Starting out with a Cricut machine can be intimidating! But we are here to help!! We have gathered a list of all our best tips, tricks, hacks, and must-haves for beginners and experts alike! Feel free to submit your own tips & tricks to our e-mail (Markyourworth@gmail.com) for them to possibly be added! Or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to message us!!
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Beginners Guide to Starting Out with a Cricut Machine!
- Don’t pay in store prices for vinyl, you can get it way cheaper online!
- Go to Expressions Vinyl for all your adhesive vinyl needs! (Cheap, great quality, super-fast shipping, great customer service, a great rewards program, & so many beautiful patterns & colors options to choose from!) Click here to shop EV.
- Get all HTV (iron on vinyl) from HTVRont! Great prices, amazing color selection, bundles, free images & fonts for members (free to join). Click here to shop HTVRONT.
- Look up you-tube videos! (Mr. Crafty Pants, Jennifer Maker, Makers Gonna Make, Sweet Red Poppy are a few) & read as many craft blogs (like this one!) that you can. Click here to check out our YouTube channel.
- TikTok is a great place for short easy tutorials on anything craft or Cricut related. Click here to visit our TikTok Channel.
- Get off-brand mats from Amazon (Xinart & ECraft are good brands, just pay attention to ratings and read reviews)
- You want to get a few STANDARD GRIP (GREEN), LIGHTGRIP MATS (BLUE), possibly a STRONG GRIP MAT (PURPLE) (& a FABRIGRIP (PINK) mat if your planning on cutting fabric materials.)
- Do an amazon search for off-brand pens if Cricut’s aren’t on sale (see above about reading reviews)
- Invest in some cardstock paper (Michaels, Joanne’s, Hobby Lobby, Walmart, Target, & Amazon all have good quality paper for pretty cheap)
- Cricut offers free classes on their website! Click here to check Cricut’s page to see all their FREE classes available!!
- Download the FREE design space app and play around with it. Click each button and see what every button does. Insert a simple shape (free without an Access subscription) and just click each button and test them out! Click the ad below to get an access subscription!
- If your on a budget, Dollar Tree has a ton of good Cricut (hack) items! They have spatulas, scrapers, & the weeding tool (all 3 for less than $4!) which are the basic tools that come in the Cricut starter kit that’s around $7-8!
- Dollar tree also sells these “snack containers in the baby aisle that are perfect for your weeding scraps. & In the nail polish aisle, they have this silicone bottle (that’s meant for nail polish remover) & its perfect to out alcohol in to use cotton rounds to clean off your projects before applying vinyl!
- Dollar tree also sells shower racks that hold about 5 rolls of vinyl per rack (put a few together with zip ties and you can make a longer rack that holds much more rolls!)
Hang your mats on the wall for easy and quick storage using the black binder clips (also found at DT!) - CLICK HERE TO SHOP DOLLAR TREE ONLINE!
- Use a binder with clear sheet protectors to store your vinyl scraps & separate by color for easy organization
- Walmart has an iron (steamfast 727) for under $14 that’s small & works great for iron on (big designs have to be done in sections)
- EXTRA TIP: parchment paper works perfect as a barrier between your iron & the vinyl AVOID using an ironing board underneath, instead use a hard surface with a towel underneath your garment to be ironed on! (You can buy this at Dollar Tree!)
- Five Below has a LED light pad for $8 that helps so much with weeding small lines! (Amazon has some for anywhere from $20-30)
- You can get blank items perfect for personalization from places like AMAZON, Dollar Tree, & Walmart for cheap!
- Keychains are super easy & fun to make & they make perfect gifts!