I have always loved my Cricut machine, from the very first machine on the market to my current Cricut Expression 2. But it was a love hate relationships at times, until recently that is, when I downloaded the Cricut Craft Room. The Cricut Craft Room enables you to hook up your machine to your computer via USB cable and allows you to edit images and do all kinds of funky things with them. That is in layman’s terms a brief description.

 

Cricut Craft Room Rocks My Die-Cutting World

What I was most excited about was the fact that I could now merge my fonts when creating titles to create something really different and new. You always see those beautifully merged chipboard titles and die-cut images on projects, and now I can finally do it using my Cricut. Having said all of that, you still need your Cricut Cartridges, but soon there will be the added bonus of purchasing end-of-range cartridges digitally from the on-line store and even single images which in the end can work out much cheaper than buying a full cartridge where you may never use all the images. Although the Cricut Craft Room billing platform is currently only available to users in the USA and Canada, it will be opened up to the International market in the near future. And that’s not where my excitement ends – I actually think I will use my machine even more now and have made a special little spot on my desk for it to take pride in.

His and Hers Valentines Popcorn Boxes

I used the Craft Room to create his and hers Valentines popcorn boxes for movie night. I bought the cute ready-made boxes from a party store and simply used my Cricut to create the decorative elements for the sides. I used a combination of smooth and textured American Crafts cardstock in 2 shades of pink to cut my images. I mainly focused on the word love that I typed and then ‘welded’ the letters together to create a joined image. As for the hearts, they were on one of the free “cartridges’ that you can access in the Craft Room and I simply loved their scalloped edges. I cut them in two different sizes and layered them on top of each other for dimension.

So Here’s The Cricut Craft Room Basics…

First you will have to download the Cricut Craft Room (click here) software to your computer. Create a Cricut.com account (click here) if you don’t already have one. Once your software is installed you sign in and get ready to start designing! I did have some issues with my machine and getting it to connect with my computer – but finally managed after having done a firmware update and Cricut Sync.

• Step 1

  Design your cut files. You can merge words and images together, slant your fonts to add interest to your words etc. Position your images on your mat and change the sizes as you want. You need to choose which machine you have and can also choose the mat size. This step will also show you exactly where your images are placed on the mat and will cut – an added bonus because you can save paper and get multiple cuts done at the same time.



• Step 2

  Although the Cricut Craft Room offers you loads of possibilities, you still need your cartridges. This in reality is a plus as you are not wasting money on something you already have – it just offers more possibilities. *There are some free images available that you can use, design, change and cut that comes with the Cricut Craft Room so look out for those.



• Step 3

  Confirm the cut settings on this screen when prompted to do so. You can change the settings as you normally would but with the click of a mouse. I love this new feature! You can pick 5 options from the drop down menu in step 1 (Custom, Heavy Card-stock, Medium Card-stock, Light Card-stock, and Vinyl). You adjust your speed and the number of times you would like to cut this item on your screen and then adjust the depth of the blade and the pressure on your physical machine.



• Step 4

  Press the ‘cut’ button and watch your Cricut machine go to work! The machine tells you when it is done cutting just in case.



• Step 5

  You can now also save the files you have created which is a nice feature. It can come in pretty handy if you want to do multiple cuts for a kit or class later on, invitations or even Christmas cards – simply do the designing now, save your file and you can access and cut it later on.

I am really excited about using the Craft Room and my Cricut more and more – and hope that you will take the plunge and log on. It really will change the way you look at your Cricut machine and open a whole new world of possibility.

 

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Products Used

• Cricut Craft Room
• Cricut Expression 2
• AC Cardstock

Post by The Wholesaler’s Designer Jowilna Nolte.

We are very proud to introduce you to our first designer, Jowilna Nolte. Jowilna is a true creative and she will be sharing some of her passion and creativity with you.

Read more about Jowilna here.