CRICUT FOR BEGINNERS: Everything I wish I knew when I first started!

Hello everyone Haley, here from the foiled plan, today I'm sharing a video that I've wanted to share for a long time. I never really took the time to sit down, make my list, gather my thoughts and then film. video about it. I usually like to film tutorial videos and videos where I actually show you how to do something, but this one is a little different. I'm going to list all the things I

wish

I

knew

the

first

time. I got my Cricut machine so I bought my qriket machine in August 2018 so I've had it for a couple of years now and there are a few things I've learned over the last few years with this machine that would have been very beneficial.

If only I had known about them

when

I

first

bought it, so without further ado, let's get right into these things I

wish

I had known

when

I first bought my qriket machine. Come on, if you are already a frustrated friend, thank you for joining me again today and if you are new here, welcome. I share a lot of different content on my channel, things like design videos, cricket crafts, dollar store foiling, DIYs, epoxy cups, unboxings and pretty much anything related to running a small creative business, so yeah That type of content interests you, I encourage you. you need to hit the subscribe button to become a frustrated friend and turn on the notification bell so you never miss a video uploaded now that you know a little more about my channel let's jump into today's video so the machine I have is the

cricut

explore.

Air 2 is in coral color and I'm sure they still have this color option available. I bought mine at Michaels. I'm from Ontario, Canada so I was able to buy it at Michael's in the store and that's the machine I have. I don't have the manufacturer and I don't have the joy and if you're interested I can explain why I bought this model instead of any other when I was first deciding which machine I want, but that will be a separate video so number one is that. You don't have to use Cricut brand products. I'm sure you can see behind me on my dashboard here that I have a lot of products, but I'm talking about the vinyl, the htv, which means heat transfer vinyl, which is interchangeable. with iron on, so iron on and htv heat transfer vinyl, they are all the same, so you don't need to use

cricut

s vinyls or iron ons with this, you can use other things.

There are many great products available and I. I'll be completely honest, I don't use any of the vinyl or very rarely use any of the Cricut brand vinyl or iron-on stickers and that doesn't mean they're bad products, they're just not my go-to. -I have options that I prefer and sometimes it's just a personal preference, but yes, there are many other products that I prefer to cricket vinyls and things like that, so that's number one, you don't have to use strictly cricut products. When you buy a Cricut cutting machine, move on to one of the most important things that I didn't know when I first bought my Cricut is that you can reuse your transfer tape, so if you're not sure what transfer tape is, it's basically the clear piece that, um, if you're working with adhesive vinyl, if you're going to put it on a mug or something like that, you cut the vinyl and then you use this transfer tape that's clear and you put it over the vinyl to peel it off.

Separate it from the backing sheet so you can then apply it to wherever you are applying it, for example a mug and then remove the transfer tape. That transfer tape can be used multiple times. I didn't know you went through so much transfer tape that you don't need to waste it, use it as much as you can until it's no longer sticky enough to lift the vinyl, so reuse the transfer tape and that will come back to you, you don't have to use materials from the Cricut brand. With your machine, the transfer tapes I normally use are the masking transfer tapes which are expression vinyl and sold at the Auntie Tay store.

I have a link for the ones below if you are interested, I love masking transfer tape and then also If you are looking for a clear transfer tape, I also really like vivid transfer tape so there are many options and Oracle also has a few options so you don't just strictly use Cricut products with this and you can reuse your transfer tape so many times. Sometimes don't waste it, it's expensive, okay, the following is just a pro tip in your thinking, so be patient with yourself and understand that you are going to waste material and supplies, and I say waste in quotes because it is up for debate whether or not, you're actually wasting things because you're learning in the process, so okay, maybe something didn't turn out the way you wanted or your cut didn't go all the way through the vinyl like you expected, but you learned something from it and you won't do it again.

I wish, I mean, honestly, I've made the same mistake several times before just because sometimes I can get sloppy or impatient and just start doing things with it. I wish I had known when I first got my cricut that it was going to waste material, scrap material, um, but I was going to learn from it, so be patient with yourself, don't worry too much, it's just crafting, it's not the end of The World if something goes a little wrong, even if you're a perfectionist to a fault like me, so keep that in mind. Another thing I wish I had known when I

started

is that you don't need all the tools and supplies just to get it done.

I

started

, so I'm not sure if you saw my qriket unboxing in the first project video. It's very interesting for me to watch that video and see how far I've come because I feel like I've come a long way since that video um, but I bought a lot of things, some people might say no, you didn't actually buy a lot, but in my opinion I bought more than I needed, my tools, this is still my original tool set that I bought two years ago when I first bought my cricut. I actually made a video customizing them so they now have purple tops, but to be honest, I never use the spatula as usual.

I've used my scoring tool once or twice for cards and it didn't. I don't even use it on my machine and then my weeding tool obviously that's what I use the most so invest in a good weeding tool it doesn't have to be Cricket brand mine is but yeah , sometimes the tips can end up getting worse over time. boring or bent at the time, I would recommend updating it. I'll be honest, I just bought a new weeding tool, so I'm excited about that, but I was more excited because I craft in this room and then I also craft in the room next to it, so instead of going from one room to the other, now I only have two separate tools, so it has nothing to do with this weeding tool not working anymore and then I only have this little scraper, um, it's seen better days.

It has a chip on the bottom, but I know there is the XL scraper and a lot of people love them, but I have been completely fine with just having a small one. I know there are also these little pampered chef plate scrapers. re brown, I mean they're not glamorous but they do the job, a lot of people can use them too or just as paint scrapers, something like that that will do basically the same thing, that's completely fine, you don't need

everything

right when you first start oh, I also bought a Bunch of cricut mats and I didn't really need them right away.

The mat it came with was the blue one, which is mainly for paper crafts because it's the light grain matte, so that's something, this is kind of a side note if you didn't know that the different colors of Cricut mats determine what grip are, so the light blue is a light grip, the green mat is a standard grip and then the purple mat is a strong grip. So you would use this for similar fabrics and things like that that really need to be glued, um, so that's another little aside, um, but I didn't need them all right away, so you don't need them all right away.

Honestly, it depends on what projects you plan to complete and then gear your supplies toward that and then you can always expand your collection later if you find that you need more, but you don't need it all right away while we're at it. As far as tools and supplies, something I would recommend getting is a brayer, so the one I have is from Fiskars. I have it linked in my Amazon store. You can find my Amazon link below. Cricut has one too, I guess it's prettier than this one. you could say, but it's more expensive and I'm interested in a deal, so as much as I like

everything

to be color coordinated and matched, I like a deal a little more than that, so get yourself a brayer, this is amazing for do.

Make sure everything is stuck to your mat, whatever brand you choose, get yourself a brayer. You can also get them in the stamping section at Michael's again. It's just a brayer b-r-a-y-e-r. One thing I will say about this one is that the handle is definitely not that comfortable. in your hand like the cricut one just because it has these rough edges so if you put force on it sometimes you can end up with a line on your hand but I only use it for a couple of seconds so it's not that bad for me , I still have supplies, but we're getting a little deeper into mats, so something I didn't know is that mats can go into your machine two ways, so I'll open this up so you can see. so there's the top where it says cricut and then there's the hole to hang it so it can go this way or if you turn it around it can also go this way so it physically won't fit in the machine if you turn it sideways so which is quite difficult to mess up, but yes, you can put it with the hole first or the other way around, whichever you prefer.

I put things in when I started, I put things like at the bottom and I took them off to then stick them here because I thought, "Ah, it can't go into the machine that way, yeah, it can, it's no big deal, so that's a small thing." and then also something else I wish I'd known it was." that the protective sheets that come with the mat actually have two different sides, it's very hard to tell which is which, but I'm telling you there are two different sides, so to make sure you're always doing the same thing. sticky side to sticky side when you store your mat, what I like to do is add a little star or a little sticker to the front of the mat.

I'm not sure if you can see it from here, but there is a little bit of blue. star, so I always know that when I take this protective sheet off when I'm going to put it back on, that blue star is going to be facing outwards, so that's something to keep in mind when storing your mats, the only reason I don't do it. I have a protective sheet in the purple one right now it's because my studio lights shine a lot on the protective sheet so I just take it off when shooting video. Another thing I wish I had known when I first bought my machine is that you can re-stick your mats, so just because you get to the point where there is no adhesive left on your mats when you touch them doesn't mean you can't return them to life, so there are many YouTube videos explaining how to clean them, one of the most popular ways is to use one of the cleaning products sold at Dollar Tree and it's called La's Awesome, I think it's called Awesome Cleaner Belly's Awesome , something like that, um, but that's cool. cleaner other people like to use mr clean magic erasers there are many different options available don't throw away your mats you can re-glue them so you don't waste anything while we shop for supplies and tools one thing I would like What I

knew

when I bought my Cricut machine was which you can actually sharpen your blade so to do that you just take a ball of aluminum foil and crumple it up and then you can use this little thing that sinks in here so every time you push that I can see the blade coming out the end , so if you just hold it and push it very carefully towards the ball of aluminum foil that will sharpen the blade, I tend to do that if I'm about to cut something that has a lot of small, intricate details. details, something you can do to make your products last longer.

Another thing I wish I had known when I first bought my cricut was that htv or iron on heat transfer vinyl is the same thing. It's not as scary as it seems. I was petrified. of using htv because I thought it's much more permanent than adhesive vinyl and once you mess it up it's messed up and there's no way to get it back that's not the case there are ways to remove heat transfer vinyl from a garment or thing let it be I'm putting it so it's not as permanent as, say, sublimation, um, but yeah, don't be intimidated, don't be intimidated by anything that you can do with the cricut again, this is just a crafting, y'all We are here to have fun.

You might also be here to earn some extra money. There are many people who are willing to help and provide knowledge like me and share our experiences to help you, especially to hate transfer vinyl if you find it intimidating like it was for Don't leave it like that, everything will be fine. The first heat transfer vinyl I used wasflocking, which I don't know if I'd recommend starting with that for your first try, but go big or go home. I tried the flocked heat. it transferred vinyl and it was fine and it actually turned out really nice so there was nothing to stress about so you got something that I wish I had known about this particular machine before or when I first bought it it was just for printing and cutting. now it works on white paper, that may not matter at all to any of you looking at this, but for me I was hoping to be able to make campaign cards for weddings and things like that, I also do foil.

I usually do a couple of steps in my process so what I wanted to do was print then cut and move paper on my cricut and then take my paper cards to my Mink machine so I could then foil my design but unfortunately. the registration marks weren't readable on the moving paper so I had to get creative and find a solution to make that work, but that's something you should know. I have heard that it is possible to print and cut colored paper on the machine. I can't say for sure that that's 100% true because I haven't tried it.

I don't have a manufacturer, but I know for a fact that this machine, the Cricut Explore Air 2, does not print or cut anything other than white. Some people can use vellum or different types of transparent paper, but again you have to be creative to read the registration marks. Yeah, I'll leave it at that because some of you may not care at all, so anyway we'll move on to something that Actually, for a long time I didn't know what the dial really meant and I feel like I should make a separate video just on the dial because there's a lot of information, but basically there are material settings on the dial for you to turn. the dial to set it to whatever material you're working on and then it's automatically selected in your program because the dial is set and they basically talk to each other and they know okay I'm about to cut paper because m my dial is set to paper for a long time.

I didn't know what the middle points were, like the half steps between each setting or four, the half steps indicate more or less pressure on a certain material, so if you're looking at the cardstock setting and you turn the dial one notch counter, none clockwise notch past the cardstock setting that is going to be cut with more pressure and if you are on the cardstock setting but you take it back into the counterclockwise notch then you are going to have less pressure , then it talks to the program, the program talks to the machine, it knows what setting it's on and it knows how deep to put the blade, so that's something I didn't know until, honestly, probably like a year into using machine.

So that might be helpful to you, having said that the next thing I wish I had known when I started using my machine is that I work with so many different materials and products, it's best to leave the dial set to custom. That way I'm always prompted to choose my material settings in the software, so whether I'm using my ipad, my PC, my macbook, or my imac, like whatever I'm using to work on the design, indicate design space software. It's going to ask me to choose the material and that way I'm not going to accidentally cut into the wrong setting for what I'm working on just because it was already set up and I didn't even think about it, it's like a squirrel, I'm already gone. thinking about something else, once this starts cutting something, there's too much going on for me to remember that, oh, I have to turn that dial again, so if you're always prompted and you have no choice but to select your material before moving forward, that saves you from wasting materials or at least saves me from wasting materials.

There's nothing worse than waiting for something to cut for about 15 to 20 minutes and then you're done and realizing it was in a tissue paper-like position when you were trying to cut. via permanent outdoor vinyl is no good, not a big waste, so always, if you work with a lot of different materials, keep the custom dial. Thanks later, another pro tip. I guess you could say "um" to save material I wish I'd known. When I first bought my machine, when you have roll vinyl, you can load it onto your mat and still keep the roll attached and maybe I would just put a book or something underneath here so the mat can slide a little more. freely, uh, it doesn't completely touch the surface of your workstation, it's slightly raised and then once the piece is done cutting, you can remove it and then cut the piece you need that way, like I found when I started what it was .

What I do is look at the mat in the program's design space and see that, okay, it looks like I'm going to need a piece that's at least three inches by three inches, but there's always a chance that's the design you want. . It kind of has moved slightly and maybe it's a little off, so maybe I should do three and a quarter by three and a quarter or maybe even three and a half by three and a half over time when you still have those extra bits of vinyl that It doesn't need to build up over time, so if you just cut out the actual design, you'll waste a lot less vinyl or whatever product or material you're working with, so cut it out and then cut it off the roll. that is, if you're working with a roll, if you're working with a sheet, then of course you just lay that sheet out on the mat and then you cut it and then you cut it around so it's a good way to save material.

Well, one of the last things I'm going to share with you today that I wish I knew when I first bought my Cricut is that you need to be a little careful about which videos you look for in your research. buy any type of machine, so a lot of times people have sponsored posts or a company offers them free products to review or share on their page and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I've done it before too, usually. on my instagram if I want to try a product, but I will say that I won't share a product unless I really like it.

I can't say it's the same for everyone, but that's how I do it. I don't want them to spend their money on something I don't even like and then it will come back to me anyway because if they think it's a rubbish product then they'll get mad at me and I don't want that, but yeah, just be careful what videos you look for, so if you're watching a video that says which machine is better, a silhouette or a cricut, you scroll down the description box of the video and you can see that The video was sponsored by Cricket or the video was sponsored by Silhouette.

Well, you can probably guess that the person making that video will be more geared towards the person who sponsored that video, if that makes sense, so that's something to keep in mind. They are all cool machines, they are all cool machines and there are a lot of amazing materials available for these machines, but keep that in mind that sometimes there is a little more, just do as much research as you can and sometimes that research involves just trying things out. yourself, so yeah, just food for thought. The last thing I'm going to share with you today is something I definitely wish I had known when I first bought this machine and I think it is.

It's very important for anyone who has a plan or thinks they might eventually plan to make things to sell and that is to make sure you practice, practice, practice before you start selling, and that's strictly because it's okay, so everyone has to start with somewhere right and maybe you are the one in a million who is completely perfect and flawless and you get everything on the first try. That is not me. I'm not claiming that's me at all, but that's not always the case for everyone and it takes practice to do so. things are fine using this machine or using any machine honestly, whatever you are doing by hand, practice first before selling because whatever product you start selling, if there is any problem with it, if there is a design defect or if someone you use it for a couple of weeks and then the design starts saying adhesive vinyl, it was a detailed design and now it is starting to fall off or peel off, practice, practice, practice before you start doing this because that can affect the look of your business if you do it like that. as a business that can affect how your business looks in the future, if that makes sense, I'm not saying this to scare you or anything, just practice and make sure you master it.

Do tests, do something like that. hand washing tests with designs in certain sizes learn to know when a font is too detailed or a design is too detailed or it's too small because if you have things that are too small and you're putting them in a cup or a bottle or a mug I'm telling you, even if it's permanent adhesive vinyl, eventually some of it will come off, there's no way around it and I know it could take a while, don't get me wrong, it could take a while, but it could happen and those are things I had to learning the hard way and I have come up with different ways to do things now to avoid things like that or when I know there is no way to avoid them, I have found them yet, anyway I have chosen to do it. stop doing that kind of thing and do something different to replace that, so I used to make coffee mugs out of adhesive vinyl.

I don't like the idea that, even a couple of months later, part of the design will arrive. off so I choose to no longer just do vinyl on mugs and have now introduced sublimation into my product line so I do sublimation mugs instead of vinyl on mugs, it doesn't mean they can't do vinyl on mugs, I don't I'm trying. to say that at all, it's not putting a bee in your bonnet, hey, I'm 80, but yeah, I don't know, just make sure you practice before you start promoting yourself, there are so many people I've seen on like Facebook Marketplace and all that. creating business after having bought a machine like yesterday and then immediately start selling products.

I'm not trying to tear you down in any way, I just want you to have the best overall experience and obviously your customers to have the best overall experience and I just don't want anyone to be in a position where, I don't know, something comes out. bad and then you have that client who is nasty about it and then that's something that stays with you and you put up with it. That's what I would do if someone was upset because one of my products didn't work for them or something, I take that very seriously and seriously, so if you can avoid that by just practicing what you do, then that's the way to do it.

Anyway, that's enough heavy material for this video. I hope this video encourages you to take your machine out of the box if you're feeling intimidated, even if it's been in the box for a couple of years or you just bought it. during the holiday season and you're not sure what to do, take it out of the box, that's the first step, watch as many videos as you can, feel free to hit the subscribe button if you want to join my crafty little journey, become a Frustrated friend, I know it sounds corny, but I started that a while ago and it just got stuck, so on my channel I do a lot more than just qriket crafting, so if you're here specifically for qriket crafting, don't worry. will break your heart.

If you don't want to watch my other videos, but if you do, you might enjoy them. I do things ranging from sewing, foiling, cricut, crafts, just dollar store diy, home diy, renault diy, I do a little bit of this and a little bit of that so I'm so excited that you're here. about to start your die cutting journey and if it's with Cricket, awesome, this is not a sponsored video. I have never been sponsored by Cricket. I just put it out there, at least at the time of this video, who knows, maybe in the future. cricket, hit me, what's up, um, but uh, yeah, it's just me sharing my experience with you, hoping it helps you, I hope it energizes you and motivates you and you feel a little less intimidated.

Everything will be fine. I'm going to leave a link to the video when I first unboxed it and did my first project with this and you can see the difference in how intimidated I was when using it for the first time and I'm sure that will probably resonate with a lot of people who watch this video , so anyway Thank you all so much for watching, I hope you have a wonderful day and that's all, I'll say goodbye.