At thisLearn about Everything You Need to Know About Cricut Joy — Cricut’s newest cutting machine! And learn how to make Card Game Labels using its new Matless cutting feature and Smart Vinyl!
Just in case you missed it, the other day I announced the release of Cricut’s newest machine:
THE ALL-NEW CRICUT JOY – a portable cutting machine that can be easily moved from room to room and ran from any smart device! This small, but mighty machine is a compact cutting machine that is perfect for beginner crafters, a companion machine to those that are already Cricut users or for crafters that don’t have a dedicated crafting space.
I was lucky enough to get to travel for Salt Lake City to be introduced to this new cutting machine back in January! I’ve been busy playing with it the last month and am so happy that I can finally tell you guys all about it and share Everything You Need to Know About Cricut Joy!
If you’re wanting a more synopsis approach to all of Cricut Joy’s features, check out this post for 10 Things You Want to Know About Cricut Joy! Otherwise, stick around and I’m going to share all about it, as well as a fun and quick organization project – Card Game Labels!
Before I get into the fun card game organization and labels, I do want to share some more information on Cricut Joy!
WHAT’S CRICUT JOY?
Cricut Joy is the perfect quick and easy tool for labeling, decorating, creating shirts, handmade cards and more! If you’re already a Cricut user, Cricut Joy is the perfect companion machine to your Cricut Maker or Explore Air 2. If you’re new to Cricut, this is a great machine to learn on that will not overwhelm you.
Although Cricut Joy is less than half the size and may not have all the features of the Explore Air 2 and the Maker, it does have some capabilities that those machines don’t have! Today I am going to share those features with you, along with sharing how to make these simple and fun Card Game Labels using Cricut Joy and the all-new Smart Vinyl! Today, I’ll be sharing everything you need to know about this new, innovative, compact cutting machine!
WHAT CAN CRICUT JOY CUT?
Cricut Joy has the ability to cut vinyl, iron-on, cardstock, sticker paper, labels and more! Cricut Joy can cut all the same materials that the Cricut Explore Air 2 can!
One of the major features of Cricut Joy, that the Cricut Explore Air 2 and Maker cannot do, is matless cutting! Cricut has released an entire line of Smart materials that you can load directly into Cricut Joy without the use of a mat! Keep in mind, regular Vinyl, Iron On and Cardstock can still be cut with Cricut Joy. You’ll just need to cut the materials down to fit on the Cricut Joy mats.
Here’s a list of products that can be cut with Cricut Joy:
Cricut Joy Smart Materials:
Smart Vinyl – offered in Permanent and Removable giving you the options you need for all your projects! The rolls come in 4′ to 20′ rolls (20′ rolls come only in certain colors0. At the launch of Cricut Joy, they’ll have over 70 options.
Smart Iron-On – offered in Everyday, Holographic, Glitter, and Patterened. With over 45 options of Iron On, your creativity will have no boundaries! At launch, they’ll offer 12″ sheets to 24″ rolls.
Smart Label Writable Vinyl – offered in a 48″ roll. Just load it into your Cricut Joy without a mat and have it write and cut labels for all your organizational needs!
Smart Label Writable Paper – comes in a 5.5″ x 12″ sheet in the Kraft brown color. Just write, cut, peel and stick to organize all the things.
Materials that Require a Mat:
Cricut Joy Insert Card Sets – Just slide your card into the Cricut Joy Card Mat and customize them in minutes!
Infusible Ink – Cricut offers Infusible Ink ready to fit right on a Cricut Joy Mat or you can cut down the larger Infusible Ink to fit on the Cricut Joy Mat.
Adhesive Backed Deluxe Paper – perfect for papercrafts! Cut words, images, and shapes and then just peel and stick!
Vinyl — you can cut all of Cricut’s other vinyl options on Cricut Joy too. Any material that’s not a Smart Material will just need to be cut down to fit on a Cricut Joy Mat!
Iron On – whether it’s Everyday Iron, Glitter, Holographic, Patterened, they’ll all work on Cricut Joy. They’ll just need to be cut down to fit on a Cricut Joy Mat.
Cardstock + More – as a simple rule, if it can be cut with a fine-point blade and sized down to fit on a Cricut Joy Mat, then it can be cut on Cricut Joy!
WHAT SIZE MATERIALS CAN CRICUT JOY CUT?
With Cricut Joy, you can make cuts up to 4.5″ and up to 20′ long! This largely extended cut length opens the doors to crafting even easier for cut files that have repeated shapes or words! You now can cut large files all in one cut versus having to load several mats of cutting material into your machine one after the other. Now adding a border to a wall, DIY wallpaper to a room, cutting a pantry full of labels, making customized sports jersey and making large signs is going to be much quicker!
CAN CRICUT JOY WRITE?
Yes! It totally can! This is a feature you’ll want to learn to use! Especially because it goes hand and hand with using the all-new Writeable Vinyl and Paper and Insert Card Sets!
Cricut Joy does have its own type of pen. Because of the compact size of Cricut Joy, they had to size everything down a little. So, the pens that fit in Cricut Joy are thinner than the pens that fit in other Cricut machines.
They also make Infusible Ink Markers that fit in Cricut Joy! So, you won’t be limited when creating with Infusible Ink and Cricut Joy!
HOW MUCH DOES CRICUT JOY COST?
Cricut Joy costs $179. Which for the capabilities of this small machine, is totally worth it!
WHERE CAN I BUY THE CRICUT JOY?
Starting on March 1, 2020, Cricut Joy can be purchased at all major craft stores and on Cricut.com.
- Cricut.com
- Amazon.com
- JoAnn Stores
- Michaels
- Hobby Lobby
- HSN
- and more!
If you want to dive deeper into each of Cricut Joy’s individual features and materials, I’ll be sharing information on how to use all of them over the next few weeks! I’ll come back and link them as I finish the posts!
- Matless Cutting with Cricut Joy
- Making Writeable Labels with Cricut Joy
- Cricut Joy Card Mat and Making Cards
- Adhesive Backed Paper Projects for the Cricut Joy
- and tons of projects!
Make sure to check out my vide of 10 Things You Want to Know About the Cricut Joy!
Today I am sharing one the first projects I tackled with Cricut Joy — organizing all our families card games!
If you’re shopping on Cricut.com for Cricut Joy or other machine accessories, use code OTBM10 to save 10% and get FREE shipping on all $50+ orders. That’s on top of the 10% discount Cricut Access members get automatically!
CARD GAME ORGANIZER
I can’t even tell you how excited I am about this project! Our card games get some pretty good use, so all the boxes were pretty beat up and falling apart! I had put them all in a few organizing containers, but I found that wasn’t the best system for the kids.
Then a few months ago, I saw on A Sweet Simple Mom Life’s Instagram she organized them using photo containers and I was sold. I just added some vinyl on them with the card games name!
Card Game Labels for the Cricut
Items Needed:
- Cricut Joy (works on Explore Air 2 and Maker too)
- Smart Vinyl (Perm or Removable)
- Transfer Tape
- Weeding Tool
- Scraper
- Self Healing Cutting Mat (optional)
- TrueControl Knife (optional)
- Photo Storage Container System
Instructions:
Open the Card Game Labels Design Space File.
At this time, amend the Design Space File with the names of your card games. Right now each label is currently ‘attached’ with both the words and the border. In order to edit them, you’ll need to unattach the layers. Do this by clicking on each label and then hitting ‘detach’ in the bottom right-hand corner. Go ahead and edit the game title. Then select the game title and the border that belongs to it and hit ‘attach’ again. Do this for each label. This ensures that when it’s time to cut, they cut just as they look on the screen and not as separate words and borders.
Once all the labels are amended and re-attached, hit ‘MAKE IT’ in the top right-hand corner.
A pop-up will require you to choose if you’re going to be cutting on a mat or using Smart Vinyl. Select the one that applies to you. I was using Smart Vinyl, so I chose ‘Without Mat.’
Review the mat preview on the left hand of the screen to make sure that everything looks good. Then choose ‘Continue’ in the bottom right-hand corner.
Then select your machine and material type.
Go ahead and load your Smart Vinyl into your Cricut Joy. It will then feed your vinyl all the way through the machine. Cricut Joy measures to make sure that you have enough vinyl to cut the entire design. Once it has stopped, hit ‘Go’ in the bottom right-hand corner.
Once the cut is complete, hit ‘Unload’ from your screen.
Next, weed all the excess vinyl from around your design using a weeding tool.
Quickly wipe down the tops of the containers down and allow them to dry fully.
I then cut my labels into workable lengths. I knew this would make applying transfer tape easier.
Apply the transfer tape and use the scraping tool to make sure it is applied well.
To save on vinyl, the designs cut close together. I used my TruControl Knife, Self-Healing Mat, and Ruler to cut the designs apart!
Remove the vinyl backing slowly, making sure all the design stays on the transfer tape.
*A trick I’ve used is if I am noticing the vinyl not transferring easy, I apply heat from a blow dryer for 5-10 seconds and re-scrape the design. Then the vinyl backing will pull off easily without removing any letters.
Eyeball the placement of your vinyl label to your container and place it down. Use your fingers and the scraping tool to press it down. Also, the blow dryer trick works for this part of the application too.
Remove the transfer tape slowly, making sure that all the letters and the border are sticking to your organization container well.
Repeat for each container and also to the top of the container holder! And you’re done!
I literally can’t tell you how excited I am about this project! I have a handful of friends that I’ve shown and everyone is wanting to have a fun craft night to make their own!
Easy Card Game Labels
Materials
- Cricut Joy (works on Explore Air 2 and Maker too)
- Cricut Joy Smart Vinyl (Perm or Removable)
- Cricut Joy Transfer Tape
- Weeding Tool
- Scraper
- Self Healing Cutting Mat (optional)
- TrueControl Knife (optional)
- Photo Storage Container System
Instructions
- Open the Card Game Labels Design Space File.At this time you'll need to amend the Design Space File with the names of your card games. Right now, each label is 'attached.' You'll need to click on each label 'detach' the layers, amend the game title, and then select the game title and border and hit 'attach' again. You'll need to do this for each label.Once all the labels are amended, hit 'MAKE IT' in the top right-hand corner.
- A pop-up will require you to choose if you're going to be cutting on a mat or using Smart Vinyl. Select the one that applies to you. I was using Smart Vinyl, so I chose 'Without Mat.'Review the mat preview on the left hand of the screen to make sure that everything looks good. Then choose 'Continue' in the bottom right-hand corner.
- Select your machine from the drop-down menu and also select your material type - I was using Permanent Vinyl.
- Go ahead and load your Smart Vinyl into your Cricut Joy. It will then feed your vinyl all the way through the machine. Cricut Joy measures to make sure that you have enough vinyl to cut the entire design. Once it has stopped, hit 'Go' in the bottom right-hand corner. It will then cut your entire design.
- After the cut is complete, hit 'Unload' from your screen.
- Next, carefully weed all the excess vinyl from around your design using a weeding tool. I then cut my labels into workable lengths. I knew this would make applying transfer tape easier.
- Quickly wipe down the tops of the containers and allow them to dry fully.
- Apply the transfer tape and use the scraping tool to make sure it is applied well. *A trick I've used is if I am noticing the vinyl not transferring easy, I apply heat from a blow dryer for 5-10 seconds and re-scrape the design. Then the vinyl backing will pull off easily without removing any letters.
- Because the labels were cut very close together, I chose to use my TruControl Knife, Self-Healing Mat, and Ruler to cut the designs apart into individual labels!Remove the vinyl backing slowly, making sure all the design stays on the transfer tape.
- Eyeball the placement of your vinyl label to your container and place it down. Use your fingers and the scraping tool to press it down. The blow dryer trick works for this part of the application too.
- Remove the transfer tape slowly, making sure that all the letters are sticking to your organization container well.
- Repeat for each container and also to the top of the container holder! And you're done!
Notes
If you’re shopping on Cricut.com for Cricut Joy or other machine accessories, use code OTBM10 to save 10% and get FREE shipping on all $50+ orders. That’s on top of the 10% discount Cricut Access members get automatically!
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