Sunday 14 November 2010

Making Memories Slice Elite - Review and Cut Samples


This will be the second review of the Slice Elite machine I have done, however I have decided to remove the first review. I am removing the first review as i think it was a little unfair of me to leave a review up of a machine which was faulty. The machine was returned and a new one tested and sent out to me which works brilliantly and is nothing like the first machine, I have kept some cuts made on the first machine to show you a comparison.

This time around i am using the 12x12 hands free magnetic mat which is really good, you pop a little collar with 4 magnets on over the slice machine and it has a fantastic hold - word of warning, if you choose to wander round your craft room holding your slice while it is wearing its magnetic collar you may well end up collecting lots of metal things on the bottom of it like scissors, pokey tools, spatulas to name a few! It does show how good the magnets in it are though!


The first cuts i wanted to show you are from the Big Kids Card, i really love the designs on here and can not wait until i have some more time (once my Christmas makes are out of the way) to experiment with cutting some fancy papers and some fabrics with this card! I love the fairy and this is quite an intricate cut, the only thing that i do wish is that there were parts of her you could cut and layer, MM are already on the case with this and there are some lovely cards with layers on coming soon!!


The next few photos are comparing the faulty machines cuts to the new machines cuts, there is a clear difference and i wanted to show these to prove that the new machine really is so much better!
These letters are cut on the smallest setting, the one on the left is cut on the faulty machine and the ones on the right on the new machine you can really see the difference


The next cut is the stamp edged frame, i expected the frame to have some character and not be perfect but on the faulty machine it was the inner square and just how wonky it was that concerned me, you can see on the cut made using the new machine (the white frame on the right) that the square is actually straight which was how i had expected it to look. this was cut at about 3 inches but if you were to cut it at maximum size (4 inches) it would make a nice little matt for a card topper or a frame for some journalling


Another one of my fave shapes for quick single embellishment cards is a scalloped square. Again the cut from the new machine is on the right, you can see it is much neater with all 4 sides looking the same, the one on the left from the faulty machine is really bad in the top right corner where it sort of goes more pointed


Lastly were the letters i cut on the faulty machine, i am really please with the sharpness of the letters on my replacement, I love monograms and think these are going to be really popular next year I can not wait to try these monograms from some lovely vintage patterned fabric.... I am a little scared if i get the ironing board out to iron on the bond-a-web type backing that Mr Fairy will a) faint or b) give me housework to do so have been putting this off!


So all in all i am really pleased with this new little machine, i was cutting linen card from the papermill shop, it is not a thin card as i often use it for card blanks and it has a texture too. I would recommend using a spatula tool to lift the designs from the glass mat with this type of card because if you use your nails you sometimes split the card causing the edge to lift a little and not look so good.
I am going to have to put some more cards on my Christmas list now, but it will be so hard as i really love the designs making memories produce and there are a lot to choose from!!


Lastly i wanted to show you the size of these letters, they were cut on the smallest setting and look perfect, I do not want to compare this machine to Robo's and Cricut's and they are not really comparable but those of you with an electric cutter will know that small letters in a good quality card can be tricky with nicked edges and a bit tatty looking but these look fab!

I will do some more show and tells with the slice elite as i want to have a good play with fabric too, i think this will add a whole new dimension to my card making and it may actually work out cheaper than a posh patterned paper!

If you were put off of purchasing the slice from my last review, please don't be. With Christmas coming up this would make a great pressie and on Christmas day can be used straight from the box even by a total novice. The important thing is to get the machine from a good reliable retailer so if you do have any problems you know you have someone to go to. My machine was purchased from Angela at www.craftathome.co.uk who have fantastic customer service. The shop use the machine themselves so you have people who have used the machine to go to if you need support.

Hugs
Lisa xXx

5 comments:

Ohhh Snap said...

Thank you for posting this! I'm glad to know that first review was due to a bad machine lol. TFS :D

Highland Monkey's said...

Thats one serious bit of kit! Wish I had one.

JuliaChew said...

What are your slice calibration settings? All 4 of them. I'm having problems with mine and I live in Malaysia so I want to try all options before I send it back.

Jheffner said...

I just received my new Slice elite and it is faulty....the blade is dragging and not cutting the designs (and I have adjusted the blade and put a new blade in).

So....reported the issue to MM, and hopefully they will take care of the problem.

Am soooooooooooooo disappointed that I have had the machine for less then 24 hours and it looks like it has to go back.

Lori Shrout said...

I was so happy to see this review. I owned the original Slice, and recently bought the Slice Elite thinking - hey - a good thing can only get better. Well my Elite definitely was not cutting as well as my original machine. Now I am hopeful the situation can be corrected. Thank you for the info !