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Are You Scared of Your Cricut?

By Amanda Chittenden on January 16, 2020
Does Your Cricut Scare You? When I show someone something I've made, even someone who is admittedly crafty, and has a Cricut, I hear the same thing over and over. "Mine is still in the box." Is yours in the box? Is it sitting in a corner of a room, draped in clothes or magazines, […]

Does Your Cricut Scare You?

When I show someone something I've made, even someone who is admittedly crafty, and has a Cricut, I hear the same thing over and over.

"Mine is still in the box."

Is yours in the box?

Is it sitting in a corner of a room, draped in clothes or magazines, so you don't have to look at it?

Or worse, is it sitting on your craft table OUT of the box, taunting you? 

I GET IT. 

It's intimidating. 

It's machinery. 

Somewhere inside, there is a knife...

There are all sorts of reasons you can talk yourself out of getting started.

I am here to tell you, that you must just dive in.  I wanted my Cricut so very badly when I got it, and when I finally got it I looked at it skeptically and thought now that I have you, WHAT am I going to do with you? I was determined not to let it sit in the back of my closet with the sewing machine. Ahem. Pun intended.

The answer, my friends, is everything.  Plug it in.  Turn on the power button, and press the open button.  You know what happens?

IT OPENS!  Not only does it open, it has the nicest, smooth and slow open mechanism.  If it made a noise (which is doesn't), it would go swoosh.  It's become one of those tiny joys in my life.  Go into the craft room, open the Cricut, and watch it happily spring to life.  "What are we makin' today?"

When you plug it in, you have to go through some minor setup, but the Cricut website walks through those baby steps really really well.  Everyone on the website is happy all the time, in a way that would be irritating if they weren't so daggone helpful. 

BUT, when you are done, you are ready....and then you just need to face your demons, and a blank screen in Design Space.

It's ok.  You don't even have to come up with an idea on your own...that will happen later when you become friends.  Cricut has a tutorial when you first set it up, and it walks you through making a phone card (at least it was this project when I got my machine). 

When I finished that card, I WAS PROUD.  I felt empowered.  I tried a few of the pre-set projects in Design Space.  Admittedly, some were easier than others, and the place where I really struggled was with instructions.  Cricut was great at video tutorials for basic setup and tool use, etc.  But how do I know how to put together the baby elephant card once I have conquered cutting all of the pieces out.

That's where I come in, and other craft bloggers, and YouTubers.  The first thing I do is search for a YouTube video for a specific project if it looks complicated and there are surprisingly few of them...and also, Cricut is always coming up with new designs.  Once you do a few projects, you'll realize that a lot of the steps are the same.  And one day, you'll want to make something specific, like gnome placecards (coming soon to this blog), and you'll check Design Space for a project, and when you come up empty, you will say to yourself, I CAN DESIGN MY OWN.  And then, my friends, you have arrived.

So, my commitment to you is that I will show you construction when I put together a project.  I will show you how I change things to make them work, or make them work for me.  I will act as a resource, and hold your hand when I can.

But first, YOU HAVE TO OPEN THE BOX. 

Love,

Amanda

*My resources tab contains links to some of my favorite items, once you get the swing of things.  Many links are affiliate links, and if you make any purchases, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.  If you do make any purchases, thank you in advance for your support of this blog.  We will get through this together and do many things that make us happy. 🙂

Article written by Amanda Chittenden

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I’m Amanda, and I put the AMANDA in A MANDAtory Activity (and I like a good bad pun). I run a blog, A Mandatory Activity, focused on baking and crafting for gatherings and gifts.

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