May 12, 2014: It seemed so easy.

how hard could it be?

put the paper on the (insanely) sticky mat.

put it in the thingy loader majiggy.

pick your design.

"print".

I was so excited!!! eeeepppppp there it goessssssss!!!

that ended in disaster.

And there's where it ended up.

The second time I decided to try what they show in all of the videos (instead of some complicated tag design that I assumed I was advanced enough to try #fail).  I printed some text.  plain ole letters. Okay - so not soooo plain. Disney font letters!

Before I pulled it off of the printing mat. 

it worked it worked it worked!!!!

Take 3 failed again.  I can see I'm going to have a lot of opportunity for "practice".  Glad I bought so much paper!! :)

things I learned

1. even rubbing the mat on my fleece pj bottoms did not seem to decrease the molecular stickiness of it. I can see I'm going to have approximately 3 cuts where I love the mat.  The three right before it gets too sticky to hold the paper onto the mat right. 
2. it would be impossible to cut anything other than card stock weight. regular paper? You're nuts. 
3. tools are important. oooohhhhh that's what the pointy thingy is for?? It seemed dangerous so I didn't open it at first. 
4. reading the manual helps. 
5. watching the tutorial helps.
6. I may be laminating the cheat sheet page with what all of the functions in the software does. For real? who can remember all that? 
7. I don't think I'm ready for the advanced software... much as I think I "need" it. Maybe by Saturday I'll be ready.
8. i have enough vinyl to wallpaper a room ---oooohhhh that might be a cool idea!!