Note: Every now an then, I'd like to highlight some of the people that might be important to your success and fun with your digital die cutting machine. This is the first, of this genre. I hope you not only find it helpful; but, you find it helpful for a long time to come.
This is the story of a very special web site and two very special people that make it happen. For eCraft owners, I think SVGCuts.com is going to be an important source of information and SVG images to use with eCraftShop Pro.
Not all of us would see a stressful job with squabbling officemates or losing a great job at a major corporation as opportunities. But, that is exactly how SVGCUTS.COM was born.
In early 2008, Mary (the main artist for SVGCuts) was working as a project manager for a software company in Schaumburg, IL and she was getting fed up with her job. She found her job to be super stressful and all of the office squabbling was wearing her down. She ALWAYS wanted to have a store where she sold cute things, she just wasn't sure what or how!
At that time, Leo (the technical director at SVGCuts) was working as a network administrator for Chrysler's corporate office in Chicago. Counting on the stability of his position, Leo and Mary agreed she should quit her job and follow her dream. The first step toward that dream was to spend the next 8+ months learning Adobe Illustrator and testing out different creative ideas to see if she could generate income on Etsy and by creating stock illustrations for her istock.com portfolio.
At that time, Leo (the technical director at SVGCuts) was working as a network administrator for Chrysler's corporate office in Chicago. Counting on the stability of his position, Leo and Mary agreed she should quit her job and follow her dream. The first step toward that dream was to spend the next 8+ months learning Adobe Illustrator and testing out different creative ideas to see if she could generate income on Etsy and by creating stock illustrations for her istock.com portfolio.
In September of 2008, Leo was laid off due to the financial crises at Chrysler. Rather than panic, Leo turned his attention to doing what he really had wanted to do, shoot stock photography and market it through istock.com. At the same time he began to seriously study internet marketing. But, they still didn't have the direction they needed for them to truly thrive on the internet.
That's where Leo's mom came into the picture by giving Mary a Cricut for Christmas. Soon after, they found “Sure Cuts A Lot”, which allowed Mary to create and cut her own shapes with her Cricut and sell her own line of cards and scrapbook pages on Etsy. Mary was hooked!.
Mary spent about a month coming up with cute cards featuring her custom made die cut designs to sell on Etsy. People responded well to her products and one night she had an epiphany and thought "Duh, why don't I just sell my digital designs to people that have SVG compatible cutting machines!"
They realized that they had something here, but if this was going to work, they'd have to streamline the process so that she could spend time creating and not answering emails and sending files all day long. So, SVGCuts was born.
Mary spent about a month coming up with cute cards featuring her custom made die cut designs to sell on Etsy. People responded well to her products and one night she had an epiphany and thought "Duh, why don't I just sell my digital designs to people that have SVG compatible cutting machines!"
They realized that they had something here, but if this was going to work, they'd have to streamline the process so that she could spend time creating and not answering emails and sending files all day long. So, SVGCuts was born.
Both Mary and Leo are perfectionists and I've witnessed the fact that they just keep getting better and better at what they offer and what they do. In just under 18 months, SVGCuts has received over 10 million pageviews from crafters in more then 150 different countries! Mary's designs are marvelous and I love talking photography with Leo on their forums. In fact, it was the generous photographic help on their forums that first caught my eye. I could tell he not only knew his stuff with a camera; but, that he was very generous in sharing what he knew.
They continue to grow, adding their first design team member, Thienly Azim and Mary is filtering through hundreds of portfolios in search of new artists for their store! I REALLY like what I see at SVGCuts.com from top to bottom.
Check them out. Http://www.svgcuts.com And, be sure to check out their forums. I hope to test some of Mary's SVG designs on the eCraft as soon as the software is ready. And, I KNOW that I'm going to be linking to their site a LOT as we began using both Inkscape and eCraftShop Pro with our eCrafts.
Great people! Great site!
