Cricut machines are incredibly popular in the crafting world right now, but what are they and what can you do with them?
A Cricut is a cutting machine that can cut a wide variety of materials for your craft projects like paper, vinyl, HTV (heat transfer vinyl) and cardstock.
Some Cricut machines can even cut thin wood, leather, fabric and more. More and more crafters are using Cricut machines to make amazing projects for weddings, to personalise anything from water bottles to baby clothes, making home décor items.
There are various Cricut machines available, from the smaller Cricut Joy, which would be perfect for those new to craft or with less space in their craft room. There are also larger machines that cut more varied materials than the smaller Joy, the Explore is a great starter machine for designing and then the Cricut Maker is the ultimate in Cricut machines.
The main way that we have used the Cricut to help with our crystal embellishment has been to use permanent vinyl to create a template to glue the crystals onto, and because vinyl can be applied to almost every surface, it means we can add rhinestones to almost every surface – and who doesn’t want to do that!?
Mother’s Day roses
For Mother’s Day this year, Gill used her Cricut machine to cut out delicate rose petals and vinyl text, to make this gorgeous decorative artwork. She wanted to incorporate some rhinestones so used Gem Tac glue to attach some Zodiac clear diamante rhinestones to the edges of the petals. It brings an extra sparkly detail to an already intricate design.
Champagne bottle / glass
Champagne or wine is always a good gift, but why not elevate it by decorating it with the recipient’s name in vinyl? Then you can even add some rhinestones on top. Again, Gem Tac glue is great for sticking rhinestones to vinyl, we recommend Zodiac non hotfix crystals.
Re-useable drink bottle / coffee cup
Now that most of us own a re-useable water bottle or carry around our own coffee cup, the next thing is to personalise them. With a Cricut machine, you can choose any font, logo, shape or design to cut out and make it your own. We’ve added a touch of luxury to ours with some rhinestone embellishments in clear crystal.
A gift for the pet
As a nation of animal lovers, we can go a bit over the top when it comes to our pets. Birthday presents for your pet is standard, a doggy mince pie or kitty turkey treat even gracing the table at Christmas – but have you ever thought about making personalised decorations for the tree? Team member Gill, our Cricut expert, made her dog Max his very own crystallised bauble last year. A quick and simple way to use rhinestones in your cricut projects.
For more craft project ideas using rhinestones, check out these inspiring articles, or visit our blog: