Monday, August 28, 2017

Cricut Maker….. First Impressions

I just bought a Cricut Maker and want to share some of my initial impressions with you. I am mostly a paper crafter, but want to try cutting fabric, felt and wood. I thought the Cricut Maker would be perfect for me.


This card is a Make it Now project and was cut on my new Cricut Maker.

I used paper for my first project so I could compare the Maker to my Anna Griffin Cricut Explore Air when doing intricate cuts. I also have the Cricut Explore Air hooked up to a computer in my family room and the Cricut Maker connected to my laptop in my craft room. That way, I can compare cuts from both machines. I plan to keep both machines until I am more comfortable with the Maker.

The first thing I noticed was no dial. And when I went to cut paper, I discovered there is no setting for regular card stock, even in the custom material settings. I shared my discovery with Cricut’s help desk.

In the custom material settings, medium cardstock has a pressure of 273 and light cardstock has a pressure of 279. In my opinion, medium cardstock should have a heavier pressure than light. I also shared this potential error with Cricut. Their team is amazing and they are so kind.


I also compared my Cricut Explore Air default dial settings to the new Maker settings just to get an idea of what pressures I used to use for cutting light, medium and regular cardstock. After numerous tries, I found that for most of my cardstock, I need to use the medium cardstock setting on the Cricut Maker. However, if my paper was slightly heavier, I set the pressure default to “more” and if my paper was lighter, I set the default to “less”. This card was cut using Recollections paper and set on medium card stock.

Cricut said their cardstock should be cut on medium setting. In the material settings, you will see a Cricut logo by the settings for some of the Cricut materials and papers.

I am still experimenting with the pressure setting for regular cardstock and made a custom setting for a single cut with a pressure of 299. The regular cardstock default setting on the Cricut Explore Air dial is set to a single cut and pressure set to 299. The 299 pressure seemed to work well on the Maker too. My Maker now cuts Anna Griffin cardstock perfectly using my custom setting of a single cut with a pressure of 299.

Thanks to Cricut and their wonderful instructions, setting up my new machine was very easy. I love the new software and I am so excited to be able to right-click again! At this point, I am very impressed with the Cricut Maker.

I just ordered the fabric pen and felt, and can’t wait to try a felt project. I am beyond excited for the knife and new blades to come out. The Maker is solidly built and a very stunning machine. It is now front and center in my craft room.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the new Maker! I am still learning and would love to share any tips and techniques that you have discovered.

Have a great day!

3 comments:

Crafting Katie said...

So glad to hear that you are liking it! The HSN release might just time nicely when things start to settle down at school for me!

Linda Kaiser said...

Sounds like a great idea! I was going to wait,but too impatient.

Donna said...

Thanks for the info Linda. I will so need all your insight to the use of the Maker when I purchase mine.

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