Hi and Welcome to the US Support forum for the Silver Bullet Cutters. Congratulations on the baby. Not sure how old your baby is but mine are now 20 and 21 and in College. Don't really expect your time to "craft" to get much better for a long long time with a child in the house!
Since you are in the UK and would be buying your machine from Dawn, I am going to start out and point you back to the UK's Silver Bullet site and their forum. Just want you make sure you realize that there are two and how to find the UK site. One reason for doing so is that I believe that what is offered by the US site and the UK site can vary slightly so if you are buying in the UK, you would want to check the UK site and address many of those questions to Dawn herself if you can't find the answers on her site. As you know from your past experience, Dawn is very helpful in trying to sort out for her customers to ensure you get what you need with your purchase.
Here is Dawn's UK home site for all things Silver Bullet:http://www.thymegraphics.co.uk
Then here is the contact information page:
http://www.thymegraphics.co.uk/contact.aspHere is the UK SB Forum:
http://www.thymegraphics.co.uk/forum.aspI took a cursory look around on Dawn's site but didn't quickly find the warranty information on the SB in the UK. I don't know if the US and the UK are the same (I think they are but not sure) so I am hesitant to provide that information since I am just a longtime customer. I think Dawn can best answer this one.
I did look at her list of items found in her "Gotta Have it All" package (listed under the Tools --> Misc. category found here at the bottom:
http://www.thymegraphics.co.uk/products.asp?cat=52 and it doesn't list any additional mats. Generally, the original mat that comes with the machine is not an Extra Sticky one so you would probably need to purchase at least one of those if you want one. However, again - Dawn may be willing to work something out though if that is the only mat you need so you would be best served talking directly to her.
As far as "cutting" dense material like wood and leather - again - you are best served by talking to Dawn directly but no blade drag cutter like the SB is going to cut through really dense wood or leather. How dense is too dense again is best figured out talking directly to your supplier, Dawn in the UK. While some thin leather can be cut, most people do embossing on the leather after cutting elsewhere I believe. Wood cannot be very dense either. Typically most wood cut is very thin and even then, you usually need to do multiple passes and generally would not be very intricate shapes. However, again Dawn can best answer your specific questions and/or work with you to test materials that you have in mind for your projects.
Yes, you can use the software and the machine with a laptop computer. Most people do so. You will just need to plug the machine into the computer with a USB cable.
While I do have Illustrator, I haven't used it to create designs and take it into SCAL for cutting. I do know that it can work but I don't know how much extra work is involved if any to take it from AI to SCAL for cutting. Generally, you can export out of AI to an SVG file and then import SVG files into SCAL. I do know that when saving SVG files from AI, there are some additional steps that need to be done in AI to make sure you have a cuttable file. However, I don't recall exactly what all those are. I think there are some options in the saving that you have to check or uncheck. Also, in general - you have to remember that creating files in AI for "viewing" is different then creating files for "cutting". What is easily "viewed" or "printed" out from AI is not always easily cuttable. One thing is that in general, you want to have a "fill" or an "outline" or border (sorry mind is blanking on what AI calls the line around a shape) but not both otherwise you end up with double cut lines for example.
I have not specifically done fabric pens. Do you mean pens or markers? You would need to be careful with markers because some markers get "squished" very easily as you press down. There are other considerations that need to be taken into account when trying to use pens and markers so again, Dawn could probably best answer and guide you here. However, yes, to do multiple colors you would need to use several passes through the machine and aligning with a specific point each time for each color change you needed. The same is true when trying to emboss and cut, or using any multiple different tools in the blade holder.
I know that I keep pointing you back to Dawn and her site, but again, if you are in the UK that is where you would be buying your machine and accessories from and I firmly believe that talking directly to the seller of the product you will be dealing with gets you the most accurate and correct information. Her forum also has lots of great SB users who are always willing to help out. So are we here in the US so please, do come back and ask questions as you want - I just wanted to make sure you knew where to find the UK site, its forum, and such since that is where you are located. (Timezones alone can make waiting on answers a little more taxing when your are across the pond.)