Cricut 101 Resources

My Cricut Community Profile

Cricut Design Space (browser)
Cricut Help
Cricut's YouTube channel

Follow Cricut on Social Media (see bottom of Cricut's main page)

Also, sign up for Cricut's email! While most of the daily emails are about their current promotions, you also get Teach Me Tuesday video links, and Free Cut Friday's for new inspirations for the following week (or current month).

Cricut Access (subscription info)

NOTE: New Cricut members get two free weeks of Cricut Access. You can also get your first month free when you sign up for a monthly subscription (depending upon the offer).
Is it worth it? If you want to use someone else's designs that are already set up for you, yes. If you want to use your own designs that you are uploading, maybe or maybe not. If you want to make text-inclusive designs and edit them from multiple platforms, probably.

Cricut Maker, Cricut Joy, or Cricut Explore Air 2?

Are you a quilter, a wood worker, or a worker in heavier cardstocks? Do you want to try etching, foiling, or debossing? If so, the Maker with its extensible tools will give you the options to do these crafts.

Do you need to work with long, thin borders? Is your crafting mostly small projects, 4" x 6" cards, and baby onesies? Do you need a smaller, lighter machine that doesn't take up a lot of space and is easy to travel with? Then the Cricut Joy might be a good choice. 

If you're just looking for a cutting tool to do simple cards and iron-ons, or if your money is tight, the Cricut Explore Air 2 will do the job.

What's the deal with cartridges?

Older Cricuts, which didn't use Design Space, used cartridges to store designs and fonts. You couldn't upload your own designs, and you needed to buy a library of cartridges. With Cricut Access, you have access to over 100,000 images and thousands of fonts... or you can buy digital versions of cartridges as you need them.

What if I already have a bunch of cartridges?

If you already have cartridges and you have an Explore series Cricut, you can insert your physical cartridge in the cartridge slot and register it with Cricut. Once you do that, the cartridge's images will be transferred to your Cricut account and you won't need to use the physical cartridge again. If you have a Maker, you may be able to purchase an adapter that you can use to register your cartridges to transfer them to digital versions on your Cricut account.