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American Greetings Crafts Deluxe

American Greetings Crafts Deluxe

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: frustrating and disappointing
Review: I bought this program both for myself, and and as a gift for my sister's family. We've both used it just a couple times, and tried to create cards. My 14-year old nephew and 12-year old niece tried for over an hour to make a Father's Day card. A number of matches came up on the search, but every one they looked at had to be purchased in an add-on pack. My sister and I worked on it recently trying to create a fun get-well card for our nephew. We specified search criteria as a humorous "get well" pop-up card, and got only one match....a card for an adult from his/her co-workers! When we changed criteria on the search, we found more cards but they were all in add-on packs that had to be purchased at a cost of $15 and up. We both can usually figure out programs easily without the manual, but we had to dig out the manual on this and it wasn't much help in this area. There was a separate disk with a lot of cool clip-art pictures but it seems they are for use in creating from scratch, not pre-made cards or projects. After viewing a particular card, there doesn't seem to be a way to go forward/back to view between cards/projects in a category, you have to close out and go back to the point of your search criteria again, then go forward to see the projects already picked with previous search criteria to select another to view. I don't see how this can be a program for kids to use easily. I own the program American Greetings Creatacard Gold 3 version and love it--very easy to use and a great program--but I seem to have the same disappointment and frustration with the Crafts program as the users of the Creatacard Platinum 4 version of their greeting card program. The projects look so impressive in the promo and on the box cover--I hope persistance will pay off and I'll find a way around the snags to use the neat features this program does offer.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Full of Bugs! Frustrating!
Review: I really do like this product, only I have found this version, the Deluxe one, to be full of programming bugs. I have to reinstall it occasionally, for no apparent reason. It often takes 3 or more tries to get the program to run. The CD won't read half of the time when I'm on my Dad's computer. (sometimes it does, but when I'm on a deadline, like right NOW, it just DIES on me.) It won't display thumbnails of my own projects 50% of the time when I'm trying to open them. When I scroll through the "your own projects gallery" the program crashes. Spool time to my top of the line Epson printer is over 2 hours for a page with 2 simple postcards.

There are no true help files included with the program. There are no online bulletin boards for tech support that I can find anywhere. If you want to call Tech Support, you have to do it during "normal business hours" on weekdays only, and there is NO 800 number, so you have to pay for the long distance call yourself. Of all the products in this particular line, this one is the least supported.

A friend was on a deadline for her business, and when the program crashed and wouldn't come back, she was told by tech support that she needed to buy more add-ons from them to make it work.

Maybe I will have better luck (luck is the operative word) with the Crafts 2 program. The program can do some really neat stuff, when it chooses to work.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best home card-maker
Review: This program is great. Kids love the "crafts" like masks and three-dimensional package tags, but for my money, the best feature of this program is the unique greeting cards you can make with light-weight card stock. There are photo cards, cut out cards, over-size cards, pop-up cards, slider cards . . . features like these put this one head and shoulders above most other card maker programs. The program is a little cumbersome to use, always returning to the "start" screen in between previews of projects, and there are several categories of projects that consist only of "ads" for add-on packages, which is annoying. Overall, though, this is a great program.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best home card-maker
Review: This program is great. Kids love the "crafts" like masks and three-dimensional package tags, but for my money, the best feature of this program is the unique greeting cards you can make with light-weight card stock. There are photo cards, cut out cards, over-size cards, pop-up cards, slider cards . . . features like these put this one head and shoulders above most other card maker programs. The program is a little cumbersome to use, always returning to the "start" screen in between previews of projects, and there are several categories of projects that consist only of "ads" for add-on packages, which is annoying. Overall, though, this is a great program.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best home card-maker
Review: This program is wonderful! If you have some computer smarts and love to craft...this is the product for you! You can design your own really neat stuff like gift bags, mobiles, masks, pop up cards...etc. Or you can use the already made items and add your own personalization. It's Wonderful! And the people you give the gifts too will be amazed and delighted at how talented you are!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: This program is wonderful! If you have some computer smarts and love to craft...this is the product for you! You can design your own really neat stuff like gift bags, mobiles, masks, pop up cards...etc. Or you can use the already made items and add your own personalization. It's Wonderful! And the people you give the gifts too will be amazed and delighted at how talented you are!


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