Craft your own gifts

Many of you will be familiar with Cricut crafting machines. The range of available accessories allows you to personalise gifts for friends and family. Metropol’s gadget guy Ian Knott checks out three of them.

Back in February this year I reviewed the Cricut Maker 3, the precise card, paper and vinyl cutting machine that can not only turn you into a master craftsperson, but also bring in an income if you’re prepared to put a little time and effort in.

Whether you own a Cricut Maker 3, Explore 3 or the smaller Joy machine, what you can do will depend on the materials, and accessories you have.

One of the most rewarding Cricut experiences is heat pressing vinyl on to T-shirts, or custom designs on bags and cushions etc.

To achieve this you need an EasyPress, which heats to a precise temperature (controlled by an app) so as not to burn the specialised iron-on vinyl or your garment. While it may seem daunting at first, following a YouTube tutorial makes even multi-layer, multi-colour transfers a fool-proof experience.

With Christmas on the horizon, making your own Christmas cards adds that personalised touch to the occasion. The new Cricut Card Mat 2×2 allows you to craft four cards simultaneously, even if they are different designs, saving heaps of time over doing them one-by-one. You’ll have your whole Christmas card list ticked off in no time.

When your Cricut has cut a more intricate design into some material, picking (or as crafters call it – ‘weeding’) out the little unwanted bits can be tricky. The brand new BrightPad Go is a handy, rechargeable backlight that helps highlight the finer details, so weeding and tracing patterns becomes a whole lot easier.

Crafting with Cricut is extremely addictive, so if you’re even a little creative, then it’s worth exploring some of the easy-to-use accessories that can take your gift giving to the next level.