Review: Getting crafty with Cricut Explore
Do you remember I recently attended an exciting crafty event to learn about the new Cricut Explore? I am sure you do. I was so happy when a week or two later I was lucky enough to have received my very own Cricut Explore* along with a Cricut ToolKit* and some Cricut materials*. One of my New Years Resolutions for 2014 was to get more crafty and having had the Explore in my home for only a few weeks I have found myself thinking about making something creative almost every day!
I wanted to share my experience with the Cricut Explore so far with you. At the blogger event we were lucky enough to watch an unboxing of the Explore, and so when it came to opening my own box I knew what I was going to get but still loved it! Will minimal fuss I was able to unpack the cables, the Cricut machine in it’s lovely tote bag and get it set up on my table to start my first project.
The first project was this rather cute Thank You card, which shows off some of the great techniques the Cricut Explore can help us crafters with including cutting and writing! Using Cricut Design Space I simply chose the project and clicked ‘make it now’.
I was guided by the design software (find designs here or upload your own svg cuts like this mermaid svg) to set up the black card on the sticky mat which holds the card in place and loaded it into the machine. I then placed the rather lovely silver pen into it’s slot in the machine and pressed go! The Cricut Explore whirled into life and right before my eyes started both cutting and writing at the same time. It was almost hypnotising watching it work! Check out this video of the Cricut at work cutting some Duck Tape:
When the cutting and writing was done I removed the mat from the machine and folded it into a recognisable card shape before slotting the lovely greeny turquoise card rectangle into the little triangle cuts made by the explore which fills in the gaps created by the cutting and had a lovely effect.
The whole process was amazingly quick and simple, but effective, having produced a lovely card that I would be happy to give to anyone. Since making the card I have gone on to make some other things using some Duck Tape including some colourful butterflies which I have stuck on the inside of my machine!
I really love the Cricut Explore and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a bit of creativity in their lives but not wanting the hassle of cutting their materials. I have become super inspired and look forward to making more and more projects with my Explore – so watch out for more crafty features!
I award the Cricut Explore 5 out of 5 for making being creative simple and sparking my inspiration back to life!
