What Can You Do with a Cricut

A Cricut is an electronic cutting machine capable of cutting various designs out of a wide array of materials, like paper and cardstock. Some Cricuts can even cut through leather and wood.
In short, you can use a Cricut on almost anything you’d cut with scissors or an X-acto knife. Yet, the former comes with two main advantages: it’s faster and more accurate than anything you could do by hand.
Read on to learn more about what you can do with a Cricut.

Kinds of Cricut Machines

There are three kinds of Cricut machines on the market right now: the Cricut Joy, the Cricut Maker 3, and the Cricut Explore 3.
The latter is the most popular machine and is one step up from the Cricut Explore 3. It can cut through various materials and comes with more tools. The third type, Cricut Joy, is smaller in size, making it portable and easy to set up.
Below, you’ll find a quick breakdown of each machine.

The Cricut Explore 3

The Cricut Explore 3 is the most popular Cricut machine, mainly because of its user-friendly features and its budget-friendly price. In fact, this machine has been hailed as an all-around favorite for Cricut beginners or anybody on a tight budget.
It's a quick and accurate cutting machine that can work with or without a mat. In addition, It cuts over 100 common craft materials, including paper, vinyl, and iron-on.

Cricut Joy

The Cricut Joy is the most convenient Cricut. It's a brilliant small cutting machine that's simple to assemble and use.
It can cut through more than 50 types of materials, such as adhesive vinyl and iron-on vinyl. It can even cut thin sheets of faux leather.

This machine has a tiny footprint, making it simple to store in a small craft room or multipurpose office. It’s the only Cricut machine that’s genuinely "portable."

The Cricut Maker 3

The Cricut Maker 3 was released in June 2021, making it the most recent model. If you want a reliable cutting machine that can give top-quality commercial-grade performance, then the Maker 3 is for you.
It's no-fuss application works like a charm, even on the most complicated cuts. It can cut more than 300 types of materials, including paper, leather, fabric, and wood. Moreover, it works with 13 tools to cut, write, score, foil, engrave and do other things.

What Can You Do with a Cricut

There are so many things that can be cut with a Cricut machine that it’d be hard to list them all. The truth is that people who use Cricut are always trying out the machine on new materials. As a result, the list keeps on growing.
However, you should be familiar with the most common types of materials, which we’ve listed below.

Some of the Most Common Types of Used Materials

  • Aluminum foil
  • Cardstock and glitter cardstock
  • Chalkboard
  • Construction Paper, copy paper, butcher paper
  • Vinyl, iron-on vinyl, glitter vinyl, permanent vinyl, and removable vinyl
  • Faux leather
  • Infusible sheets of ink
  • Printable sticker and craft foam
  • Paper and Veneer parchment paper
  • Magnetic sheet
  • Natural wood

Types of Projects You Can Make With a Cricut

Just as the list of materials is practically endless, so is the list of craft projects you can make with a Cricut. Take a look.
  • Iron-on designs for T-shirts and onesies.
  • Hand-made cards for greetings
  • Leather bracelets and earrings
  • Banners and party decorations made of paper
  • Address envelopes and invitations with monograms for a mug, cup, or tumbler.
  • Stencils for etching glass
  • Vinyl stickers for car windows painted on wood signs
  • Personalized pantry labels
  • Stencils for a painted doormat and applique shapes for quilt blocks

Cricut Machines in Action

You can use a Bluetooth connection to connect a Cricut machine to your computer. This allows you to create or download designs on your computer and then transfer them to the cutting machine.
The Cricut Design Space software is available for Windows, MAC, iPad, and iOs, and Android smartphones, which lets you create and import designs for cutting with your machine. Accordingly, you can upload almost any design from your computer and load it onto the Cricut.
Inside the Cricut is a small blade, rotary cutter, pen, or a scoring tool. Then, when you have something ready to cut, Design Space, place it on a 12-inch cutting mat, and let the machine work its magic.

FAQs

You might have some additional questions in mind. The following section will answer them.

Is It Hard to Use a Cricut Machine?

Cricut machines come with a reader-friendly online manual. Plus, there are lots of other Cricut resources online you can use.
Design Space and the Cricut machine itself are both designed with ease of use in mind. While you don't need extensive background in graphic design to use them, it does come in handy if you want to start from scratch and make your own designs. If not, you can always use the vast library of images and designs found on Cricut's Design Space.
Bear in mind that some are free, while others come at a low price. You can also pay a monthly fee for Cricut Access, which gives you access to all of the fonts and images in Cricut Design Space.

Should You Buy a Cricut Machine?

A Cricut machine is an excellent purchase if you like crafting, mainly with paper and vinyl.
It’ll make your cut items look and feel professional. Also, if you're comfortable using the Cricut, your crafts will take much faster to complete.
You may also use your cutting machine to make money. Why not make and sell various items, like personalized T-shirts, mugs, and decals?

Conclusion

We hope this article covers all your key questions if you are searching for what you can do with a Cricut. We also talked about whether you even need a cutting machine in the first place.
Since you already know about the different kinds of Cricut machines and the kinds of projects you can do with them, it’s time now to start your own project. It’s a fun way to get creative, customize all kinds of items, and make money in the process.