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DIY Using Cricut

What is Cricut Explore Air?

  • Cricut Explore Air is an electronic cutting machine for DIY projects and crafts.
  • It has the most precise cutting, writing, and scoring technology
  • It is able to cut, write and score 100+ different materials from paper to iron-on  to adhesive vinyl, even thick materials like leather and burlap
  • It comes with an online Design Space that is free, easy to learn and cloud based.
  • It is easy for anyone to master

What can you do with it?

  • Create your own home décor projects, like wall graphic and framed art
  • Design and create holiday cards, gift tags, etc.
  • Have fun with vinyl, design your own stickers
  • There are 50+ free projects and 100+ free images available online
  • It is free for you to upload and cut images
  • Offers over 300 custom-designed font families

Specifications

  • Cutting range using mats: from 0.25’’ to 23.5’’
  • Maximum materials thickness: up to 1mm for most materials, up to 2mm for less dense materials
  • Free images to upload: .jpg, .png, .bmp, .gif, .svg, .dxf files
  • Speed setting: automatically adjusts to image
  • Able to access your projects from any computer
  • Able to use system fonts on your computer
  • Requires 8 steps to cut & score and cut & write; requires 19 steps to cut a 5 layered image
  • Able to perform print then cut

How to use it?

Design Space

  • Go Cricut website: https://home.cricut.com/, click on Design on the top right corner
  • Login or create a new account with Cricut using your email address, this will bring you to the Home screen
  • From the Home screen, under My Project, you can get quick access to your latest projects; you can also browse featured projects from a variety of categories from this page
  • From the Home screen, select any project to learn more about it, or start a project from scratch by selecting New Project
  • Staring a new project brings you to the Canvas, where you lay out and edit your designs
  • The Edit Bar on the Canvas located on the top part of the screen, it places the most useful tools for editing images and text within easy reach
  • Select My Projects (top right corner of the screen) to access all your saved work
  • Click on the Projects (at the left side of the Canvas) to access project library and browse ready-to-make projects
  • You can also Upload (at the left side of the Canvas) image files
  • At the right side of the Canvas, you can modify the layer properties for each layer of your design, this is very similar to Adobe Photoshop
  • Click Make It on the Canvas when you’re ready to make your project

Cricut Explore Air Setup

  • Turn on the machine by pressing the button at the top right corner
  • For the Custom Personnalisable, based on the material that you are going to use, choose a material category
  • Take a green pad, remove the plastic cover, then place the top left corner of the paper right onto the top left corner of the grid
  • Open the machine by pressing the button on the left side
  • Place the pad in the center, then press the up-down arrow button to load the pad. Give it a little push on the pad to help loading
  • Once the pad is properly loaded, and you are ready to make your project, press the “C” button to start cutting
  • When the project is finished, press the up-down arrow button to unload the pad.