Cricut Overview
The Cricut is called a personal electronic cutting machine by its manufacturer, Provo Craft. Provo Craft is based in Spanish Fork, Utah and has won many awards for it’s “green” products. The crafters who first noticed the Cricut were mostly scrapbookers. It has since gone more “mainstream” and people are using it for school projects, bulletin boards, posters, party décor, and even home décor. Teachers love them and if used to cut vinyl they can make beautiful wall décor for your home.
There are several models of the Cricut Personal Expression Cutting Machine available, the original Cricut, the Cricut Expression and the Cricut Create. The Expression can cut mats up to 24” long/high down to ¼” tall/wide. This is the newest model to the Cricut line. The Cricut Create is the best of both and has the best features of each.
The Cricut works with Cricut Cartridges. They have over 250 designs in 12 different sizes each. Letters can be cut from 1” to 5.5” high, it cuts borders and phrases as long as 11.5”, which is the perfect size for 12” x 12” scrapbookers. The designs are everything from simple icons to very intricate art work on subjects from Disney to sports. It can do all this on a variety of paper thicknesses. There is also a paper saving mode that adjusts your text or image just so on a page so that you get the most in the least amount of space.
The machine it self comes with several accessories. It comes with a carrying tote, cutting mats, cutting blades, and starter cartridges. There are dozens of different cartridges available along with replacement cutting mats and blades.
What else can you do with a Cricut Personal Electronic cutting machine? There are a number of crafts projects. You can cut out letters and shapes/designs in many different fonts and sizes (depending on the Cricut cartridge you use). A great use for your Cricut is to cut out vinyl (also available in craft stores just for this purpose) and use it in home décor. For example, write an inspirational quote on your wall, or put your babies name over their crib. These letters can also be used on cards, bulletin boards and of course scrapbook projects. The one thing that most people who own a Cricut use it for is scrapbooking. Scrapbookers love the ease of use, the many, many, different fonts and designs available to put in their albums. You can cut borders for your scrapbooks, cut out mats for your pictures. A very unique thing you can do with your Cricut is to make gift albums. You can cut out each page to represent an aspect of what the album is about. You could use a party hat or cake with candles on a birthday album. A car design for a new car. Since the Cricut can cut chipboard it can even make the cover to the album. Bind it all together with binder rings (available in office supply stores).
The Cricut truly is simple to use, insert the cartridge into the machine and put the keyboard mat that comes with the cartridge in place. Load your paper, vellum, vinyl, or cardstock on the cutting mat, that also comes with the machine. Select the image or letters you want, select the size you would like and press cut.