What is a Cricut and What Can You Do With It?

Even the most skilled crafters can benefit from a helping hand now and then. Adding a few crafty tools to your arsenal can completely change the things you make and how you make them.

Enter the Cricut. Whether you use it to make crafts for yourself, your friends, and your loved ones, or to start a vinyl business, you’ll find the Cricut a worthwhile investment that will transform your crafting life.

What Is a Cricut?

Essentially, a Cricut is an electronic, computer-controlled cutting machine. It’s functional with an impressive range of surfaces, including paper, vinyl, cardstock, and iron-on transfers. Certain high-end models of the Cricut can even cut wood and leather.

Next time you’re thinking of breaking out scissors or an X-acto knife, think again! If you have a Cricut machine, you can use that instead—and it will be a lot more precise and efficient. One of the coolest things about a Cricut is that you can use it to cut designs you’ve created digitally (on Procreate, for example). There’s so much room to be creative!

History of the Cricut

The first Cricut machine was manufactured in 2003. It was called the Cricut Create and was nowhere near as sleek and high-tech as the models we see today. But hey—you have to start somewhere!

And it all started with one inventor’s idea. The Cricut was invented by Robert Workman in collaboration with a group of other inventors, including Jonathan Johnson, Matt Strong, and Jeff Beffrey. Robert Workman believed there was a demand for an electronic cutting method that would be faster and more exact than scissors or knives. Nearly 20 years later, it seems his hunch was correct! His company, Provo Craft, has been responsible for the many iterations of the Cricut that have been developed since 2003.

What Can You Make With Cricut?

teal cricut — Is it time to add a Cricut to your craft supplies collection?

Here’s a better question: What can’t you make with Cricut? It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that owning a Cricut will set you up for practically infinite crafting potential.

Greeting Cards

cricut cut cards — Here, Liz Kohler Brown uses a template made with her Cricut to make a one-of-a-kind greeting card.

The only thing better than getting a greeting card is getting a handmade greeting card. After designing the look for your card on Procreate or Photoshop, you can import it via Cricut apps and quickly cut paper or cardstock to your exact specifications. If you want to recreate the same design on several cards, you can also cut vinyl into a template to use again and again.

Stickers

To make your very own stickers, upload your sticker design to Cricut Design Space (the tool’s signature design app) and print away! Use your custom stickers to keep your daily planner organized, to reward your kids, or to jazz up any other craft project.

Create Digital Cricut Designs

Create Paper Cuttings on Your iPad in Procreate + Digital, Hand Cut, and Cricut Machine Cutting

Take the Class

T-Shirts

For an easy DIY t-shirt, print your design onto an iron-on transfer with your Cricut, then grab your trusty iron and transfer away!

Another option for custom designs with your Cricut: sublimation printing. While you can’t exactly use a Cricut for this technique, you can use your Cricut to neatly and precisely cut sublimation paper. From there, use the template you’ve created to make your t-shirt!

Bookmarks

Making a bookmark with the help of a Cricut requires a similar technique to making a greeting card. Print paper cutouts to apply to a piece of cardstock using glue or print a vinyl stencil, which you can use to create your bookmark design with paint or marker.

Water Bottles

There’s no need to spend a lot of money on custom water bottles to distribute at your next party or family vacation. With your Cricut, you can print white stickers (or stickers of any color) in any design that you’d like to stick to inexpensive bottles. Voilà!

Tote Bags

Much like t-shirts, tote bags can be customized using iron-on transfers cut using Cricut. Make a special tote design to celebrate an upcoming trip or to advertise your brand.

Earrings

Because you can use a Cricut to cut so many materials, there’s actually a lot of potential for making jewelry, especially earrings. Choose vinyl, wood, or textured felt, depending on your intended design (and your Cricut’s abilities).

Keychains

The best way to make personalized keychains with your Cricut is to print your designs on sticker paper, then apply them to clear or white plastic disks which can be attached to keyrings. You can find all of these supplies at a craft store or online.

Time to Cricut!

Now that you’re feeling inspired to get your hands on a new machine, go ahead and learn about how to use Cricut and jump right in. You’re about to have limitless possibilities for customization. Once you start, it’s hard to stop.

Discover Online Classes in Cricut

Stickers, greeting cards, jewelry, and more.

Start for Free!

Written By