My wife loves this thing and for that reason so did I. Seeing the pure joy in her eyes was rivaled only by things like our wedding day and our children's births. As time has gone by though I'm beginning to suspect that she loves it more than she loves me. She spends all her time with it and when she's not using it she's talking about it. She's taken to snuggling it in bed and when I came home from work the other day it was sitting in my chair at the dinner table. My children call it Daddy. I was getting tired of it and tried to confront it but my dog started snarling at me. It's too late for me but you've been warned: this machine is a homewrecker.

First of all, the poor reviews where people complain about having to purchase software is misleading. You DO NOT have to purchase software to use this machine. Cricut Design Space comes with the product and you can purchase monthly access to more images but it is not required. You can purchase individual images/fonts/etc if you choose but you can also find plenty of free files online or create your own by uploading images. Now onto my review. I LOVE this machine and have absolutely no regrets. I've made cards, banners, a shirt with iron on vinyl, wall art... The possibilities are truly endless! The machine cuts so quickly and precisely--it's a work of art just watching it in action. I have been wanting a Cricut for YEARS and I am SO HAPPY I finally bought it.

I've been wanting this machine for so long but couldn't justify the price. Also I was super intimidated about spending all that money and not being able to figure out how to use it. Well I got it on sale on Prime Day, which was awesome. And it was super easy to use! The internet has so many helpful hints but is is truly so user friendly. Can't stop crafting!

So far I love it! There are some pluses and downsides. On the plus side, because I'm prime member it came rather quickly and free shipping! I've been cutting away since I got it last week. The downside is the limitation on free access to Cricut Access for the Design Space. I got the machine on 3/30 and have Access until 4/17. The feature of one year subscription apparently doesn't apply across the board. It depends on which item you select on Amazon that day. So read carefully. If it's not mentioned in exactly what you purchase, it will be brief, if at all. And it looks like it is very limited in the "free" images and fonts. That being said, I love the tutorials you can find all over the internet. I watch them over and over. If you are afraid of icons, (and there are plenty), the tutorials will be a great saver of frustration. I had an Expressions Cricut before. To me there is no comparison; the Explore Air 2 beats the Expression hands down! It is easier to use, there are more sources for help, although there are many icons, they are very organized in what each does. So, the learning curve isn't that bad. I'm back to scrap-booking and there isn't a page I made that hasn't come from my Cricut Explore Air 2. In four days I've made 4 pages and 2 cards. It is so much easier and fun with the Design Space and the images from Access. I was anxious to get this and got a really good deal. Be patient, the $ changes every day! I spent my savings on supplies I've been using with my Cricut Explore Air 2 since I got it. I have more coming in. I agree with others, the extra money isn't worth what you get in a "packet". If you price it out, and are patient, you can get some really good buys of supplies you "intend" to use or try out, instead of what you may or may not use in a packet. I'm so excited, even still, as ideas keep coming to me on what I can try to do next!

If you have any interest in arts and crafts, this is the machine for you! I've only had my machine for a few short days, but I've already made my first few projects and know that I'll be making them with very little in the way of training. The first project is laid out with simple online instructions and took only a few minutes to complete. Once you see how easy it is to make that project, you'll be amazed at just how impressive the results can be. More importantly, you'll be given a tour of the entire process, from setting up the machine to installing the software with easy instructions and with video's directly from YouTube. There is absolutely nothing difficult about taking this machine out and beginning to use it for whatever crafting projects you have in mind. I myself got the bug from having spent a few days watching a friend working from his shop where he creates all sorts of items that this machine creates with ease, from vinyl signs, Decals made from vinyl or Sticker paper, custom business cards or Birthday cards, anything you can come up with in a print shop can be made from your own home and at a fraction of the price of one made in a professional shop. Honestly, this machine can replace your needs for any local shop, unless the dimensions are your main concern, and even in most of those cases, you can still make your own vinyl signs and decals, you'll simply have to limit the size to the available dimensions of the machine, or you'll need to paste together larger pieces on your own. This simply means that instead of having a two foot tall logo that's ten foot long, you would need to make one foot tall segments that can be two foot long each, and simply line them up to create your own sign. Most shops that advertise with vinyl signs don't use letters larger than one square foot anyway, so you'd just be making each square as an individual letter and then line them up yourself, instead of stretching one long strip to make your sign. The work isn't significantly different, so why pay multiples of the price of this machine for one sign, when you can buy the machine and make all the signs you want from that point forward? Then when you consider that this machine can work in tons of different materials, ranging from paper to vinyl, leather to copper, there really aren't many limits to what you can make with this machine. With a little time and some minimal effort, you'll be making arts and crafts projects that you can give to your friends and family, and sell at any yard sale or flea market within days of arriving at your house. The best part of all is that this machine is tiny. It's footprint is so small that I have mine setup on a tiny table that was no longer needed in my living room. I simply placed a towel over the table to prevent it from being scratched, and I was set. I'm just now learning how to make more creative designs like custom boxes and bows, but with no time I'll be making those with ease. My only advice is that if you decide to buy one of these amazing machines, make sure you get everything you'll need to explore your own creativity. Make sure to buy all the add-ons, things like the deep cut blade, the paper crafting tools, the basic crafting tools and the scoring stylus and a set of the color pens for your own messages. From there, buy some quality paper card stock, Oracal 651 vinyl in all the best colors for simple designs or for more intricate designs, making sure to buy all the popular colors such as your primary colors, but also metallic colors such as gold or chrome, get lots of black and white as you'll be using those the most, and without fail, but transfer tape, lots of transfer tape, because having yard after yard of vinyl will do you no good if you can't actually place it on something, so transfer tape is equally important to your needs. Buy more transfer tape/paper than vinyl, because you'll almost always need transfer tape that hangs over the edges of your vinyl cutouts so that you can layer different colors or have the vinyl decal hold in place so that you can align it to whatever your placing it on. Buy a good exacto blade knife, your going to be using it constantly if you decide vinyl crafting is for you. I'd recommend you purchase a good cutting device, whether that be a guillotine style cutter or rotary cutter, make sure you buy one large enough for your vinyl or paper needs, so it will need to be at least one foot wide and long enough to cut lengths of a foot accurately. Some of those cutters don't come with a space long enough to cut squares of one foot so make sure you chose one with either an extension that will let you measure one square foot, or you'll be guessing beyond the length of the cutting device itself, or you'll need to mark the vinyl somehow and that will end up just eating up your time. From that point, you can decide if you need specialty materials, things like faux leather, copper foil that's normally found in rolls but also comes in sheets for use with the scoring tool to make beautiful embossed pieces, heat transfer vinyl that comes in several glittery colors or regular colors for making iron on designs that can go on everything from pants or shirts, to caps or other clothing items. They offer magnetic sheets that you can use to make magnetic business cards or decals, printable sticker paper, heat transfer jewels (bedazzle style gemstones), or any other material you wouldn't imagine needing but will find out once you've installed the software on your pc or phone, and are able to browse the online design shop. Whether your just an everyday tinkerer that needs something to fill your time, or you want to create your own small business out of your living room, this machine is well worth your time and money! Best of all, you don't have to take my word for it, just go on YouTube and research Cricut projects and you'll get a sampling of exactly what you'll be able to make with this amazing machine!

I hesitated buying the Cricut for so long. I read a lot of reviews from disappointed people saying it was hard to use and that the Cricut Design Space (where you create your projects to be cut) was hard to use and expensive. Well, I haven’t felt the need to purchase anything from the design space because it’s so easy to download a free font on to your computer! There are so many free fonts on “Dafont.com” if you’ve never downloaded a font before, just watch a YouTube video and you’ll be a pro in minutes! I’m so happy with my purchase. I shouldn’t have waited so long to buy one

The bad reviews on this product are just ridiculous you do not need the cricut design space subscription to use your cricut you can just do some YouTube research and know all you need to know.. Also Cricut has a App for your phone so you only need your cell service to use this cutter this is an amazing product

The media could not be loaded. Great product, but the real expense come down the road with all the added mats and products you want to use it for. Cutting process for custom work can be slow, but for standard items, it works great. We have used it to cut leather, paper, and card stock so far. Works great

So far so good! I've had this a few days and the directions to get it up and running are very easy. So far, I've just cut a bunch of images with cardstock and some vinyl to get used to it, but it seems to be working very well. For the reviews that say that you have to pay a monthly fee to use it, that's simply not true. The software is free and you can use it on a computer, tablet, or phone. The subscription is only if you want unlimited access to Cricut's images. But they have plenty of images that are free to use, plus the Internet is full of free images. You can also make your own easily, just watch some YouTube videos to see how. But if Cricut has an image that you really want to use that isn't free, you don't need to subscribe, you can buy an image individually. There is a free two week trial of their subscription, but I'm not going to use that until I really feel like I could take advantage of it.

The media could not be loaded. I was so excited when I saw this on amazon prime day! I had a cricut before and it sadly broke. I have been waiting to replace it and wasn't sure if I wanted another cricut. Well I took the plunge and am so glad I did! The cartridges I had from my old one can still be used, I can plan and make files from my phone using the Bluetooth capability, and the products I create are amazing! I have multiple friends asking if they can come and make stuff using it. I'm also a teacher and very excited to use it for my classroom too! So long doing everything by hand!!