Helix Craft Room and Run Circles Around Men

My Helix craft room arrived on Friday. I looked at it for quite a few days swithering whether to buy it. I have the Crafters Companion Ultimate Pro, I do like it but it has a few faults that I don't like mainly the cutter that it came with isn't great, it would probably be better to use a different craft knife than the supplied mouse cutter. I don't see the point of buying something then having to replace one of the features with an alternative, but all said and done I still like the Ultimate despite of this.

I must admit though I do like the Helix Craft room too, I think they are quite different beasts and comparing them would be like comparing apples and pears. I like that it came with the overlays for scoring the shapes, one of the main reasons for getting this was to get my 6 year old son more involved with crafting. He has tried to use the glitter girls boards in the past but finds them too hard. I also got the Run Circles Around Men kit to go with it, again as it came with a board for embossing and all male themed sports figures so again something to get my son involved. I haven't used the circle cutter yet and admit I have the Robo so didn't need a circle cutter but again I can get my son involved he likes a shot when I am crafting so might as well get something fun for him.

On to the cd that came with the Run Circles Around Men kit, it is a My Craft Studio one, where should I start? It is awful. The images are poor quality, the whole disk makes me think it was put together in a rush. The borders are poor graphics and to try to size them even slightly larger just makes them distorted. The backing papers are very basic and to be honest I wouldn't use them to make a card. The outline images supposed to be used in co-orination with the board are tiny and to try to size thes to match the size on the board just creates a distorted mess.

If you come across this cd on it's own and think ypu would like to buy it, I would advise against it. Give a 5 year old some paints and they will come up with better backgrounds.

I will be keeping the Craft Room but might return the Run Circles Around Men as I am so un-impressed with the cd that came with it there really isn't anything I wound use on it.