Connect To The Cricut Craft Room Design Tool

how to use Cricut Craft Room

I received my first die-cut machine, the Cricut Personal, a few years ago. It only cut up to 5 inches in height. Although I couldn't make rather large cuts I could make beautiful cards and other projects that required a die-cut. Earlier this year I had to make the difficult decision of choosing to jump ship from Cricut and join the Silhouette bandwagon or stick with Cricut. That is when Cricut unveiled their new Cricut Mini Personal Electronic Cutter at CHA. And with the Circut Mini came the first ever free design program for Cricut called Cricut Craft Room.

How To Use Cricut Craft Room

I got the Cricut Mini for my birthday. At the time the major craft stores were selling it for $100! I was super excited. I got it out of the box, started playing with it and found it not connecting to my computer, etc. See, in the past Cricut firmware was never compatible with Mac's. So, the frustrated me, decided to put away the mini for a while. I finally picked it back up earlier this month and I've been hooked. Cricut has since done major updates to the firmware and thus making it super Mac friendly! So today, I'm going to introduce you to Cricut Craft Room and how easy it is to design and cut something in just a few easy steps!

cricut craft room

First up, download the Cricut Craft Room software to your computer. Create a Cricut.com account if you don't already have one. Once your software is installed you sign in and get ready to start designing! It took me a while to figure out how to link my cartridges. I found this great tutorial from The Cricut Craft Room Blog about linking cartridges. Note, you don't have to link your cartridges if you don't want too. Since this is now my primary machine. I wanted to link my cartridges so that I could access them anywhere any time. Yes, I just said that correct. You can log into Cricut Craft Room anywhere by signing in using your Cricut.com username and password and design! Obviously, you can't cut if the machine isn't connected to your computer, but you can design!

cricut craft room

Now that Cricut Craft Room is installed and your all setup it is time to design. Cricut Craft Room comes with a font & basic shape cartridge as well as a bunch of mini projects and symbol cartridges that are offered for a limited time. Every day I feel like there are new free cartridges available to use. I used the Cricut Font and Basic Shapes font for my cut-out this project. You can move your words all around the mat!

cricut machine and mat size

You can also choose a variety of machine and mat sizes. If you have multiple machines–no worries here! I love being able to see exactly where the item is going to be cut-out. This ensures I don't waste an entire piece of paper and/or vinyl!

cricut craft room

Once your ready to cut–click on the cut button. I've been finding recently that I have to click on the folder and then re-click on the file to cut my project. Before you go to cut you get a screen that prompts you to confirm your settings. I love this new feature! You can pick 5 options from the drop down menu in step 1 (Custom, Heavy Card-stock, Medium Card-stock, Light Card-stock, and Vinyl). You adjust your speed and the number of times you would like to cut this item on your screen and then adjust the depth of the blade and the pressure on your physical machine. Click the "cut" button and watch your Cricut go to work!

{How to use} Cricut Craft Room If you use a Cricut and have been afraid to make the leap over to Cricut Craft Room I hope I helped ease your fears! Do you use Cricut Craft Room? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this new-ish program!

Disclaimer: There are affiliate links in this post. I was not compensated by ProvoCraft to write this post. When I wrote this post ProvoCraft did not know who I was–fast forward one year later from when this tutorial was published and I now work with them on occassion. Still–all opinions are my own.