I received a Cricut Explore Air 2 in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.
What is the ultimate gift for someone that is into crafts and DIY projects? Well the Cricut Explore Air 2 of course! I have been dying to try one of these beauties out and my holiday wish came true a few weeks ago when I had the opportunity to try the newest Cricut Machine!
The Cricut Explore Air 2™
This DIY speed machine is capable of cutting over 100 materials…That is right, this small but mighty machine can cut everything from cardstock, vinyl, and iron-on to thicker materials like leather. Best of all, the Cricut Air 2 is quick and precise delivering beautiful and quality projects in a matter of minutes.
Now I know that a machine like this can be a little intimidating…I know! But the realty is that the Cricut Explore Air 2 is a lot easier to use than I had anticipated! The Cricut helps you create amazing projects that go from custom t-shirts to cards, home décor, and many DIY project to match your needs.
The next level of DIY machine, the Cricut Explore Air 2 allows you to create your designs on the go using your laptop, iPad, iPhone and now Android!
The very first step is of course to connect your machine. For whatever reason I had problems setting up the design space which is what you use to create your designs, but to be fair, I really think the problem was the way my computer was set up, so a customer service representative took care of it for me!
The Design Space
Using the Design Space and the machine is really easy and there are TONS of tutorials to help you get your crafting on! The machine even has a preset first project that you can make from day one…I decided I was going to do something different and actually made a personalized T-Shirt as my first project.
Using the machine to do this quick project was really easy. Of course I messed up applying the iron on to the Tee, but I can’t blame Cricut for that…One thing I can tell you is that you need to be very careful if you decide to buy this machine, as it is highly addictive. I have found myself making all kinds of stuff. It is actually a lot of fun discovering all the Cricut Air 2 can do and I have already added several projects to my dashboard and have used the machine to make the Tee- Shirt shown on this post, as well as a personalized protective bag that I bought for my machine and even to help my daughter with school projects ( she loves the Cricut also) and made some headbands and personalized a bag for some of her friends.
How do you create a project?
It is actually very easy. First you need to launch the design space and then select a canvas…This is a super cool feature as Cricut has lots of different canvas you can work on to help you visualize your project and make the process even easier. Let’s say you are making a T-Shirt, then you select the T-Shirt canvas and start working on your project. You can even change the canvas color which helps you to see how the actual project is going to look like with the colors you are choosing…I Love it!
Once you have chosen your canvas, you can select an image from the design space (I highly recommend the subscription as it gives you access to thousands of images. You can download your own images and even add shapes and text (there are a lot of fonts to choose from in the library).
For my project I used an image from the design space library and added a text also. I wanted the whole thing to be one single cut, so I selected the image, and once I was happy with what I had done, I hit Cricut icon that says go on top of the Design Space board and that would take me to another screen. Simply follow the prompts and click on image mirror if you are working with an iron on.
The machine takes a really short time to cut the image and after your cut is done, all that is left to do, is get the image and fonts of the mat using the weeder tool and proceed to apply it onto the T-Shirt you are using for the project.
What is really great about this machine, besides all the already mentioned facts? You can connect through Wi-Fi, USB cable (included with your machine), or ready are you for this? Smart phone or tablet!
I am hooked on the Cricut Explore Air 2 machine and the many things I can create with it…The list of things that I can make with the Cricut grows every day and it is amazing the things I can actually make with this little machine and that includes writing addresses on envelops, creating labels… and yes, you can make this valentine’s day very special using your Cricut Explore Air 2 Machine…Fair Warning this machine and the projects are addictive!
I will be sharing some of the projects I create with the Cricut Explore Air 2, so be ready for a lot of fun DIY projects coming your way in the next few weeks!
Disclosure:
The product(s) provided for the review were sent to me free of charge from the company or the PR agency. I did not receive any compensation for this review. My opinions are my own and not by any means influenced by any other part. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.
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