Cricut Explore Review 5 - Cutting Vinyl

Thought I better get this posted before I get busy making more projects for Christmas *okie looks at the calendar and panics a tad see that Christmas is only a week away*. I actually could have written the vinyl review before but I kept making things for gifts and then would be like "CCRRAAPPPP! I can't post that!". Last night I decided to try and cut the Grinch file because I needed a gift for Dirty Santa at school today and figured it was as good as any for the review.

I found an 8x10 inch frame at Goodwill for 99 cents and was a little apprehensive about trying to cut the file at this size, which was actually 7.25 x 9.25 inches. I knew some of the lettering was delicate but then also I thought it was perfect since I am trying to put the Explore through it's paces. I have read that some folks are having a tough time with vinyl and to be honest I think most of them are using Cricut vinyl, which I do find inferior to the Oracle and Avery that I tend to use. It seems to be too rubbery or something and I have seen it tear and snag where I generally get crisp cuts with the vinyl products I have around my craftroom.

Even though vinyl is a lot easier to cut when doing delicate work than most paper I still wondered how the settings on the Explore would handle the different vinyls I used. I actually used some Avery, Oracle and then some kind that said graphic film on the back and I'm not sure of the brand. I didn't change the settings for any of the vinyls and they all cut beautiful. I will say that on another project I did use the custom setting for glitter vinyl and it worked perfectly. 

Ignore that my Grinch is a little off in placement. I did the mirror image so the vinyl would be on the inside of the glass instead of the outside and I need to work on my skills of layering backwards on glass.

Now where I thought there might be problems were on some of the letters that had very small cuts on the interior of the letters and also some small *okie wonders what to call them because all the sudden her brain isn't working properly* I guess finger like projections on the ends. I actually smiled at one point because I thought one of the interior cuts had messed up but when I weeded the piece it was fine *okie is still bound and determined to find a fault in the Explore's cutting abilities*.

MY HONEST OPINION: I am quite impressed with the built in settings with the Explore and the setting worked perfect every time no matter what brand of vinyl I was using. The precision of the cuts, no matter how small is splendid. At no time did the blade go through the carrier material which is a problem I would have with my Pazzles and Expressions. Each and every color was cut flawlessly with a kiss cut and there were no places where I had to take a craft knife or scissors and complete a cut.