Brother SDX85M ScanNCut DX Electronic Cutting Machine - Maui

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I received this product for free from Brother in exchange for my honest opinion/review of the product. It's my first cutting machines, so there was definitely a learning curve to figure out how to use it. I was pleasantly surprised that I did not need to connect the ScanNCut to a device. It also took some patience to get the outline the way I wanted when there wasn't a strong contrast between the background and image. The ScanNCut detects the cut marks on the mat after a while as well. It cuts pretty fast and it's not as noisy as I thought it would be. I'm really enjoying using the Brother ScanNCut cutting machine!

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Before I got this machine, I hadn't ever previously owned a cutting machine. I had wanted one for quite awhile, since I like crafts and especially papercrafting, but I was a little intimidated by cutting machines and figured I was getting by well enough with a cutting mat and knife. When I received this Brother ScanNCut machine, I indeed felt a bit intimidated by it at first since it seemed like it had a lot of features that I wasn't sure I'd be able to grasp well enough to use the machine properly. It came with a manual that walks you through your first project, and I was surprised at how easy it was to make my first cute box, it only required a few simple steps. At this point most of my apprehension melted away and I couldn't stop thinking of the possibilities for using this machine! My favorite feature is probably the fact that it can connect to Wifi and receive patterns sent from your computer. It wasn't very hard to set up, and the Canvas Workspace online program lets you make your designs on the computer and then instantly send them to be cut on the machine. It is really all so much easier than I expected. There are lots of options to get exactly what you want, but it's simple enough to just scan or upload an image and have it automatically accurately cut by the machine in a matter of minutes. I'd say this machine has enough awesome features that it's good for a cutting machine veteran looking to upgrade, but it's simple enough to use that a beginner like me can grasp it in a matter of minutes. Plus, it's saving me time that I would otherwise be spending laboring with a cutting knife in hand!