Cricut Mini Review - Iron on Vinyl

Just before Christmas I was lucky enough to receive the Cricut mini for review. I have coveted these for a long time as there is just so much you can do with these. I’m talking just cards either! I have a whole Pinterest board which I regular update of things I wish to use mine for. They range from quilts (yes it cuts fabric!) to wall stickers to wreaths and labels. If you want something designing and cutting then it’s the device for you.

So here’s the technical bit for you:

 This is one of the smallest personal cutting machines on the market. It is approx. 41cm long, 18.5cm wide and 9.4cm high (16.1" x 7.3" x 3.69") and weighs in at 2.38kg (5.25lbs).

 It can cut lots of different materials such as cardstock, vinyl, vellum, fabric, chipboard (probably thin chipboard, I would guess). So far I've only used it with vinyl and paper but I will be using it in the next couple of weeks to cut fabric & felt. The cutting range is 0.635cm to 29.21cm (¼" to 11 ½") and the cutting mat is 21.59cm x 30.48cm (8.5" x 12").

 

It works with free software – The cricut craft room which is fabulous! The software is incredibly simple. Very much sit down, design and cut. I love this about it. You don’t need to technically minded, my mum managed without even glancing at the book or step by step instructions.

I decided to try for my first attempt a T-shirt for my dad. It’s a family joke that he’s a grumpy grandpa (nicknamed by all the grandchildren as Tatters) First off was to decide which font to use. I love the arrange of cartridges, while you can create your own design there is a huge fountain of designs and fonts which can be used to design pretty much anything you wanted, and chose a nice font. First time, perhaps once having cut, I should have chosen a text less fiddly but I adored it and think the missing middles of the p, b and a,s will be easier next time!

The design was easy and fun to create but the bit I had bit nervous about came up. The actually cutting…. BOY was it easy! I opened the vinyl, followed the step by step ie flip the image, place vinyl on mat, turn cricut on, ensure settings are correct (incredibly basic & easy to change) cut! Truly it was the simple!

I’ve read a couple of review where people have said the cutting nicked or it wasn’t deep enough. I can only presume they didn’t check the settings. There’s plenty of jpgs around online and heres one below incase you aren’t buying the product direct from cricut (they put the settings inside) So far I haven’t had an single issue with the cuttings. They were clean and the mat is in perfect condition.  The other bad review I’d heard was they were noisy. I can only presume it was balancing on a something metal wobbly because you can hardly hear the thing!

The result!  I loved it. It was far far simpler than I actually thought possible. The huge range of cartridges (Which are free to browse) mean you don’t need to worry about designing but if you want to create something even more unique there’s plenty there to get you started. I’m now off to start designing my quilt, cushions and even some clothes! I know fabulous hey?!