My first time on this site.
I joined circle after their April Cruise to the Carribean. We were given so much information for the mini and craftroom use. I was in overload on returning home. I thought I new a lot about the cricut. I sure learned different. But a little at a time, and I am using some of the information. First was the center point.
I am not familiar with how this sight works. Your first card is better than you think! I live In USA, California, SF bay area.
It took over 50 hours to set up Expression, Mini, and Gypsy with Craftroom. Chat room, phone, and personal efforts. It was worth the wait.
I love the flexability of the Craftroom and capability of space saving on matt. I have made several projects for military, church groups.
We have set up a small group in my mobile home park for creating with the Cricut.
I seem to have become the group leader, only because I seem to have the most things to create with. We all use all our products to create.
The group is in charge of the monthly bulletin board for our park. They have the ideas, and I have supplied the rest.
Your paper problem could be cutting blade not sharp or depth (adjust depth-shorter depths for lighter weight papers, vellum); maybe need to adjust pressure and speed for paper depth.
SPEED:
MaX: extra fast for heavy cardstock or simple cuts
High: Fast for cardstock, textured papers or simple cuts
Med: Factory default setting for printed papers or normal cuts
Low: Slow lightweight papers or detailed cuts
Min: Extra slow for vellum or very detailed cuts
PRESSURE:
Max: Extra firm for heavy cardstock
High: Firm for cardstock, textured, high fiber content papers
Med: Factory default setting for printed papers
Low: For lightweight papers**
Min: Light for vellum.
I also find sometimes that paper moves on matt if sticky is not as sticky as at first.
Oh, don't throw away your used matts. I had a friend tell me to use Fingernail polish, acetate with a lint free cloth. Takes a little effort, but it really cleaned the lint off and restored the matt's sticky to almost new.
Hope this helps some. I haven't tested a lot of this, but I have found this information online and other places.
Hope you have continued success. Ruth
Originally Posted by: patrott 
Hi All,
I just wanted to share my first card that I made using my Cricut Expression 2. It didn't go as I had planned in my mind but I had to work around it. I had originally wanted the last layer of the phrase to be patterned but my E2 did not like the patterned paper. I guess the paper was just too thin for it and it kept chewing it up.
I live in Bermuda and it's hard to find nice patterned paper. There is one scrapbook store but stores like that here don't last long so I'm hoping to get out there next Sunday to stock up on some item before my next trip to the US.
Please leave any feedback.
Thanks.
Patti