Cricut Expression Cutting Machine: My First Cricut Project

by Summer Diva

Cricut Expression Cutting Machine: My First Cricut Project

My Daughter & I
Surfing the internet one day for crafting products, one that really caught my eye was the Cricut Expression Machine.  I mentioned it to my daughter and she told me that she usually buys her party invitations, banners and other assorted items from a neighbor who has a Cricut machine.  I always wondered where she found such cute party supplies!  So, I told her I would buy the machine and together we could make our own party supplies, scrapbooks, etc.  She has baby number three on the way, and I have 4 other grandchildren.  This was a no-brainer for me.

What It Came With
The Cricut Cutting Machine came with 3 DVDs: two project DVDs and a basic How-to DVD.  It also came with a large cutting mat (they call it a tacky mat), 2 cartridges with hundreds of images, and other stuff you need.  Lisa decided to buy the Once Upon A Princess cartridge, since she will soon have three little girls.  
Lisa and I opened the cutting machine, watched the how-to video and one of the project videos.  We put in the Princess cartridge and placed the overlay on the keyboard.  Next we loaded up some simple printer paper to practice on and pressed “Load Paper” button.  So far, so good.

Our First Project
With a birthday party coming up for our 5 year old princess, we decided to cut out some crowns to see how precise it would cut.  We adjusted the Cricut’s speed for slower cutting, recommended for thinner papers.  We chose our image and image size then selected the auto fill option.  After double and triple checking to be sure we have everything set, we hit the Start button.

The crowns came out perfectly!  We just had to keep trying different images.  I’ve already started on new photo albums for the grandchildren to give everyone at Christmas.  Lisa is cutting out shapes and letters for her scrapbooks.  So many shapes, so little time.