create your own designs and import into SCAL.  There's alot of scare talk about using SCAL will void your Cricut warranty, but I'm not sure how they'd tell (much like the printer companies saying that your warranty is voided if you use refurbished ink cartridges.) 

I know nothing of the Sillouette, so can't compare them for you. 

HTH
Glenda