Silhouette Sketch Pen Starter Kit

It seems that reviews for all of the Silhouette starter kits are mixed up, so to be clear, I have the glass etching vinyl, and stamping kits. I think that the best aspect of buying the kit, as opposed to buying the items separately, is the confidence factor. Yes, you might be able to get the items for a few dollars less than buying the kit, and no, you might not need another scraper tool (unless you lost it like me), but having all of the items in one kit with basic instructions and some extra inspiration from the pamphlets just seems to make the projects seem less intimidating. That's probably why they call them starter kits. If someone is already an expert, they don't need recommendations for the type of transfer paper or the quality of vinyl to buy, but someone just starting out, who may already be a little intimidated about using their silhouette, might benefit from having everything they need in one place. And what is worse than sitting down to a project and realizing that you've forgotten something important and having to run out for it or (worse) having to order it online and wait for it?So, for the individual kits...The glass etching kit is absolutely awesome. This has everything you need to make some very impressive gifts (or much-deserved gifts for yourself). Add a few pieces of glassware from the dollar store, and you've got a gift worthy of a silver anniversary or a milestone birthday. This kit has paid for itself so many times for me. The results are very professional looking. If you need to be convinced of all that you can make with this kit, just search glass etching on that very popular pinning site.The vinyl kit has enough vinyl to put your monogram on every plastic cup in the house, which is what you will probably want to do the first day. I gave tumblers (another dollar store investment) to the kids in a club I supervise and cut out their names and some clip art (remember, you can trace any image for the Silhouette - you don't have to get everything from the store), and they had a great time decorating their cups. Personalized items are so popular right now, and this is a great way to DIY. I am not a huge fan of pink, so I wish they had chosen something more neutral instead, but otherwise, I am very pleased with it.I have not tried the stamping kit yet, so I will update this review when I do.Happy crafting!

***see pro tip at the bottom if you are a 1 star reviewer citing a machine or material error, i.e. bunching up, not cutting through, not making the shape***This kit is pretty fantastic. I was curious to see why there were SO MANY one star reviews, so I read them all to find that these are a result of user error.. I had great success with this kit even as a novice Silhouette user. I love the quality of the acrylic block, it held even the tiniest little pieces right on the block without losing them. I had dots smaller than the eyehole of a sewing needle in my cut, and they stayed on the block.The ink pad is also of great quality and made a flawless stamping despite my inexperience with stamping medium.. I honestly don't have a clue how to put ink on a stamp from a pad properly, but this makes me look like a pro at times. I stamped on many different types of paper. Note the dog's eyebrows. they are actually a piece of stamp material smaller than the dot a ballpoint pen makes! They're stayed right there on the stamp block and made a transfer onto the page so beautifully.The stamp material itself is phenomenal. I cut a 2.5 inch by 2.5 inch very detailed stamp using an old blade that had a lot of wear on it. It still cut so great. You do have to pull at it to remove the cut from the material, but it's not a difficult weed.****PRO TIP****your cut mat is not off white, it is a translucent cut mat, just like the regular ones for silhouette. if it appears off white, you did not remove the protective cover. Just like your larger cut mats with a blue protective sheet, this one is off white with dots on it. Your cut mat will not work to hold your stamp material if you do not remove the cream colored cover. IT WILL NOT WORK! I see that most of the one star reviews, especially the ones that included pictures, STILL HAVE THE PROTECTIVE COVER on the mat.If you can cut a piece of vinyl with your machine, you can cut stamp material; it is literally the same process, you don't even have to do it backward like you do with htv. it's SO simple, the only way to screw it up is to not remove the covering from the cut mat. .

I'm happy with what I recieved. I haven't tried it yet. I am mainly not happy with the price. Your paying 29 dollars and more for these Silhouette boxes and you don't get alot of stuff with them.1.) With this kit you get a scraper and a hook for what they call weeding your stencil which is you cut out your design and use the hook to pick out the pieces of unwanted stencil that isn't a part of your design.Well, I had already bought these two items seperately but since I lose things I said hey I will probably need replacements.The things said a booklet to show you ideas. It was small and only a few pages.The etching cream was about the size of a small bottle of india ink.The dvd played over and over but it was placing the stencil in the machine, weeding the stencil film, using tranfer tape to attach to glass, glopping on cream, wiping it off 30 seconds later, washing glass, peeling stencil, waa-la its etched.A card to get 10 exclusive etching patterns...I got them but not impressed with them...they didn't download and I had to go to my account and recover them.That's about it. I love my cameo, and my portrait but lately they have been cutting all over the place and not what I am uploading them to do. They say to get air and blow in there to get little cutting giblets out.First time using the heat tranfer paper. It did that and cut all over and not my design. Messed up two boxes of heat transfer. Says to use a cloth over design...don't cloth is too thick and it won't stick to shirt. Just use a common white paper towel it works fine. So; all you are paying 30 dollars for is a fancy box but I say what the hey because I am thinking of going into glass etching. Remember with is a chemical and to keep away from any part that you are going to eat off of.