The Cricut Joy Xtra Turned Our Spare Bedroom Into a Craft Corner

The spare bedroom in our house in Tulsa had one job before March: holding things we did not know where to put. There was a six foot folding table against the wall, a wire shelf, and a window that got good light in the afternoon. I had never cut vinyl. I was 58, retired from the school office, and the closest I had come to a craft machine was watching Bev make a small name decal for her water bottle at church. In March I brought home the Cricut Joy Xtra, a roll of vinyl, a weeding set and transfer tape, all in one order. That is how the room became a craft corner.

I want to be plain about what I am not. I am not a business. I make small decals for friends and a few things for church. A few projects a month is my speed. The Cricut Joy Xtra is the first cutter I have ever owned, and I am still learning it eight months in.

The machine itself is small. The listing says 6 inches deep, 12.5 inches wide and 5.5 inches high, and 6 pounds. On my table it takes up the left end and leaves room for the laptop in the middle and a pressing mat on the right. That matters in a spare bedroom. A bigger machine would have pushed everything else off the table.

The first cut was a small black Glen decal for my husband's toolbox. I used a straight pin from my sewing box to weed it because I did not know any better. The G tore. I cut it again, opened the weeding set, and used the hook. The hook worked. That decal is still on Glen's toolbox, and the pin is back in the sewing box.

Design Space felt confusing for the first week. I run it on my laptop. By May I was comfortable. I have never used Print Then Cut and I do not own an inkjet printer, so I cannot tell you about that side of the machine. I can tell you about vinyl, iron-on, and one try with cardstock in April that had rough edges. I did not try cardstock again.

The machine works with 50 plus materials according to Cricut, including vinyl, iron-on, cardstock and stickers. I have only cut three: permanent vinyl, iron-on, and the one cardstock try. The free content library has 3,000 plus images and 100 plus fonts, and the larger Design Space library has 1.5 million images. I use a small handful of those. A simple name or a row of letters is usually enough for what I make.

The first cut tore because I used a sewing pin. The hook from the weeding set fixed it, and that little decal is still on Glen's toolbox eight months later.

The machine has one real limit for me: it is narrow. I turned down a request for a large church banner because it would not fit. That was the right call. If you want to make big signs, this is not the tool. If you want decals, shirt fronts, labels and small signs, it is enough. I trim the vinyl roll with scissors first because the roll is wider than the mat I use. I have not tried to force it.

I keep the Cricut Joy Xtra at the left end of the table and the tiptopcarbon tools standing in a mug beside it. The wire shelf holds the vinyl rolls upright in a plastic bin and the heat press on top. I added the heat press in June. I do not move the cutter. It stayed home when I took finished work to one fall craft fair at church in October.

I weed under a desk lamp with my reading glasses on. A couple of evenings a month is all I do. The machine handles the cut once I pick the material in Design Space. I have never changed or adjusted the blade. I have not needed to.

The projects have been small. A name decal here, a few labels there, a row of letters for church. I have made mailbox numbers for Ruth and lettering for the church office door. Those were small jobs. The table is still a folding table. The room is still a spare bedroom. The difference is that now there is a reason to walk in and turn on the lamp.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

I would tell you to measure the space before you measure the vinyl. The Cricut Joy Xtra is 12.5 inches wide and 6 pounds, and it needs a clear end of a table more than it needs a whole room. I would tell you to buy the weeding set with the machine. The pin in my sewing box cost me one torn letter on the first night, and the hook fixed it. I would tell you that Design Space takes a week to stop feeling strange. And I would tell you not to buy it for big signs. It is a small machine. It does small work well.