How to use a Cricut for the First Time + Best Beginner Projects | The DIY Mommy

have you recently got a cricut machine and have  no clue where to start i'm here to help you today hey everyone it's christina from mummy dot com  i'm obsessed with all things cricut it's a craft   cutting machine and you might have seen  a lot of my diy and decor ideas using the   cricut in previous videos i want to thank  qriket for sponsoring this video today i am   so excited to share with you exactly how to set up  your cricut right from the box and three projects   that i think are perfect for beginner cricut  users i'm going to go through everything step   by step and hopefully by the end of this video  you'll feel confident to open up your cricut   get it all set up and going and make some  beautiful products let's get started a qriket   is a craft cutting machine that cuts a variety  of materials like vinyl like paper and iron-on   heat transfer i do have a video all about a cricut  and what it does i will link it in the description   box below if you want to learn more i am unboxing  a cricut explore air 2 which is the machine that i   most recommend to people however if you want to  learn about all of the three different machines   qriket currently has on the market click  in the description box below for this video   which talks about all of the different  machines and which one might be best for you   inside the box you're going to find the machine  you're going to find a mat some cords a pen and   more in this packet here there is a guide on  how to get started it's quite simple open up the   guide and you're going to see the first little  page here tells you to plug your machine in so   go ahead and plug it in using the little input  at the back and also make sure there's a lot of   space in the front and the back of your cricut  the next page tells you to go to cricut.com   setup just a quick note you can download qriket's  mobile app and you can set up your machine from   there i use the mobile app a lot when i want  to create something really quickly on the go   so go to cricut.com setup you're going to find  this screen and then you can download a program   called cricut design space once you have that  program downloaded and installed on your computer   simply follow the prompts to set up your new  machine i'm clicking the cricut explore air 2.   i plugged it in and now i'm going to go ahead  and connect it to my computer you can connect   your machine to your computer using the included  cord in the box or you can connect it by bluetooth connecting it by bluetooth is really  going to depend on your type of computer   i will leave a couple of options for that  in the description box below you can set   up a qriket id account i set mine up with my  email address and i'm registering my machine once your machine is registered it's all ready to  go now cricut discs provide a few test cut images   but i'm going to show you some really easy  projects to get started with your cricut   here are my five tips for choosing a beginner  friendly cricut project tip number one is   choose a one color design it's going to be so much  easier to make number two use a design space image   three and or use a design space font four choose  a blank that has nice smooth straight surfaces   and finally number five choose a simple  design we're going to start by making this   really cute mug and this is the exact  same method i used to make labels as well [Music]   so in cricut design space click on this  little button in the top right hand side   called new project then you're going  to click on the image icon on the left   and cricut has a whole bunch of images in  design space there are some that are free   and there are some that you can pay a little  bit of money for or you can subscribe to cricut   access which is a monthly fee and it's going to  give you a whole lot of images to choose from   i found this free image i just searched create  and i'm just inserting it to my new project   i thought it was so pretty and i  love this font that they have in here   i'm going to go ahead and click that left button  that says templates and i'm going to search for   a mug template this is going to help me make my  little mug decal or decal if you live anywhere   other than alberta canada we say decal here it's  gonna help me make this decal the right size i'm clicking on my image you can use a  little arrow in the lower right hand side to   resize the image or you can go up here and change  the width and the height to whatever you'd like   it to be i'm just double checking that this  design is going to fit the mug that i found   i found this beautiful mug at the dollar store and i'm just moving it along on my template to  make sure that it looks exactly how i want it to once i'm ready i'm going to turn my  cricut on and put it in the right spot the cricut is going to come  with the blade already inserted for this project i'm using cricut's premium vinyl  this is permanent vinyl and it's definitely the   one that i recommend using for mugs or labels  in qriket design space now you're going to click   make it and you're going to see how the  design is going to look cut on your vinyl   then click continue and you can select your  cricut device in this little drop down menu now you're going to want to put your material  on the cricut mat remove that protective   clear sheet on the mat and then  attach your material to the mat   the sticky mat is what keeps your material  in its place while you're cutting it you can also cut a smaller piece of material  like i'm doing here and put it on your mat   now turn your dial to the material type you're  using so i am using a vinyl so i'm turning my   dial to the vinyl setting then you put your mat  inside the machine and click the load button once   you're ready to go you just have to click that  little cricut button and it's going to begin   cutting your design you can see the progress of  your cut in a cricut design space and you can   watch it do its thing it is actually really fun  to watch once your cut is all finished it's going   to tell you you click that load button again to  unload your design now you're going to do what's   called weeding your design which is basically  removing all of the excess vinyl from your design   you can do this with your fingers or you can use  cricut's tools to help you get those little bits   and pieces the tools are extra you can find them  on the cricut website or you can just use whatever   tools you have on hand or your fingernails work  for this as well remove all of the excess around   the design plus all of the excess inside the  letters like the o's the a's the e's [Music] etc once you're all finished your design is going  to look like this it's going to have the backing   behind it and all of the vinyl letters ready to  go now you're going to use what's called transfer   tape and this is what's going to transfer your  design perfectly onto your mug it's going to   keep all of your words in the right spot and all  of those tiny little parts of your design in the   right place cut a piece of transfer tape that's  the same size as your design and then you can   smooth it onto the design with a cricut tool like  this or also just using your hand now take your   mug and you can wipe it with a degreasing cleaner  to make sure it's really clean and ready to go then you take the decal that you made  and remove it from the transfer tape   i like to place it upside down and  remove the backing just like this   then carefully place your design on the mug making  sure not to touch that sticky back of the vinyl   and smooth it in place really well you want  it to stick really nicely to your mug [Music]   then finally you're going to carefully  remove the transfer tape from the corner   just like i'm doing here and your mug is all  finished this is one of my favorite first time   projects to make everybody loves a mug and  it's really simple especially if you use the   design space images like i'm doing here these  mugs are hand wash or i've had success washing   them in the top rack of my dishwasher as well now  we're going to make a t-shirt and we're going to   use some heat transfer vinyl for this project  which is slightly different than using vinyl   we're also going to make a design ourselves using  a system font so using a system font or a font   from cricut is a lot easier than trying to import  something yourself but you could do that later on   i'm using ariel and i'm just clicking on that text  tool on the left hand side and writing let's get   started which is a phrase that i always use at  the beginning of all of my videos you can resize   it using the arrows on the bottom right here or  again you can use those top measurements up here   i'm going to make my nine inches wide which is  about as much as i want it to be on my t-shirt you can also use these little  line height tools and these   widths between letter tools  up here in design space   to move your letters closer together or your lines  closer together to make a nice custom look you   can also go as far as to do the advanced thing and  you can divide all of the letters up and move them   around like this we're not going to do that with  this image because i actually like it how it is [Music]   now we're going to take that whole  image and what i like to do is   weld it so it's all one piece there's no more  individual letters this whole thing is an image now click make it and then you see how it's going  to look on the mat for heat transfer vinyl you   have to click this mirror button because you're  basically cutting this on the material upside down   but don't worry cricut design space does tell  you this when you send it to your machine   it's going to have a little reminder  that asks you to mirror your design   and you just have to click  this little mirror button here i'm using heat transfer vinyl in black from  cricut i'm putting it the shiny side down   on my cricut mat then you load it up to your  machine and press start and the cricut machine   will do the rest once everything's finished remove  your heat transfer vinyl from the cricut mat   you can cut off any excess there are tons of  projects you can do with little bits of vinyl   so definitely keep all of the little bits that  you can and then again we're going to go ahead   and weed all of the excess vinyl the same way  that we weeded the vinyl for our first project now that our design is all weeded and ready to go   take a t-shirt and you can fold it in half and use  an iron or cricut's easy press either one works   make a little crease in the middle so you  know where to put your design and place your   design in the middle of your t-shirt i'm  using cricut's heat mat to do this as well   then take a qriket easy press and you can check  out qriket's easy press heat settings online   to see exactly how hot you have to make your easy  press and how long you hold it on your design to   transfer it once the design is cool carefully  remove that backing for the perfect transfer   now you can use a household iron for this  as i mentioned but the easy press definitely   does the best job from my experience it has  exactly the right heat setting so that the   vinyl is going to stay really well on your t-shirt  or bag or pillow or wherever you're transferring it now let's do one final project  that's perfect for beginners   in qriket design space they have a ton of ready  to make projects you just go to the main screen   and you can search for projects  we're going to make this smile card   which requires some card stock and the fine  point pen which comes right in the cricut box   i just want to show you how this works i'm going  to go into this design you don't have to do this   but i want to show you when i detach this design  and i click on the smile area and the kite   you can see up here in the operations panel that  we're on the pen and you can change that to cut if   you want and then when i click on this box here  you can see that this is basic cut that can be   changed as well so you can see which parts are for  the pen and which parts are for your blade to cut   now i'm going to make this project  and click the continue button   i'm going to select my cricut  device which is my explore air 2.   i'm going to make sure that my little wheel is  on card stock and i'm going to insert my pen in   the left hand side of my cricut you have to open  up the lid and really push that in until it snaps and then on the right hand side i still  have my blade here so we're going to be   able to do these two functions one right after  the other so my material is set to cardstock   it tells me which tools i have to  make sure are loaded into my cricut   and then i press the load button and  when it's ready i press the start button   now this is really fun to watch i love watching my  cricut use the pen to do drawing so it's starting   with a drawing first and then it by itself is  switching to the cut blade and doing the cuts now so as long as you've identified which lines are  cut and which lines are draw in design space the   cricut is going to go ahead and do them one right  after the other for you then you can remove your   design from the cricut mat if you have to  gently push out any of the design you can   if you're finding that your blade isn't cutting  all the way through you can play a little bit with   that wheel on the right hand side and just move  it clockwise once to give it a little bit more   pressure you also might have to change your  blade if you're finding it's not cutting well   and you can buy extra blades at cricut.com  or you can buy them at a craft store as well   now we're going to fold the card in half and place  a little card insert inside you can buy these   separately or you can just cut them out yourself  from extra cardstock now this is a really cute   and simple way to make a card and i love how we're  using the pen feature and the cut feature as well [Music]   thank you so much for watching this video today  i hope you found this setup tutorial and these   project ideas helpful if you're a new qriket  user or even if you're more experienced i hope   you enjoyed these projects let me know down in  the comments below which one was your favorite   i'd also love to know if you currently have  a cricut or if you're considering getting one   thanks again to cricut for sponsoring this video  and if you liked it please give it a thumbs up   subscribe to my channel for more diy  and decor ideas on a budget i'm going   to leave some more videos that i hope  you'll enjoy watching next right up here just a quick note you can download Cricut's  mobile app and you can set up your machine   from there i use the mobile app a lot when i  want to create something really quickly on the go

Channel: The DIY Mommy

Views: 1,818,690

Keywords: The DIY Mommy, DIY, cricut for beginners, cricut for beginners explore air 2, cricut for beginners shirts, cricut for beginners t shirt, cricut for beginners tutorial, cricut for beginners vinyl, cricut for beginners what do i need, cricut crafts for beginners, cricut explore air 2 tutorials for beginners, cricut, cricut explore air 2, cricut tutorial, cricut unboxing, how to cricut, how to use cricut, how to use cricut explore air 2, cricut crafts, cricut design space

Id: Yhyd6oldR_c

Length: 16min 30sec (990 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 13 2021