Cricut Beginner Hacks: All I Wish I Knew When I First Started

Let's learn some Cricut Beginner Hacks! If you are a seasoned crafter or just started crafting during the pandemic, you have probably come across the Cricut machine. So what is better than learning some Cricut beginner hacks!? My Explore Air 2 Cricut machine was given to me as a Christmas present, and I really didn’t know much about it. The machine itself can be quite intimidating at first. You may even feel inclined to leave it on your shelf and cut things the old fashioned way. I know I did for a while. But once I started working with the machine, watching tutorials, and learning about the Cricut, I became a bit more comfortable using it and trying new things. I wish I had just started sooner and for that reason, I have put this blog together on things I wish I knew about the Cricut when I first started. It would have helped me be a little more confident and I would be more ahead of the game then I am now.

Cricut Beginner Hacks:

Cricut comes with a blue light grip mat and you can purchase other mats with different grips. But you don’t need to purchase all of these mats right away. Decide which projects you want to do first, and then purchase the right grip mat. You can read more about Cricut mats here and which ones you may want right way. Get a brayer tool to help push everything down onto your mats. A brayer tool is traditionally used for printmaking but can work wonders with your Cricut mats and pushing down material as close as you can get it. You can get these at most craft stores. You don’t HAVE to use all Cricut products with the Cricut machine. Things like vinyl and iron-on material do not have to be from a Cricut brand. You may find some some of the Cricut products a little limiting so you can absolutely branch out with other material brands. You can re-use transfer tape! Transfer tape is fine to re-use multiple times until it is no longer sticky. The transfer tape also does not need to be a Cricut brand. It’s very expensive, so this is a great hack to know upfront. The plastic protector that goes on top of your mats to help keep them clean and sticky has two sides. It is hard to tell the correct side to put the cover on your mats sometimes, so you can do a fun vinyl beginner project and add a vinyl saying to the front of the clear cover. Or you do something as simple as adding a sticker to designate the right cover side. You don’t need every single Cricut tool to get started. If you purchase a Cricut bundle, you will likely get lots of materials and tools that may overwhelm you. You definitely do not need a bunch of fancy tools right off the jump. The scraper and weeding tool are going to be best for when you are first starting. If you are planning on making items to sell in an Etsy shop or starting a small craft business, make sure you get used to using the Cricut machine before you start selling. You don’t want to end up with a bunch of orders that you can’t fullfill because you have things going wrong. My rule of thumb is to make 10 items as practice or giveaway, before I add anything to a shop to sell. You can clean your Cricut mats when they start to lose their grip. Do not throw them away!! You can re-stick them. I wrote a whole blog about that here. Print then cut only works on white paper. Save yourself the stress of trying to print on colored paper. The design won’t register or transfer. Those are all the tips and hacks I have! I hope that this blog post helps any Cricut beginners. Happy crafting!