Cricut Joy

A great product, takes abit of getting used to but it’s so handy to have! Perfect size for if you don’t have loads of desk space and want to do little projects!

brill little machine. in the starter bundle: you get the machine, matless silver vinyl tester (you can use to test, i just made use out of it as you can skip that), weeder tool, pen tool (to get the machine to draw instead of cut), a small cardstock blue tester sheet, small card mat, pack of greeting card inserts, small roll of transfer paper, a 5 pack of matless vinyl (in colours i would describe as peach, coral, seafoam, azure, mustard). the machine does a brilliant job in very quick time. i’m not super tech savvy but found it pretty easy to wrap my head around the mechanics. compact enough to easily store without having to clog up a desk. cons for me, are that: - matless vinyl is very difficult to get off the backing. the transfer tape doesn’t seem to really be strong enough to pull it off so it takes a lot of faff for me personally - it feels quite wasteful that there is so big of a border around the edges - i ordered a pack of vinyl (because you pretty much have to, unless you want to use only the aforementioned bright freebies) only to realise i also needed to order a new mat to make use of the full length of said vinyl sheet - i find it a bit confusing trying to work out exactly how much space i can use, because of said border around the cutting area - certain tools in the design app are frustrating. for example weld. when creating text that is cursive and overlaps, it naturally will cut over all lines (which in dark mode you’ll only see if you change the text to be non block) unless you weld. to weld you have to have selected multiple objects. annoying when you only want to print one thing! the vinyl senses fear. pull the transfer tape of without fear, and all will succeed.

Having gotten into crafting late in life I thought I'd take the plunge and get the Cricut joy, it's fantastic and straightforward to use and great for beginners. You can access Cricut design space where there are hundreds of thousands of projects to work on. I started with some mothers Day cards and a wedding invite. I'll be upgrading to the maker soon as it does more but this is the perfect start for anyone who wants to get into crafting, it comes with everything you need including some sample pieces of vinyl to use, and it's quick and easy to set up, can be used over Bluetooth and can use Cricut joy app and design space on both IOS and Android. one of the biggest things that attracted me to the joy is how small it is, it takes up little room .

I love this machine!! Its so neat and compact and looks super cute! But it really does what it says it does! Its quite easy to use. The software can look a bit scary at first (easy to download app) but once you have a play about it's easy enough to figure out (and theres also YouTube if you need more help/ideas). I've used the pen to write and I've also cut the cricut iron on vinyl. This machine cuts amazing! The lines are so crisp and look so professional! I couldn't believe how well my jumper turned out and this was literally my 1st time using it and playing about with it. (Ps. If cutting the vinyl you want to have the super shiny side facedown onto your machine) Such value for money!

Perfect for most vinyl and card projects. Can cut up to 12 feet continuously as long as the graphics are not more than 4.4” wide on designspace. I have been able to create A2 wedding signs this way. Very small and handy but the power cable pin is really thin and therefore vulnerable to damage. This will always be my go-to machine as it is sooo easy to take out and use

First time using one of these machines. I love it. Great for beginners and very easy to get used to.

present for my daughter, she loved it

I had wanted a Cricut for years but didn’t really have the room (or the time) for one. When the Cricut Joy came out I knew I had to have it. It was still a bit pricey (as are the materials you use for it) but when I saw it on Amazon with £40 off the usual price I snapped it up. It doesn’t come with instructions, very odd, and most of the YouTube videos and Facebook groups are very American. This means that when you are looking for images, sayings etc to print there are some that don’t mean anything to Brits. Lots on Thanksgiving for example. However you can write your own and the Facebook groups are very friendly and helpful plus there are lots of people giving tutorials. I enjoy lots of different crafts and having the Cricut will enhance my crafting experience. I can’t believe how much this little machine can do!