Making Christmas Gifts with the Cricut Joy – AD

This guide contains items I have been gifted for inclusion but all opinions are my own

Most of you won’t know but I am a crafter at heart. Pre kids I had the spare room set up with a desk and a tonne of storage for all my paper craft supplies, scrapbook albums and beads for jewellery making. Since Elian arrived though I had to give up my little crafty room to become, first his nursery, and now his bedroom. Most of my craft supplies have been packed into storage in our attic and its just as well because I soon realised I didn’t really have much time to craft. But when Christmas comes around I know it’s my opportunity to get my craft on and create some cards and gifts for friends and family.

Year before last I decided to treat myself and I bought a Cricut Explore and a heat press to allow myself to make Elian and Effie some cute t-shirt. I loved being creative again, and I enjoyed the ease of using the Cricut software. The machine is just so versatile and allows for a huge amount of creative freedom.

Cricut Joy

This last few weeks I have been testing out the Cricut Joy and their innovative mat free smart vinyls…what a game changer! I always found aligning the vinyl on the sticky mat and removing it carefully a bit tedious if I’m honest, so this new mat free version is genius! It really is idiot proof and makes it so simple to cut detailed shapes, letters and all manner of designs.

I was surprised at just how dinky the Cricut Joy is. Its smaller than a toaster and weighs just 3.9lbs!  Meaning it is perfect if you like to craft but lack the space to store bulkier items. The Cricut Explore is pretty large so can be difficult to store and lug around if you need to move it room to room. I even have a little carry case for my Cricut Joy so it is super portable and I can take it with me if I need to use it elsewhere. It may be small but it can cut 20+ materials and has pen abilities (which is something I still have yet to test out). Plus it can cut different shapes for up to 4ft and a continuous cut for up to 20ft using a vinyl roll.

Setting up the Cricut Joy

Setting up your Cricut Joy honestly couldn’t be easier. Plug it in and let it power up. Download the app either on your phone or tablet, and create an account, it only takes a few minutes. Then you simply follow the steps to pair your machine with your account on your app, you just need your bluetooth turned on and it took about 30 seconds. 

As it was the first time using the machine it suggested I trial cutting a design on the included vinyl sheet. I chose the flower pattern and hit make. Then you simply slide the vinyl sheet into the front the machine, it activates the rollers and locks the sheet in place, then the cutting sequence starts and 3 minutes later you have an intricately cut flower ready to be peeled off and attached to anything you want. There are loads of other Cricut Joy ideas available on the design space you could test out too.

Making Christmas Gifts with the Cricut Joy

So I had quite a few gift ideas in mind when I received the machine, and Pinterest is of course bursting with different Cricut Joy ideas if you need some inspiration. The Cricut website also has loads of different product ideas and the Cricut design space is totally packed with 1000’s of complete design projects for all manner of items, and loads of Cricut Joy ideas to get you started

I decided to make Elian’s teacher a book box as a Christmas gift. She is a really lovely teacher and has really inspired him to enjoy reading, which was the thing I struggled with the most during home schooling when we were in lockdown. I had seen a few ideas on Pinterest with a personalised part at the front and a Dr Seuss quote on the sides. All fairly simple to design and cut as it was just text, but it would be the first time for me to try transferring adhesive vinyl as I’ve only worked with Iron-On up to now. 

I purchased the crate on Amazon, a simple plain wood in a big enough size to easily fit kids books in. I designed what I wanted cut in the design space using the fonts available, then measured the front section to work out how big I wanted the text and sized it correctly. Chose which vinyl I wanted to use and fed it into the Cricut Joy and hit make. The Cricut did its magic and cut out all the parts I needed. Once it was all cut, i weeded it using the Cricut tools and used the transfer material to lift the design off the backing paper, positioned it on the crate and rubbed it all over to transfer it where I wanted it. I repeated the process on all the different sections until it was complete…and I am so happy with how it turned out. I really hope she will love it.

I’ve also made up some note books and tote bags for Christmas gifts using the same method as above, and I have loads of other Cricut Joy ideas I cant wait to have a go at over the coming weeks.

In conclusion 

The whole process from start to finish is super simple and easy to do even if you are a complete novice to cutting machines or crafting. The Cricut Joy is the perfect starting machine if you fancy giving vinyl cut crafts a go. 

Its small size makes it practical and easy to store, but does mean you are a bit limited on the size of design you want to cut.  

The mat free vinyl is amazing, honestly that is my favourite thing about the Cricut Joy as I am used to the sticky mat of my larger machine, but i think this makes projects so much easier and quicker.

I love my new machine and can see it fast becoming my fav craft item. Its so easy to get out quickly and set up as its so small, and will be perfect for small every day projects and personalised bits for the family. I already have a list of things I want to make for the house….starting with all new labels for my spice and stock cube jars. 

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