I am pretty close to buying the Silhouette cutter package from Lisa McClure's site. For those of you that have it, are you happy with it? Also, do you have the Make the Cut or Sure Cuts a Lot software and is it any good? Is one better than the other? Is it somewhat easy to figure out, I know a DVD is included to help, so that is a plus. Sorry for all the questions, I want to be somewhat thorough before I purchase. Thanks a lot!!

Several people on this forum have the Silhouette and have great success with it. I took Linda's class last year and learned how to use the Make the Cut program. I also got the class package and it was a great refresher to the class. You will enjoy being able to create your own designs and the print and cut feature is great. You will not have to keep buying expensive cartridges when you need new designs. That is the one thing that made the Silhouette a better bargain than the Cricut.

I don't have the Silhouette, but I've always wanted it. I was never interested in the cricut, not even for paper.

I like freedom, and I want my own designs. I'm a graphic designer and I've wanted it before for other things, like boxes and paper cutouts.

But now I'm into cakes too. So here's my question. Do you think I will make it non-food safe if I use it to cut paper sometimes? Does any of you use it for other things? Do I have to buy two? I wouldn't mind but these things take space!

I have it and I love it. I also took Linda's class and bought it from her so I would get the special blade for gumpaste/fondant. It can be used for both food and paper as long as you don't use glitter paper. Nothing on the machine itself touches the paper or food. Only the blad and mat come in contact with food and you use different blade/mat for paper then you do for food so there is no contamination. It doesn't take up near as much space as the cricut. I have MTC and love it. I've never used SCAL so I don't know anything about it.

Thank you, tiggy2! That's so great to know. I only meant (about the space) that I wouldn't want to get two. Actually, if anything, I wanted it more for paper than for cake, but if it can do both, much better!

The software might prove hard to decide on. I have Illustrator because I use it for work, so I'll have to see if that works. I thought I heard that none of the two other programs work on a mac.

I have been reading about it. there was a comparison here (for paper) between the two machines:

http://www.kwernerdesign.com/blog/?p=2841

The only question I never asked was about the food safety because most people use it for paper only.

Thanks so much for your help, tiggy2. When I get it, I'll make sure I get Linda's stuff.

You can download a trail version of MTC and see if it works for you. SCAL may also have a trial version but I'm not sure since I don't use it.