Cricut Maker FAQ- Reader Questions Answered

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Get all your Cricut questions answered in this Cricut Maker FAQ. What materials does the Cricut Maker Cut? What do I need to buy to go with my Cricut Maker? What are some Cricut Ideas for projects? What makes the Cricut Maker and the Cricut Explore Air Different? and more!


Get all your Cricut questions answered in this Cricut Maker FAQ. What materials does the Cricut Maker Cut? What do I need to buy to go with my Cricut Maker? What are some Cricut Ideas for projects? What makes the Cricut Maker and the Cricut Explore Air Different? and more! #CricutMaker #CricutExplore #CricutCreated #Sponsored #CricutCrafts #CricutIdeas #CricutMade #CuttingMachines

Hi Crafty Friends!

Many of you know that I LOVE my Cricut cutting machines. Cricut is pretty much my favorite thing in the whole world to talk about. I’m always asking readers to send me their Cricut questions, and I love answering them. I thought that others could benifet from the Cricut questions and answers so today I’m sharing a Cricut Maker FAQ.

A few months ago I wrote How To Make Money With Your Cricut where I answered readers questions about earning an income using their Cricut cutting machine.

If you've ever wanted to learn how to make money with your Cricut then you need to read this! A Cricut expert shares where to sell Cricut crafts, how to price handmade projects, where to source cut files and ideas of the best things to sell! Read before setting up your Cricut business! #Sponsored #CricutCreated #CricutCrafts #Handmade #Cricut #CricutMade

Today I’m going to cover a few of the most common questions I get asked about the Cricut Maker in this Cricut Maker FAQ.

They are:

  • What makes the Maker different from other Cricut machines?
  • What materials can I cut with the Cricut Maker?
  • What add-ons do I need to use the machine and how expensive will it be?
  • What kind of DIY projects can I make?

Let’s get right to it! Shall we?

 

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Read on for our Cricut Maker FAQ!

What makes the Cricut Maker different from other Cricut machines?

I love Cricut cutting machines and have loved each of the machines that I have owned. I have owned a Cricut Explore, Cricut Explore Gold, Cricut Explore Air 2, Cricut Maker and Cricut Joy. I love each of these machines, however for the sheer variety of materials that you can cut, the Cricut Maker is by far my favorite.

The thing that makes the Cricut Maker and the Cricut Explore Air 2 is the Cricut Adaptive Tool System. Other than the Adaptive Tool System the two machines are almost exactly the same. However the Adaptive Tool System means amazing things for crafters!

What Is The Cricut Adaptive Tool System?

Unique to the Cricut Maker, the Adaptive Tool system brings together three major technologies that give  professional class cutting versatility and performance:  

  1. Delivers 10 times (4 kg) or more cutting force than the Explore line! Now that’s a lot of power!  
  2. Uses a sophisticated steering system to actively control the direction of the blade at all times. (That’s what the shiny gold teeth at the top of each tool does!) 
  3. Tests to be sure you are using the correct blade before it starts cutting, and tells you to change it, if not… which makes this system pretty much goof proof!
Curious about what each of the Cricut Maker Adaptive Tools does? Learn what each tool does, how to use it and what materials to use it with! #Cricut #CricutMade #CricutCreated

So what does each one do?

Cricut Knife Blade

Cricut Knife Blade:

Get precise cuts through thicker or denser materials such as balsa wood, basswood, tooling leather, garment leather, chipboard, matboard and craft foam.

Cricut Rotary Blade

Cricut Rotary Blade:

Create beautiful designs out of soft fabrics for sewing projects that are quicker and easier than ever. Cut everything from silk, cotton, and denim to canvas and burlap. You can also cut delicate materials like crepe paper. 

Find some of our Cricut Sewing Projects here.

Cricut Basic Perforation Blade #11

Cricut Scoring Wheel and Double Scoring Wheel #1&2:

These two professional-quality scoring wheels give you extra-deep score lines and a flawless finish on everyday and specialty material projects. From flawlessly finished tags, cards, and gift boxes to jaw-dropping wearable art, 3D home decor, structures, and more, you’ll bring pro-level precision to every possible score-and-fold project. Get crisp creases and effortless folds in one pass. With up to 10X more pressure than the Scoring Stylus, the patented wheel design takes on thin, thick, and even coated paper materials with ease.

Cricut Basic Perforation Blade #11

Cricut Basic Perforation Blade #11:

This blade creates evenly spaced perforation lines which make creating perfect tear-offs and easy peel-aways a breeze. Create perforated straight lines, curved lines and even shapes! Perfect for using with paper, cardstock, acetate, poster board, and more. Use this tool to make tear-out booklet pages, raffle tickets, homemade journals, or for any project that demands a neat tear. 

Cricut Fine Debossing Tip #21

Cricut Fine Debossing Tip #21:

Customize projects with crisp, detailed debossed designs – no folders necessary! Unlike folders, which lock you into a specific design, this rolling debossing ball, with a wider range of motion, gives you free reign to customize, personalize, and design with incredible intricacy. Make a dimensional wedding card, thank you card with your monogram, or add flourish to gift boxes, tags, and more. Creates a stunning effect on foil cardstock, coated paper, shimmer and glitter paper, basswood, and much more.   

Cricut Wavy Blade #31

Cricut Wavy Blade #31:

Quickly create a fun wavy edge on a variety of popular materials! This blade takes half the time to cut a wavy line than with a drag blade! This specially sculpted stainless steel blade is great for original vinyl decals, iron-on designs, envelopes, cards, gift tags, collage projects, or any time you need fabulously finished edges and stylish design accents. Perfect for iron-on, vinyl, paper, cardstock, fabric, and more.   

Cricut Engraving Tip #41

Cricut Engraving Tip #41:

Engrave unique and permanent designs on a variety of materials! Make intricately engraved dog tags (human or canine), name plates, inscribed art and decor, jewelry, monograms, and keepsakes! This tip truly allows you to personalize your projects and make them one of a kind! Use it to write personalized text or create monograms, draw decorative flourishes and embellishments, or inscribe your favorite quotes on a keepsake. For an eye-catching effect, engrave Cricut Metal Sheets or anodized aluminum to reveal the silver beneath.   

With the Cricut Explore Air 2 you are able to cut approximately 100 different materials. Thanks to the Adaptive Tool System in the Cricut Maker you are able to cut over 300 materials! Which brings me to our next question!

What materials can I cut with the Cricut Maker?

Save big with this Cricut Maker Coupon Code! Plus discover over 30 things that you can make with your Cricut from Hello Creative Family! #Sponsored #CricutMade #CricutCreated #Coupon

The Cricut Maker can cut almost 300 types of materials which is amazing in itself, but what is even more exciting is that with every new Adaptive Tool that is released, new materials get added to the list! Amazing right?

Here are the materials that you can currently cut using your Cricut Maker:

What Materials Does The Cricut Maker cut? A list of the materials you can cut with your Cricut Maker
What Materials Does The Cricut Maker cut? A list of the materials you can cut with your Cricut Maker

What add-ons do I need to use the machine and how expensive will it be?

Get all your Cricut questions answered in this Cricut Maker FAQ. What materials does the Cricut Maker Cut? What do I need to buy to go with my Cricut Maker? What are some Cricut Ideas for projects? What makes the Cricut Maker and the Cricut Explore Air Different? and more! #CricutMaker #CricutExplore #CricutCreated #Sponsored #CricutCrafts #CricutIdeas #CricutMade #CuttingMachines

I can’t tell you how many times someone has emailed me and said “I have a Cricut Maker in my cart!!! What else do I need to buy to get started?”

The first thing that you should know is what every Cricut Maker comes with:

  • Cricut Maker machine
  • Rotary Blade + Drive Housing
  • Premium Fine-Point Blade + Housing
  • Fine Point Pen, Black
  • FabricGrip™ Machine Mat, 12″ x 12″ (to use with your Rotary Blade to cut fabric)
  • LightGrip Machine Mat, 12″ x 12″ (to use with your fine-point blade to cut other materials. The LightGrip mat is especially good for paper projects.)
  • Welcome Book
  • USB cable
  • Power adapter
  • Free trial membership to Cricut Access™ (for new subscribers)
  • 50 free ready-to-make projects, including 25 sewing patterns
  • Materials for a practice project

The items that come in every Cricut Maker box is exactly what you need to start crafting, minus the actual craft supplies– Which is where Cricut Bundles comes into play! Cricut has some AMAZING machine buttons that give you everything you need to start crafting the minute you get your machine plugged in!

Here are a few of my favorite bundles. Click on the image to shop!

When someone asks me what else they should buy with their Cricut Maker to get started I generally ask them this question:

“What types of Cricut projects would you like to get started with?”

The answer to that question, really helps me narrow down the types of items that people might want to purchase to go with their machines.

If you are anything like me, you have a ton of craft supplies at home, and you can definitely start crafting with the things that you’ve got. But what crafter doesn’t want to add to their craft stash?!?!?

I’m going to break down the top 5 most popular answers I get from my readers, and the items that I suggest they purchase to help support their awesome new craft habit.

Vinyl Projects- Decals for mugs, laptops, walls, cars and more!

Vinyl projects are one of the easiest projects to get started with! First you will want to ask yourself if you want your vinyl to be permanent vinyl or removable vinyl. Then you can narrow down the color and finish of vinyl you would like! I love getting vinyl sampler packs so that you get multiple colors out of one package of vinyl. Find the full selection of Cricut Vinyl here.

Other things that will come in handy for vinyl projects are Standard Grip Cutting Mats (I like having them in 12X12 and 12X24 sizes), Weeding Tools (for weeding your designs), Transfer Tape (for transferring your design to the project) and a scraper tool (for burnishing your vinyl).

Shop these supplies by clicking below.

Iron-On Projects- DIY shirts, hoodies, aprons, tote bags and more!

Iron-on is pretty much my favorite of all of the cutting materials to work with! I love making t-shirts, but also have so much fun apply iron-on to unexpected materials like paper napkins, leather, wood, canvas and more! Like with vinyl, I’m a big fan of Cricut’s iron-on sampler packs so that you can get a variety of colors of iron-on at once. They also have a ton of fun types of iron-on like holographic, glitter, mesh, patterned and printable. Find the full selection of Cricut Iron-On here.

Other things that will come in handy for iron-on projects are Standard Grip Cutting Mats (I like having them in 12X12 and 12X24 sizes), Weeding Tools (for weeding your designs), a Brayer Tool (for really pushing your iron-on into the fibers of what you are applying it to), Iron-On Protective Sheet (especially handy when layering iron-on), an EasyPress Mat and a Cricut EasyPress.

You can use an iron for applying iron-on, however irons don’t have an even heat plate and you can’t usually set them to a specific temperature. I have found that the results I get with an EasyPress are way better than with an iron and take so much less time. So if you can afford one, and you plan on using iron-on alot, I definitely recommend it.

Shop these supplies by clicking below.

Paper crafts- Scrapbooking, card making, paper flowers and other creative paper crafts!

Paper crafts are one of the easiest projects to get started with because the Cricut Maker comes with everything you need in the box to get started (minus paper).

A few of the extras that you might want to consider purchasing to make your paper crafting extra fun are Cricut pens (they fit into your Cricut and let your Cricut draw!!!), a Cricut Tool Set with a paper trimmer, extra Light Grip Cutting Mats (I love the 12X24 inch size), a TrueControl Knife, fun Cricut Paper and some of the extra Cricut Adaptive Tools like scoring wheels, wavy blade and perforation blade.

Shop these supplies by clicking below.

Home Decor- Incredible projects made from Basswood, Balsawood and Chipboard!

I’ve was never much of a DIY home decor queen before owning a Cricut Maker, but the Cricut Knife Blade opened up a brand new world of crafting for me!

You are going to LOVE using your Cricut Maker for cutting chipboard, basswood, balsawood, veneer and more! You’ll want to make sure you have Strong Grip Cutting Mats, the Cricut Knife Blade and any materials that you want to experiment with.

Shop these supplies by clicking below.

Sewing- Forget cutting by hand! Let the Cricut do the work of cutting all those projects for you!

Do you sew? If so you need the Cricut Maker! Cricut's new machine is the best thing that has happened in the sewing world in a long time. This article breaks down the many features, shares some awesome Cricut Maker made sewing projects and counts down the many reasons why you need a Cricut Maker in your craft room! The Cricut Maker lets you spend less time doing what you don't like (cutting) and doing more of what you love-- Sewing and making easy, gorgeous projects and handmade gifts!

I love to sew, but I hate cutting out patterns. The rotary blade for the Cricut Maker was the thing that I got the most excited about at the Cricut Maker launch.

A few things that I would recommend having on hand if you plan on sewing with your Cricut Maker are an iron or Cricut EasyPress (for getting those fabric wrinkles out), a Rotary Cutting Kit (so that you can cut your fabric down to mat size), a sewing kit (with pins, fabric scissors, a measuring tape and more), a Cricut Fabric Marker (it fits right into the pen adaptor!) and 12X24 Fabric Grip Cutting Mats (so you can cut out bigger projects).

Shop these supplies by clicking below.

What kind of DIY projects can I make?

Friends, the sky is the limit with all of the amazing things you can make with your Cricut Maker! I always say that I could literally craft every single day for the rest of my life and never have to repeat the same craft twice! I love that the Cricut Maker turns ANYONE into a maker!

Cricut has (what feels like) a million and one amazing project ideas that you can get for free with a subscription to Cricut Access. I highly recommend it!

A monthly or yearly subscription gets you:

  • Unlimited access over 100,000 images, 7,000 projects, and 400 fonts
  • 10% off purchases on Cricut.com and Design Space®
  • Automatic renewal; cancel anytime
  • Everything in Design Space with cricut accessis included in your subscription

New projects and images are added weekly and there is always tons of fresh new seasonal and evergreen content!

Looking for even more Cricut Ideas? We have them all in one handy place for your convenience! Find our Cricut Section Here

Tons of Project Ideas to make with your Cricut Maker or Cricut Explore from Hello Creative Family

Here are some more handy resources from our site to get you started on some amazing Cricut Maker projects!

Tell me… What other questions do you have about your Cricut Maker? Do you have any tips you would add? Let me know and I’ll add your Cricut ideas and questions to our Cricut Maker FAQ!

If you like my Cricut Maker FAQ and Cricut Maker Ideas I would love for you to pin this post to refer to later and to help others find it!

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