Take for example, this little decal:
Can you imagine trying to hand cut those letters and shapes? I can't. Especially on vinyl. You could try and find stickers I guess that are the right font, color, and size and try to match them up with images you like...but that is not easy...and there is no guarantee that it will actually stick to your water bottle, mug or whatever it is you are wanting to glam up. My cutting machine allows me to make my images and fonts the size I want. It is going to be the color I want to because I choose the paper (or vinyl) that I want. I get to hold it in my hands and ensure that all of the elements look good together before I even cut anything.
Which machine do you choose?
This one is tough. I don't know much about the Silhouette brand of machines so I can't help you there. Cricut on the other hand I have used 2 of their machines and both were great. They have a brand new one out that is supposed to be pretty much the same as the one I have, just faster and in a variety of colors. My machine is the Explore Air. It has a dual housing so that the blade gets to stay in place while the second housing can hold a scoring stylus or pen for drawing. It also is bluetooth capable right out of the box. The Explore One needs an adapter to be able to pull that off. You can hook your Cricut machines up to a desktop or laptop, or if its bluetooth enabled, an iPad or iPhone. They are also beta testing the Android App in the U.S. . Now I tried that one out on my Samsung Galaxy S7 and while it was okay, it was not as cool as the iOS version. The app is great, but the one thing I wish it could do is upload images. If you buy an image from someone you have to use the desktop version of Cricut Design Space to uploaded before it can be used on the iPad. But, one upside to the iPad version, is this cool thing called Snap Mat.
What does that do? Let me attempt to explain quickly. Say you have a cute photo of your sister and her hubby and you want to cut a heart shape out of it but you suck at freehand cutting, you don't want to draw on it and you don't have one of those previously mentioned cutters. Snap Mat allows you to stick that photo anywhere on your mat, take a photo of the mat and then you can drag and position your heart shape over the photo so that you get it exactly how you want it. This is also great for adding writing to previously made or store-bought cards and envelopes. I have also used it to make use of scrap vinyl, ensuring that I have as little waste possible.
Can you make due without an iPad? Yes. But if you already have one, be sure to download the Design Space app. It also allows you to save and cut projects while offline (but only if it is saved to the iPad and not the cloud)
Tools:
The Cricut itself has tons of tools that go with it. A scoring Stylus, pens, tweezers, weeding tool, scrapers, spatulas and scissors.They sell most of the tools individually and in varied sets. For example, you can buy a scraper tool with a spatula. You can buy s scoring stylus (what you need to create fold lines on cards and boxes), tweezers and the weeding tool on their own. You can also save yourself time, and in the long run-money, if you just buy the complete set. My suggestion is to buy the set otherwise you end up like me....buying each piece separately and paying more in the end. Are there ways to get around buying Cricut brand stuff? Yes. I just use my own scissors and tweezers for example, and you can use an old credit card or gift card in place of their scraper tool. The stylus however is not something I have found a substitute for and while you can use things like paper clips in place of the weeding tool, if you are going to be using vinyl often you are better off spending the $6-$8 and buying the Cricut weeder.
Cardstock:
You can buy any brand cardstock you want. I have used stuff from all over, even construction paper. What you will want to keep in mind regarding cardstock is thickness (thicker paper requires a different setting on your machine than printer paper) and whether or not its white core. FOr the average project, the core color makes no difference, but if you are making creases in a gift bag or box or working on a flip book, you will want paper that is NOT white in the center. It looks bad having each crease this bright white while the rest of the paper is the beautiful glitter cardstock...I did this in a trial project and it is not something you can overlook. It looks awful. Lesson learned.
Other materials:
My suggestion is to start with Cricut samplers, You get 6 sheets of 12x12 vinyl in different colors. They have samplers for glitter vinyl and bright colors, metallics etc. It's a good way to test out the product. I did this and discovered that there were colors I used a lot of and ones I struggle to find uses for. I'm glad to only have 1 sheet of a color I rarely/never use that the full regular roll which is 12x48".
If you find yourself really into vinyl, Cricut offers bulk rolls of Midnight (black), chalkboard, gold, and silver. Those rolls are 12x120" or 12x360".
Of course there are many brands of vinyl, but Cricut stuff is the best place to start.
Don"t forget, if ordering vinyl, you will need transfer tape to get your decal off of the paper backing and onto your mug, wall, or plate.
HTV, or, heat transfer vinyl is something I haven't used much. I thought I would do a ton with it, but to be honest I don't have the time for it. Since I don't make much (any at the moment) I'll talk about it some other time along with the other materials the Cricut Explore series can cut.
Check out the cricut.com site to see just what goodies you can throw money at. And a little tip, join a Criut Facebook group. Often times the Admins have special discount codes that can save you up to 15 % on your order. Most cricut users also subscribe to Cricuts image library called Cricut Access. Prices vary depending on the package but all receive a 10% discount in the store.
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