# Cricket Explore vs Silhouette Cameo



## Lbrown123 (May 4, 2015)

Does anyone know which of these machines would be best for making labels? My Avery labels are just pathetic! I am thinking of trying one of these. I will probably only use it for labels and an occasional stencil. I just want to cut mine from a solid sheet and be done with the whole issue of getting the text on the pre cut area on each aggravating Avery sticker.


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## navigator9 (May 5, 2015)

Sorry, I don't know about either of these machines, but if you're having a problem getting the text on the pre cut area of the stickers, could you maybe print your labels on a sticker sheet (the whole sheet is one big sticker) and then cut them out? Just a suggestion, I know those machines are not cheap.


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## cmzaha (May 5, 2015)

If you are selling or planning on selling I would suggest working with labels and formatting, it is much more cost effective and I find working with images much easier in print software than with cricut. Also the pens are expensive and do not last long when doing labels. I forget which machine my daughter was trying to use but we ended up giving it away. Was not worth the frustration and honestly you can outsource labels cheaper than using one of the machines. We outsource our labels such as for our m&p soaps since the ingredients stay the same and leave a space to write the fragrance. We recently gave away a silhouette. It was just to expensive and frustrating to use for labeling. If you have a Microsoft Office Suite that includes Publisher it is easy to format a label in in it, the only drawback is you print the entire page of the same label. The label making feature in Avery Online usually works well . Good luck with your decisions, labels are pesky until you get what you want formatted. Avery also has a free design program that is stand alone on your computer that offers a few more options than their online version. It is the program I used for my small round labels and finally got them to print correctly


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## shunt2011 (May 5, 2015)

I agree with some of the suggestions you've received.  I use Avery and it has caused me some added stress.  I bought a laser printer for labels and I cannot for the life of me get those to align correctly so went back to my inkjet.    I tried for a year and just gave up.    As suggested you could always go to the full sheet and cut them out which is more time consuming depending on how many you need.   I am considering having labels made for me and just leave a spot for the fragrance.   It would be such a timesaver.


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## cmzaha (May 5, 2015)

shunt2011 said:


> I agree with some of the suggestions you've received.  I use Avery and it has caused me some added stress.  I bought a laser printer for labels and I cannot for the life of me get those to align correctly so went back to my inkjet.    I tried for a year and just gave up.    As suggested you could always go to the full sheet and cut them out which is more time consuming depending on how many you need.   I am considering having labels made for me and just leave a spot for the fragrance.   It would be such a timesaver.


Of course that only works if all ingredients stay the same. For my soaps they do not. I formated a 4x2 label that wraps partially from the front to back. Took some doing but the label works great. For rounds honestly the best is outsource or a label printer which are very expensive. $1400+ Sadly my Primera label printer is broken down. They want a flat fee of $250 to fix which is why it is sitting idle so I had to figure out an alternate way to make a label with my laser. I can change my gap settings and margins settings by 0.10 of an inch. 
If you go to full sheet labels for anything other than rounds I would invest in a good Roto Trim photo quality cutter. Have had mine for 10 yrs and never changed a blade. When my daughter was getting married I printed her invitations and needed to cut them. One of our employees told me to get a Roto Trim, she is a photographer on the side. I did because at that time I was fortunate enough not to worry much about cost and figured I would only use it that one time. Still using it 10 yrs later and it was a great investment. They come in different sizes. Honestly you can waste a lot of money of cheap rotary cutters and could have purchased a Roto Trim


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## shunt2011 (May 5, 2015)

cmzaha said:


> Of course that only works if all ingredients stay the same. For my soaps they do not. I formated a 4x2 label that wraps partially from the front to back. Took some doing but the label works great. For rounds honestly the best is outsource or a label printer which are very expensive. $1400+ Sadly my Primera label printer is broken down. They want a flat fee of $250 to fix which is why it is sitting idle so I had to figure out an alternate way to make a label with my laser. I can change my gap settings and margins settings by 0.10 of an inch.
> If you go to full sheet labels for anything other than rounds I would invest in a good Roto Trim photo quality cutter. Have had mine for 10 yrs and never changed a blade. When my daughter was getting married I printed her invitations and needed to cut them. One of our employees told me to get a Roto Trim, she is a photographer on the side. I did because at that time I was fortunate enough not to worry much about cost and figured I would only use it that one time. Still using it 10 yrs later and it was a great investment. They come in different sizes. Honestly you can waste a lot of money of cheap rotary cutters and could have purchased a Roto Trim


 
That's good to know about the roto cutter.   I'll have to check it out for sure.


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## cmzaha (May 5, 2015)

shunt2011 said:


> That's good to know about the roto cutter.   I'll have to check it out for sure.


Ebay is still the best price on them. The one I have is now $229 on Ebay and $500 on some other sites. I paid $179 10 yrs ago on Ebay for the 15" and was always sorry I did not get the 18", they have gone up in price


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## zolveria (May 5, 2015)

*silhoutte vs cricket*

I own a Cameo.  At the time of purchase Cricket  did not give the option of importing your own images. So I went with this choice for creative freedom. You can dye cut your own labels etc. with them.  you can create bands for your soap. create stamps, boxes for your soap etc

However when I label my other products eg : Lotions  body butter etc. eyeshadow I use Online Labels Crystal Clear Labels for Laser Printers. and I design my Label in AI (Adobe Illustrator)  CC labels are water proof.



Lbrown123 said:


> Does anyone know which of these machines would be best for making labels? My Avery labels are just pathetic! I am thinking of trying one of these. I will probably only use it for labels and an occasional stencil. I just want to cut mine from a solid sheet and be done with the whole issue of getting the text on the pre cut area on each aggravating Avery sticker.


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## Lbrown123 (May 5, 2015)

Thanks for all of your input guys! I don't know if I will ever sell full time but labels is the main drawback right now.. I would like to be able to do a farmers market once in a while but I am ashamed of my labels and I am exploring a way to do them at home because as Cmzaha stated the recipe is always changing.milk, carrot juice, beer, purée, exfoliants,aloe, and I switch between clays and botanicals. I did get insurance yesterday and I am slowly creeping in that direction. Part time only for fun maybe. thanks for your help!


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## TwystedPryncess (May 10, 2015)

Somewhere else I posted that I also do my own labels.  It's honestly my favorite part.  I take too long on my own though,  because I DO like to play.  

Editable pdf files would be good,  I think,  for someone who needs a statically designed label but needs a field where they can edit info & type it so it still looks nice.  I have found that writing things in can be difficult simply because of the small real estate space on the labels.  

I currently design with Photoshop and just print on sticker paper but someday I will get some from Online Labels, if nothing else than just because I like the clear ones,  and want to see how a label turns out with a background image that has lowered opacity on the clear labels. 

I intend to test those little buggers to their fullest extent!


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## SozoArtisanSoaps (Jun 2, 2015)

I just got my silhouette portrait in the mail today. I got it so I could make labels with it and not have to cut them out. It was taking me forever to cut my labels as I use a special paper that is not a pre-cut adhesive. I will mess with it tomorrow. I hope it works out! I got it for $143. Well spent if it does what I need it to


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## lsg (Jun 3, 2015)

I own a Cricut Expression and love it.  I have never tried the Silhouette, but I think you can import SVGs to your Silhouette program.  That makes it more versatile.


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