I got so excited about the cricut when I read the threads today that I ordered a Cricut Expression off Ebay! What in the world am I thinking! It looked so cool, though. Can anybody tell me if I can take any type of image and use it with SCAL? I want to make a "blue willow" china pattern image on a cake. I'll attach the image. Just wondering what can be done with SCAL.

yes it can be done with scal, you just need to make an svg file in inkscapes and import it into SCAL. you can check out crafters edge to help with cricut and scal files. You can stick it on there and ask someone to make it for you too, and they are very helpful! good luck

THANK YOU EDEE!!! My Cricut just shipped today and this "Blue Willow" cake is for my mother in law. She'll love this if it works!

It will take a while to cut and it will have tons of little pieces because of the pattern, but I'm sure someone at crafters edge can do it. I would do it for you but I haven't redownloaded all my scal and inkscapes programs since my computer crash! I want to see it when you get it all done though, it will be awesome!

I would practice with something MUCH simpler first - just getting to understand how Inkscape and SCAL work takes time particularly since neither comes with instruction manuals. Inskcape is a free download program, but you must buy SCAL - I do some work in Paint as well which is included on Windows (look in Programs>Accessories)

I spent close to 10 hours converting a santa sleigh and reindeer pattern for gingerbread - first scanned in into my computer, then used Paint software to erase unnecessary text and fill in unconnected lines, then used SCAL to convert .bmp to .scut files and get all the pieces the right size and arranged before I ever cut a piece. It ultimately worked great but it wasn't fast.

Go to youtube and watch some SCAL and Inkscape videos so that you get some feel for what you will do. SCAL version 2 will do the .bmp to .svg conversion so you don't absolutely need inkscape - but I used inkscape to create some of my own patterns.