Brother DesignNCut - Product Review

Brother What A Machine!

I am here to give you the blow by blow on the newest edition from Brother, the DesignNCut.

I first heard about the machine about 3 months ago and was extremely interested in the meaning behind 'DesignNCut'. You see DesignNCut's brother, ScanNCut (like what I did there), is an all in one scanning and cutting machine whereas the DesignNCut is a complete cutting machine. The ScanNCut you can scan designs direct to the machine itself, manipulate, add and move patterns to cut out directly on the machine, and with the DesignNCut, it's all done on your own computer, tablet or phone.

This means that the DesignNCut has no scanner, colour display screen or pre-installed patterns. It is a machine that only cuts your designs. The cutting capability and wifi connectivity is exactly the same as the ScanNCut, which is super brilliant by the way, with out all the other pre installed accessories.

Probably the most common thing I am told about the Brother ScanNCut machine is that it's a little too out of their price range. Most find that the cost of something that 'only cuts' for you is just too much for their hip pocket. However, The DesignNCut without all those other incredible extras (which I still absolutely love by the way) is now much more affordable!

The ScanNCut CM900 is $699 RRP, whereas the DesignNCut DC200 is only $499 RRP! This is allowing your craft room to become a complete and precision cut crafters heaven!

Brother has really listened to customer's needs with this machine because like me, I very rarely use the machine to do any or even all of my editing. Brother has an online tool called ScanNCutCanvas. This tool has the exact same features of the ScanNCut CM900 machine allowing you to add, remove, delete, resize and group pattern pieces. To me Brother has recognised its potential making it the main tool used to design and create your masterpieces, and then use the DesignNCut to do all the cutting for you.

Since making ScanNCutCanvas your main tool to do all your designing you'll find that using your own computer or tablet screen allows you place pattern pieces even closer to reduce waste when it comes to cutting.

ScanNCutCanvas also has an image tracing tool allowing you to trace any image file to a cutting file. For example I cut out a bunch of little elf hats for my son's class friends, below was the original file, which ScanNCutCanvas traced perfectly into a cutting file.

Original Image

Traced Image

Final Image on ScanNCutCanvas

With ScanNCutCanvas you can save all your designs and even download other designs that are online as well. Making this a one stop place for all your crafting needs.

Once you have completed your designs downloading to the machine is as easy as a click of the button. Which brings me to the secondary tool required to before cutting, DesignNCut Manager.

This is a tool which you download onto your computer, iPad or Android devices. Here you can change the cut and draw pressure, the cut and draw speed and the size of your mat you are using. Once you have the settings you desire another click and it sends the design to the machine and you are ready to cut.

After doing a few test runs and cutting out a bunch of little shapes for my son's class friends I found I loved it.

Comparing both machines I can safely say that they both are exactly the same, the only difference between them are;

• Design Screen
• Tools Supplied
• Scanning capability

My final comment though is that the machine might not be useful if you are not computer savvy. The DesignNCut is heavily reliant on your computer, tablet or phone to do all the design work and transfer data between computer to machine. However, it is easy to learn with some time and patience so you may require a Brother Dealer to assist you with this. To find your local dealer go to Brother Where To Buy.

I hope you enjoyed my review, coming up on Wednesday will be a cute design Glitter Wool Felt Snowman's Hat which you can create using the DesignNCut.

The tutorial will detail all the steps required to use the DesignNCut machine which will give you even more detailed information on how the machine worked.

Thank you again and I hope you enjoyed my review. Remember to follow me on Instagram or Facebook for more fun videos, product photos and fun.