So after the wait, I got my Gypsy
. I ordered from HSN and although I’ve never ordered from them before, I have to say it was a pleasure to deal with them. I ordered over the phone and got right through, I was treated pleasantly and received my Gypsy when I expected.
The problem? I connected my Gypsy to my computer, designed a few things and couldn’t wait to cut them out. Except I couldn’t get my Gypsy connected to my Cricut. After repeatedly trying to fit a square peg in a circular shaped hole, I realize that I didn’t have the correct cord. It was missing. Okay. Mistakes happen. No big deal. Except that after talking to a friend of mine who also ordered a Gypsy, I realized she had the same problem only a the cord that was missing from her Gypsy was the cord to connect to the computer. What are the odds?
After going to the message boards at cricut.com, I found out this happened to a lot of people, in addition to software issues, and a lot of people who are sorry they already loaded cartridges on it. Also, quite a few people posting messages to the admins but getting no responses at least as far as I can tell.
First thing I did was call HSN, figuring they probably couldn’t do anything, and I was right, although I spoke to a very nice girl named Amber who seemed very concerned that I couldn’t use my Gypsy without the necessary cord. I’m also pretty sure Amber didn’t know what a Cricut or a Gypsy was but she was concerned nonetheless, which made me feel a little better. She gave me the number to Provo Craft. This was another story. After waiting on hold for an hour and a half, I got someone who while nice, didn’t really seem to understand what I was saying. She said they would send me the correct cord, so in 5-7 days we’ll see, and I got it pretty quickly so that’s a plus! In fact I made this card using the Gypsy Font and Gypsy Wanderings Cart. I got the idea from a video at capadiadesigns.blogspot.com. To make the window which is holding the Happy Birthday, I used the acetate from the package of my Cricut cartridges.
My overall impression of the Gypsy has been okay. I’m not sure it could have lived up to the hype, although I guess I’ll know more once I am actually able to use it a lot. I’ll give you a quick rundown.
Pros:
- The best thing in my opinion is the fact that you can carry all your carts and design on the go. I am a gadget person, and also someone who likes small things so this is a plus for me.
- The fact that it is lightweight, although honestly I didn’t know whether that was a pro or con, as it kind of feels lightweight in a cheap, not made well kinda way. Maybe this is a con?
Cons:
- The price, and the fact that for that price I can’t use it right away. $300 is a lot to ask someone to spend on a product that still has issues.
- It seems like not a lot of thought was put into this, although a lot of effort was used to push the product for a long time before the launch. There is no user guide, except a downloadable one that from I have heard is giving errors when attempting to download.
- The whole cartridge issue is a big one for me, especially since I had loaded a couple carts on mine when I realized I didn’t have all the parts. I know, I should have checked everything when I opened the box, but it worries me a little that when I talked to Amber at HSN, her solution was to send the whole thing back and get a new one. Would I have not been able to download those same carts on the new one? What if I return it, or it breaks? I just don’t like the fact that to really get use from this thing, I have to deflate the value of my cartridges.
- I’m not sure how user friendly it is. It’s very small, which is great for portability, but when you’re used to using Design Studio on a big computer screen, it’s an adjustment. This will come with time.
Overall, for me it works out great. Since I teach a variety of things, and am always lugging around lots of stuff, any way to reduce stuff is great, and this definitely does that. I’m just not sure if the average user is going to feel the same. I will say that they seem to be doing a lot of updates so it can only get better if that’s the case. As always with first generation electronic equipment, I’m sure the price will go down and the product will get better. I might have waited if I didn’t need it to teach.
I’ll definitely be making more with it and telling everyone about it, so keep checking back.
In the meantime, if you can think it… you can Cricut!
Crazy about Cricut | 
10 26th, 2009| 
for clean, straight creases
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