Do what some of the others advised maybe,and get either corel, illustrator, or even inkscape. Some sort of vector based program that makes it much easier to take your own creations and set them up for cutting. Once you scan an image into your computer, you can work from there in those programs, by using the trace feature in them, and then some cleanup depending on how good your original image was. The learning curve on these programs is not what you would call easy, but with a little time, you'll be using them like its second nature. If you have someone nearby that uses these programs, that would be even better, so they could show you hands on, but it can be done by just using them. When I first started, I started with macromedia freehand and knew nothing about it. Had a friend show me a few things,and went from there. I use illustrator for basically everything now. I have a cutting program called vinylmasterpro, but only use it for cutting and simple layouts. Everything else is done in illustrator.
Lots of info here on this site, and good people too. Joe aint that bad either, just gets worked up sometimes.
Good luck!
