I purchased this serger from Walmart about a week ago. The low price is what lured me in, and I have not been terribly disappointed yet, considering what I paid for it. Sergers are fairly complex and take a lot more patience to operate than sewing machines. You can expect to put at least an hour or two into setting this machine up, and should plan on running a few scraps of fabric through it initially to adjust the tension dials, which can be a bit finicky and over-sensitive. The machine comes with a DVD that is INFINITELY more helpful than the manual, and with a lot of patience and several failed attempts, I was able to thread it correctly and produce a stitch. My only complaint is that the stitching can be inconsistent at times, no matter how much I fiddle with the tension dials, but I cannot say I expected a flawless machine at such a low price. This is a nice machine for those on a budget or who use their sergers lightly. I only use mine for finishing the edges of light-weight fabrics, and it suits my purposes quite well. A more expensive machine would probably function more consistently, true, but I'm thankful there's a serger out there that meets my more stringent budget!
Logan Graphic Products, Inc. SimplexPlus Mat Cutters 40 1/2 in.
List Price: $399.95
Sale Price: $279.97
Today's Bonus: 30% Off
I consider myself an amateur framer and as such I was getting tired of constantly have to find the right mat board for the right frame. Well now I can cut them myself thanks to the Logan Cutter. Now personally, I wish it was all metal such as aluminum or such for the price but overall I cannot complain. It's solid, the parts all fit well, and even any completely non-mechanically inclined individual can put this product together easily and quickly. It's use is fairly straight-forward too. I was cutting mats within 5 minutes of putting it together and though my first one came out a little bit off I had the hang of it after one failed attempt. Overall, I highly recommend this product and you do get what you pay for which is a solid very good cutting board! FYI, it's easy to take back apart once your done for storage too. I just used the box it shipped in.
100 Silver Plated Open Jump Rings Charm Connectors 20 Gauge 5mm
List Price: $7.99
Sale Price: $3.50
Today's Bonus: 56% Off
I use these jump rings to my jewelry making. Very strong and dependable! Nobody wants to be embarrassed by an unstable jump ring! This jump ring comes in big packs and is strong enough to stay shut! I use it a lot! Thank-you!
Badger Air-Brush Company Sotar Number 1 Needle, Fine
Please be advised that these needles may come and be to short. Amazon will replace them but it may take awhile for replacements. The short ones are about 1/4" short and will not fit correctly. If you remove the needle stop on the airbrush they will work.
3 Lobster Claw Clasps Sterling Silver Jewelry Part 10mm
List Price: $7.99
Sale Price: $5.44
Today's Bonus: 32% Off
I had a couple of sterling charms that needed a clasp so that they could be affixed to a charm bracelet. These were perfect, but don't go any smaller than these, which are 10 mm. I found the price, $7.95 for three with free shipping, to be acceptable. The clasps are marked "925" but it is excruciatingly hard to find. Look on the moving part of the clip; I had to use a loup to find it. Note also that the ring at the bottom of the clasp is not sautered, which could present a problem if you open the ring and attach the charm there. I chose instead to use the clasp part to catch the charm to the bracelet.
January 24 update: I purchased three more to finish my charm bracelet, and now the price went down to $6.99. I am impressed with the fact that I am able to bend open the small link at the end of the lobster claw to attach the charm without that small link breaking. It's maddening work with tweezers, but it can be done, both in bending out the link and bending it back securely. The seller does a great job of packaging the clasps so that they do not get damaged in transit.
Cricut Fontopia Cartridge
List Price: $34.99
Sale Price: $26.97
Today's Bonus: 23% Off
I gotta tell you, I'm heartbroken. This is my first Amazon review, and it's because I'm disappointed. This font cartridge isn't what you think. Every letter is different. So if you want to type a word like, "Fox," the F is one font, the O is a different font, the X is yet another type of font. The FONTOPIA cartridge is great if you are creating artwork that involves initials. But if you want to type entire words or phrases, just know that every letter will look different. I thought, "Maybe I'm missing something here. Surely I can type an entire alphabet in a certain font." Nope. I really don't know what Cricut was thinking. They should've called it "INITIALTOPIA," which would've explained this cartridge a bit better to the Cricut customer. What you're getting are initials. Mind you, the Amazon description says, "Features intricate, layered monograms." But what you may not realize is that making monograms is the ONLY thing you can do with these fonts. One letter per design. It's a bummer because these fonts are amazing.
Having said that, there seems to be one font style (the letters look like flags) in which you get the entire alphabet in that font. You can see it on the cover art as "ABC." You get a whole alphabet in that flag style, but that's it. All of the other font styles you see in the picture (like that beautiful J and L), are just solo images. You can't create a whole word out of them. So basically what you're buying is one flag font alphabet, which is, of course, the plainest of all the font styles in this cartridge. All of the gorgeous art nouveau, swirly fonts = one letter only. Mind you, each of those letters is absolutely gorgeous. There's no mistaking that these fonts are intricate, interesting, and just plain beautiful. Unfortunately, you can't type an entire alphabet of them.
But all is not lost! On the plus side, there's a whole array of arrows, scrolls, banners, trims, decorative embellishments that actually makes the FONTOPIA cartridge worth owning. These extra images are done mostly in an art deco style, which is always stunning. It will definitely create a mood for your craft. There's a lot offered in the area of embellishing trims (far more than you see on the cover photo) and it won't disappoint you. That's the only reason I'm not returning this cartridge, and believe me, I was thinking about it because I felt deceived. I wouldn't have felt that way if it was called "INITIALS" or "MONOGRAMS."
Overall, buy FONTOPIA for the decorative art nouveau embellishments this cartridge offers, not for the fonts, which are different for every letter.
Rain Forest Paint Book
List Price: $9.99
Sale Price: $8.99
Today's Bonus: 10% Off
I was a bit surprised that the "book" is only a couple pages and a painting kit. Not cool. I think it should be advertised as a kit. The few pages that are there are fine, really good actually, but it definitely seemed like too little.