Update on Felt, Grunge Paper, and Chipboard in the eCraft

Well we know that the eCraft can cut felt because of the dresses that Suede from Project Runway designed and constructed, but how do we do it.  Before the software was released, I started talking to Sara and she gave me the name of a product to try and she graciously sent me some pictures showing how she cut it.  The product is called Easy Felt made by CPE.  Here are the images that came courtesy of Sara from Craftwell.

So now the search was on to find me some Easy Felt.  I quickly found that this product was available at Hobby Lobby, so off I went.  Easy Felt is extremely stiff!  I was amazed at how stiff it is, and in all honesty, it is not really the type of product that I would like to use in my projects.  I would like the felt that I use to be more flexible and soft, but I decided to get a couple of pieces of it to see if I could get it to work.  While I was at Hobby Lobby, I also saw a felt product made by CPE called Stick It.  This is an adhesive backed felt and it is also quite stiff like the Easy Felt, so I decided to try that too.

First I tried the Easy Felt.  Sara indicated that she cut this at a pressure of 8, no tabs, and with the blade safety cap off.  I decided to try the heart, because that is what she had successfully cut.  Unfortunately I did not have the same luck with it.  The blade got caught up in the felt and the felt got bunched up at the end.  Here is what I was left with.

I then tried it using the freezer paper method that I had successfully done with fabric, and got the same results.  FYI I have tried the freezer paper method using a couple of other unstiffened felts without success as well.  I decided then to see if I could cut a simple circle, and it worked! Clearly this is not what we are hoping for, so I need to do some more testing to see if I can figure something out.

Next up the Stick It Felt.  Using the same settings, this felt cut much better than the Easy Felt.  It is an adhesive backed felt, which isn't really something that I have an interest in, but here are the results.

I am going to play more with the felt, and I have sent off a message to the "felt expert" at Craftwell to see if I can get more information on cutting felt.  Ideally I would love to be able to cut Papertrey Ink felt, but not sure if that will be possible. I definately want to be able to cut a felt that I could then sew into, and I don't think I could that with either of these products.  I will keep you all informed as to my progress on cutting felt.

When Tom Meeks at the Create and Cut Blog posted THIS about taking the blade safety cap off, I knew we were really onto something.  I decided to try this method on a couple of hard to cut products.  First up, Grunge Paper!  I had tried to cut Grunge Paper before this and was not very successful, but that all changed by taking the blade safety cap off.  Not only could I cut it, but I could cut it in 1 pass.  That's right, only 1 pass!  Here are the results. EDIT: I used a pressure of 8 with no tabs on one cut, and tabs of 1 density and 1 width on the other.  I would definitely use the no tabs in the future.

I decided then to take on chipboard.  I use a lot of cereal box chipboard in my projects, and would love to be able to continue to use it.  It seems like there is a never ending supply of it in this house!  Again I fed it in using a pressure of 8, no tabs, and blade safety cap off, and woila!

It also cut in 1 pass!  Yippee!  Guess which cereal box this came from!

Tomorrow I will have some more updates for you on products as well as an update on the eCraft Settings Chart, so be sure to stop by tomorrow!