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Etsy Cricut Hacks That Didn’t Come With Your Manual

Updated on March 1st, 2023
Etsy-Circut-print

I’ve owned a Cricut Explore One for over four years. And before that, I even worked with one of those ancient ones with the cartridges. Vintage, right?

But in all that time I haven’t bought a single specialized tool that they offer. Do you really need those scraper weeders? I doubt it. Here are some tools that I use around my house instead.

etsy cricut hacks infographic

Clean up with a credit card

Do you have millions of little particles stuck to your mat after an intricate cut? All you need to do is pull out your wallet and I promise I’m not actually going to ask you to spend any money. Anything from a gift card to your credit card will help clean up your cutting mat in no time.

I simply scrape the mat from a gentle angle to ensure I’m not damaging the adhesive on those expensive things. All my paper scraps come free pretty easily.

But They Sell Those Less Sticky Mats

And that’s great. I honestly think the regular green mats are a bit too sticky as they come. I will dab these too-sticky mats against my pant leg until they are more (less sticky) to my liking. There’s nothing worse than not being able to get your project off the mat without it tearing into pieces.

On a side note.

You aren’t peeling your project off the mat, right? You should be peeling the mat off your project. After your cut, lay your mat sticky side down on the table and slowly peel the mat off your cut pieces. This ensures that they won’t curl up or rip. Here’s a sweet little YouTube tutorial.

Don’t Use Specialized Tweezers and Weeders

Open up your medicine cabinet or makeup bag and grab your tweezers. I swear it works just the same.

Run Out Of Transfer Tape? Do this

This one is a journey into the garage. For small projects, I’ve found that painter’s tape works as a nice substitute for the transfer tape that comes with your vinyl roll. The downside is that it’s not clear, so you have to be savvy about lining things up straight when you go to place the design on your surface.

Save on Expensive Cricut Pens

I haven’t tried it myself, but I swear I get sucked in every time my Cricut pen dries out. Out there on the internet, even on Etsy, are shops that sell adapters for your Cricut that will fit Sharpie markers. In the long run, this is a method that could save you a lot of cash once you get the hang of it. These markers obviously come in a larger variety of colors too. If you are one who uses the pen option often, this could be a serious money and time-saving hack.

Keep a Lint-Roller Handy

This one is a personal favorite lazy-hack because you can tear off the lint sheet and drop it directly into the garbage can when you’re done. It’s another great way to get all those little pieces off your sticky mat and it’s way more efficient than collecting them in your hand and rushing to the trash.

After you’ve removed your design, all you need to do is glide the lint roller across your mat.

Do you have a favorite Cricut hack that didn’t make our list? Drop a comment below!

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