1. Cricut Cartridge Hack

I missed the original Cricut insanity a few years back when the original model debuted. My friends went NUTS for it, raving about what a great addition it was to their crafty tool supply. On Black Friday, I watched as shoppers knocked each other down trying to pick up sale-priced cartridges.

But no Cricut craziness for me. As different models debuted, I still passed for no real reason. Even when the self-propelled Cuttlebug debuted, I wasn’t interested.

My fiance desperately wanted to buy the fondant-slicing Cricut Cake, but I passed. And then there was the. The Cricut Mini is a smaller, scaled-down version of the fancier models offered today.

At $129, and frequently on sale through Cricut’s website or major craft stores, the price is easier to stomach compared to that of the Cricut Expression. Curious, I reached out to Cricut and asked to review their newest cutter. Taking it out of the box, Cricut Mini measures about 15.5″ long and around 7″ wide. It’s very light and easy to pick up – there’s no handle. There also aren’t a lot of frills upon first inspection. You have the power button, the load button, and the plastic cover to open and close. Inside, there’s room to add a Cricut cartridge.

Unlike other larger Cricut models, there’s no digital display or a keyboard. The Cricut Mini comes with access to the. It took me two tries and a reboot on my computer (a 2008 MacBook) to finally get the software to load and for my machine to recognize the new hardware. However, once that was set, the machine was ready to use. Cricut’s website claims it takes just minutes to start a project from the box to your craft table, and that’s fairly accurate.

The Cricut Craft Room gives you access to about 400 images to work with before having to purchase additional images or cartridges. I wasn’t aware of this at first glance, so I immediately started adding all of the Martha Stewart Cricut Cake images (shocking coming from a Martha fan, right?) to my first project. It wasn’t until I hit “cut” that I was told I needed the missing cartridge. Once that was figured out, I stuck to basic letters and shapes to start on some Halloween garland. Cricut Mini comes with a starter pack of paper, one mat with cover, and a pre-made project for you to enhance.

The set-up instructions also walk you through making a thank-you card for the first time. The Cricut Mini cutting mat I received measures 8×12.” I’ve made a lot of cuts so far and the mat is definitely not as sticky when it first started, of course, and shows a lot of wear. Curious about how the Mini would work with cartridges, I purchased a to experiment with. No problem having the cartridge recognized with the machine or the outcome. I also experimented with different types of paper. I tried some of and trimmed the paper to size. Worked well without any problems.

Overall, I really enjoyed the Cricut Mini. I picked up some tool sets and have my eyes on some other cartridges to experiment with. The smaller size is also helpful with storage here in my craft room. Should you get one? If you’re new to Cricut and curious to try it out, absolutely. For veteran Cricut users, reviews I’m reading seem to find many of them missing some of the enhanced functionality the bigger machines provide.

Cricut Cartridge Hack

But if you’re looking to take your paper crafting up a notch, the Cricut Mini will get the job done. If you’ve tried Cricut Mini, make sure to share your thoughts here. Disclaimer: The Cricut Mini was sent to me at no cost for review purposes.

Update: wow, bummer. Turns out ProvoCraft (the makers of the Cricut) 'Make the Cut' and 'Sure Cuts A Lot' so that they can no longer sell their products to work with the Cricut.

Here are some competing products which can be used with Make the Cut software though I have not tried these products specifically, they look like they do about the same thing / I just discovered that the cricut machine can be used to cut arbitrary shapes without having to purchase preloaded cartridges. This revelation came to me from another instructable: to whom I am grateful! A search turns up these other instructables with similar information using different software:, and. Step 1: Materials. 1 craft cutting machine. I'm using a Cricut, but because of the, you should probably use a different craft cutter, like the brands mentioned on the first page.

Windows computer. I'm using Windows Vista home edition. (Please no flack from the anti-windows peanut gallery. Yes Linux is cool and so is Mac. Let's all try to get along).

$59.00 Windows only. This is what I'll be using for this instructable. There is a trial version that also works, but creates a big diagonal slash cut through the finished artwork. There is a competing program called ' that works on MacIntosh, though I have not tried it. There may be other competitors as well. (Not included with the cricut.) USB serial driver which comes with the free trial download of Cricut. You'll need to download this in order to get the appropriate USB driver to make this work.

I'm not sure if the driver can be distributed separately. A free vector drawing program that lets you work with SVG (scaled vector graphic) files. You can also use Adobe Illustrator or other programs that can export SVG format. Update: Actually the 'Make the Cut' software has it's own vector drawing ability which you can access through the File-Import-Pixel Trace which actually works even better than Inkscape. Cardstock or bristol board. Step 2: Connect the Cricut to Your Computer. Connect the cricut to your computer using the USB cable. Windows will popup a window telling you that it will try to install drivers for the device.

Let it do that. It actually tries to install two drivers, in my case. The first driver is a USB to Serial converter which Windows can find for itself. The second driver comes from the Cricut Design Studio trial which you will need to tell windows about specifically. You'll also have to use the Cricut Design Studio trial to update the firmware on your cutting machine.

Step 3: Update the Cricut Firmware. All this information is available on line and is highly subject to change, the way that software usually is. Download and install the Cricut 'Design Studio' trial You'll need to download and install the free trial of Cricut Design Studio. This will allow you to do a firmware update and provides the USB driver you'll need in order to control the cricut with your computer.

Reboot and guide windows to the Cricut USB driver Reboot your computer and windows will ask again about the driver it couldn't find. Direct it to the install directory for the cricut trial: C: Program Files (x86) Cricut Software Cricut DesignStudio It should find the driver in there. Update the Cricut firmware This is all documented, but generally.

Power down the cricut but leave it connected to your computer via the usb cable. Launch Cricut Design Studio.

Go to the Help menu and select 'Update Cricut Firmware'. Follow the instructions: Hold the Stop button on the cricut down with one finger, then press its power button while continuing to hold down the Stop button for 5 seconds. A loud beep should resound indicating that cricut is ready to receive a firmware update Select your cricut version and press 'Begin Updating Firmware'. Let that finish uninterrupted. It takes a while, maybe about 10 minutes. Step 4: Convert Your Art to SVG.

Scan in your own drawing or find one online. Update: Actually 'Make the Cut' has it's own vector drawing ability which you can access through File-Import-Pixel Trace which works even better than Inkscape. Load it into Inkscape. Select it and choose Path-Trace Bitmap For this example, I selected 'Brightness cutoff' and used the default settings (0.45). On the Options tab, I played around with the 'Optimize Paths' values.

Setting it to 0.20 seemed to work for this particular image. Press update. This should create a little outline preview. If nothing happens, make sure you have the drawing selected. For me it would get unselected every time I pressed Update. Press Okay, and you'll see the resulting vectorization applied to your image.

If you don't like it, press Undo, adjust the settings and try again. (Be sure the drawing is selected). Close the Trace Bitmap dialog box and drag the vector art aside so you can select your original artwork and delete it, leaving just the vector drawing. If you like it, save it. File-Save As. Give it a name and be sure to type out the '.svg' extension to the name explicitly. Step 5: Prepare Some Cardstock for the Cutter.

The mat that comes with the cricut has a tacky substance on it. Be careful not to drop it on the floor, it will get coated with whatevers on the floor, like cat hair, for instance. Lay a sheet of cardstock or bristol board on the mat and line it up as shown in the photo. The cutter will cut your design starting from the right edge, so line the edge of the paper up over there.

For this particular sheet of bristol board, I adjusted the knife dial to the '2' setting. At the '1' setting, it did little more than score the cardstock. Line up the mat alongside the plastic guide and press the 'load paper' button. Be sure to leave space behind and in front of the machine for the mat to slide back and forth as the cutter is working.

Step 6: Load the SVG Artwork Into MakeTheCut. You have written a wonderful Instructable. It is disgusting that ProvoCraft has responded to people who WOULD have been a powerful sales force by extending their giant middle finger. I bought the machine planning to use it to create model railroad buildings and scenery from card stock, a use which was completely possible until ProvoCraft sued the third party software creators and locked down the Cricut machine so that customers cannot cut out their own original artwork.

This is one of the sleaziest acts of corporate arrogance I have ever seen. I hope that some lawyer out there is working up a class action that drives them not only into bankruptcy, but also eternal despair. A very easy next project, having got to this stage, is to use your cutter to etch glass. Cut a shape (eg someone's name) out of contact paper vinyl (much cheaper in big rolls from Walmart than the stuff that's sold custom for Cricut, and for many projects it works just as well) and then keep the hole (as in the image above) rather than the cut-out letters. Attach this to something like a 1 pint beer mug (must be a smooth cylinder, and not have lumpy bits!) as a mask, and paint the glass that's exposed with a special glass etchant available from Hobby Lobby, Michaels etc. In about 6 minutes hose it down with the garden hose and remove the vinyl - you have a nicely etched beer mug with someone's name on it, ready for a Christmas present!

Fast and cheap, and looks great! (WARNING: The etchant is based on hydroflouric acid and must be handled with adult care.).