Cricut Cartridges

I got a Michaels.com email last week, with the news that Cricut cartridges were to be $40 each, and if you buy 3, then you can get Design Studio (software to use the Cricut with your computer) for free (limited time offer.)

I was able to go and get 3 cartridges Wednesday the 30th of July.

(I have a Cricut Expression, which I got mid-July 2008, for my birthday.)

I got Jasmine, Opposites Attract, and Walk in My Garden.

I looked at all the carts. online before hand, and had several singled out as possibilities, and the above three were all in that list. I did want one that wasn’t in the store I was in. I am not sure which one above I would have not gotten if they would have had Printing Press available that day. I would have gotten Jasmine for sure, but the other two … one or the other would have had to go.

I haven’t played with them yet, it’s been too busy here for that.

I have been able to download Cricut Design Studio though, which is available for free download as a trial. It will not start for me though. I found on their site where in FAQ’s that it won’t always open correctly at first, but will on second or third try.

It hasn’t done that for me. Not ever for me. Not after three or four or five or six, and more tries. Not after re-starting my PC either, or trying again and again after a re-start, and then again, un-installing it, re-start, re-install, try opening again, nothing. I haven’t gone the way of asking them for help yet, but I will need to get something figured out if getting the nice deal (free software with at least an $89 value) for buying three more than half-priced cartridges will mean anything of value for me (actually getting to use DS!) Of course, the three cartridges are of value to me, of course, it’s just the kicker is the software, and I do want it to work.

I have Win XP SP2 on my desktop and it won’t work. I also have a laptop with Win XP Media Center 2005 and it won’t work either. I’m in the process of removing all my data from the laptop and am going to re-install the whole thing, since I had a problem with my DVD drive and swapped mine and my hubbies, and messed up some things in the process that only a full clean install will provide, and hadn’t been able to do that because I couldn’t find my disk for that purpose, and suddenly it showed up on the floor after a couple of months of searching for it. Go figure. I can’t. So anyhow the hope I have is that when I get my laptop into tip top shape I’ll see if it’ll work with Design Studio at some point before and after updates, blah, blah, blah. And basically figure it out. Hopefully. At least I’ll have a better working laptop, freespace instead of the clogged harddrive I had been working on since I’ve been moving all my music and photos and documents to my desktop this past weekend.