Cricut experiments part 2 of 5

As promised, here are some results of the specialty cricut holders from Amy Chomas via her website www.chomascreations.com.  The mini gel pen proved a tight fit & needed to be strongly encouraged to get into the holder (shoved all the way in).  The micro sharpie & mini sharpie were easier cooperators.  I suspect that with time they will be easier to use as they get more broken in.  All images were "Cat 2", button 49,  booklet page 130 from Animal Kingdom cartridge, "heads" feature on.  These were done at pressure 1.

 These are held in place with some sort of rubberized lining.  They are all easy to remove with a chopstick pushed through the end hole

 This is the cricut brand marker by comparison.  The numbers indicate pressure used.  I didn't want to mash the tip of the marker permanently by trying pressure 3 for an even thicker line.

When using markers in a cricut, start with the lowest pressure. Use a scrap of paper under the blade housing before putting markers into the machine or you will have marker blotches on the machine.  Trust me on that one!  A bit of rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball or a Mrclean magic eraser will take most of it off.  Been there, done that!  Some internet people are making their own childrens colouring books with these markers.  Others use markers to draw the image first, swap out the marker for the blade & cut them out WITHOUT unloading the mat, to make darkened or coloured edges on their cutouts.

edited to add:  Amy Chomas emailed me back with an update when I told her I'd be blogging about her products.  She recommends to NOT leave the pens in the holders in the machine when not in use.  Somehow some pens drip and make a mess of the machine.  That would be an unpleasant surprise.  I'm sure that markers would just dry out if left in there and that would be a waste.

There's 3 more coming, stay tuned!