The Explore 3 can cut over 100 different materials from felt, to foil, to leather and light chipboard. If you do get those mats you’ll be greatly expanding the cutting capabilities of your Cricut, too. But it’s something to be aware of if you want to make greeting cards, paper banners or some of these undeniably awesome 3D cardboard figures. They’re not prohibitively expensive most people should be able to get by with the 12x12 variety pack, which includes light, standard and strong grip mats that cost $41. If you want to cut regular cardstock, paper or fabric you’ll still need to get mats, which come in four different levels of grippiness. There’s paper and cardstock sticker options, permanent or temporary vinyl decals, and iron-on. The one shortcoming is that all the Smart Materials are adhesive in some form. That’s great if you want to create room-covering decals. But it also allows the latest Cricut machines to cut up to 12 feet of material in a single shot, whereas previous versions topped out at 24-inches with a mat.
One, it just means there’s fewer variables and less than can go wrong. See, part of the pitch for the latest Cricut machines is their compatibility with “Smart Materials,” which you’re able to load without using the special mat normally required to hold things in place for cutting. But even if you get a bundle, you’ll still probably need to snag some extra stuff if you want to venture beyond stickers, decals and iron-ons. The Cricut Explore 3 comes with a fine point blade, other tools such as the scoring stylus and foil transfer tool are sold separately, or as part of a bundle with the Cricut starting at $350 (which, if you’re in the market for one as a newcomer I’d highly recommend). The bigger issue is, you end up needing a lot of stuff. But as long as you don’t try to rush through without reading directions it’s relatively easy to figure out. The more intense projects that call for multiple materials and multiple cuts to be assembled after the fact can feel a little daunting at first.
I only discovered after I cut the pieces for the cardstock fox I tried to build that it had "tips for assembly" as opposed to detailed instructions.)
#CRICUT SESAME STREET FONT PDF#
And for really involved designs, like the 3D cardboard masks, you’ll find a PDF with assembly instructions. It walks you through each step as you load a pen to draw on white cardstock, then cut the shape out, before having you swap in a different color card stock and the scoring tool.
And that’s even true for relatively complex ones that require multiple cutting tools, markers and several different materials. The instructions in the app for predesigned projects are thorough and clear. But before I could cut it out using the Cricut I had to select and remove the background, otherwise it’d have just cut out a square. For instance, I downloaded a Superman silhouette for my son to color in (he wanted to make his own superhero stickers). The latter is pretty simple so long as you stick to line drawings, but it does require occasional cleanup work.
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