I love crafting so much that I made personalised gifts with Cricut for my colleagues for our company retreat

I have a confession to make: I’m somewhat of a craft connoisseur.

To avoid sounding like I’m full of myself, I’d like to clarify that this means that I enjoy making crafts, even though I might not be the best at it.

My love for crafting has prompted me to sign up for several craft workshops over the years, ranging from tufting workshops and embroidery workshops to ring making workshops and string light wiregraphy workshops.

Cricut

Given my love for experimenting with and making new things, it was only obvious that I was the most suitable candidate for this Cricut article.

The task at hand?

To create personalised crafts using Cricut’s extensive range of products and materials:

For the uninitiated, Cricut is a company that makes and sells smart-cutting machines that are simple and easy to use.

You can personalise almost anything with Cricut, from unique apparel to cards, everyday items, and more.

Cricut also has a library in their Design Space app with over 500,000 images and 1,000 ready-to-make project designs to choose from so you can turn all your crafty ideas into I-did-its.

The crafting process

As our company retreat was coming up in the last week of September, I took this opportunity to create some personalised gifts for my retreat group members.

There were a total of 10 of us in the group, and I decided to make each of them a card and pouch, as well as a tote bag for my group leader.

Using the Cricut Maker 3 Smart Cutting Machine, Cricut Joy Insert Cards and designs I had found on the Design Space app, I made these five cards with vinyl decals:

@cricut_sg Customise your gift bags and make them special with Cricut Vinyls! #cricut #cricutjoy #gifts #customised #tiktoksg #Singapore #bag #vinyls #diy #diyprojects #smallbusiness #fyp #leadgeneration #layering #technique #guide ♬ Da Girls (Girls Mix) [feat. Lola Brooke & Lady London] - Ciara & Lola Brooke & Lady London

I then made another five cards using the Cricut Joy machine, Cricut cutaway cards and designs I had again found on the Design Space app:

@cricut_sg Make a card for a friend with cricut joy, your DIY best friend! #cricutsg #cricutmade #learnwithtiktok #tiktokmademebuyit #tiktokshopping ♬ original sound - Cricut Singapore

While the process of making the cards was pretty intuitive, making the iron-on pouches and tote bag was a bit more complex.

For starters, it required an additional step of using an EasyPress Mini to iron on the alphabets onto the pouches, as well as the Mothership blimp onto the tote bag.

Thankfully, the EasyPress Mini has consistent heating compared to a regular iron, and I could refer to Cricut’s heat guide for the appropriate heat setting to use.

I also had the assistance of my trusty colleague Michelle, which made the whole process a lot faster and smoother.

The end products

At the end of it all, I was pretty pleased with the crafts I made (which only took me a few hours to complete from start to finish).

At the retreat, my group members loved the stuff I made for them, as evidenced by their gleeful smiles after receiving their gifts:

Afterthoughts

Although the sheer range of products Cricut has may seem daunting at first, everything else quickly falls into place once you get past the hurdle of setting up the different Cricut machines and navigating the Design Space app.

If you’re new to crafting, I would recommend trying out Cricut’s machines with one other person so there is an extra pair of hands to help.

Users of the Design Space app can consider getting Cricut Access, which will give you unlimited use of over 500,000 images, more than 700 fonts, as well as plenty ready-to-make projects.

You can also visit Cricut learn for tutorial videos or check out the Cricut Club Singapore & Malaysia Facebook Group (which has around 8,400 community members) to connect with like-minded crafters and share project inspirations.

If you want to see how the machines work in person, you can catch Cricut Ambassadors at Harvey Norman, Spotlight or POPULAR retail stores around Singapore for demos.

The schedule for these demos are shared in the Cricut Club Facebook group.

Besides this, Cricut has a Cricut Contributing Artist Programme where artists can earn money from their artwork.

Click here to find out more.

11.11 flash sales

Cricut will be having an 11.11 sale from Nov. 11 to 13 on Lazada and Shopee so that you can buy the perfect gift for the upcoming Christmas season.

Customers can expect the following promotions:

1. Cricut Joy Gift Bundle: S$295 (41 per cent off, U.P. S$499)
2. Cricut Maker 3 + Smart Supplies Bundle: S$655 (18 per cent off, U.P. S$799)
3. EasyPress Mini: S$85 (39 per cent off, U.P. S$139)

Cricut will also provide a free cricut workshop for people who purchase a machine during 11.11, so this is the best time to get yours.

This sponsored article by Cricut allowed this writer to get in touch with her craftier side.

Top images by Melanie Lim