9 Must Have Cricut Tools for Beginners

I didn’t know what tools or materials I needed for my Cricut when I was starting. I could have bought one of everything…um, kind of did….& my husband said ‘what in the world is this new machine you purchased’?! ‘How much is this gonna cost?’. You can hear it right? You see, I did not need all of these tools & materials right off the bat & especially any & all of them I could find. So I decided to write this post ‘9 Must-Have Cricut Tools for Beginners’ & help y’all out with your spouses! Marriage therapy is also a skill of mine. 😁 Joking! Let me show you the list below:

• The first tool I feel you need is a weeder. I use the Cricut weeder all the time & you will too. You can use it for more than just weeding your adhesive vinyl & HTV. I use it to poke the holes out of cut-out cards. You can use it to lift the corners up when using your mats. You’ll find different things as you go, but this will be your number one tool! You can also find a kit that has a few different styled tips.

• The next tool I think is a ‘must have’ is the Cricut scraper. It comes in small & extra large. You can usually find the small scraper in a kit. I have both & I do use both. I use the small for smaller decals & so forth. The large I have learned is great for taking off all those little bits left on your mat after a cut-out card! If you use it for that reason, don’t press hard & go slow, because you don’t want it to scrape off the adhesive from the mat as well.

• Scissors & more scissors are very important to have! I think this is the tool you can’t seem to ever find. You need scissors all the time when crafting, no matter what project you’re working on. You should really have them all over your area so you don’t have to track down that one pair of scissors, right? Get a few pairs; small & large.

• There is a tool called a ‘measuring tape‘ that everyone seems to think you need. Joking! I use to try to wing it with measurements especially when it comes to hanging things on the wall. Well, I still do that. You can’t do that with crafting. I would also have a few of these laying around!

• Let’s talk about a pair of tweezers. I was surprised because you wouldn’t think you’d use them that much. There are so many small things in crafting that make this tool very useful. I use the regular type tweezers & then the needle-nose ones too.

• The scoring stylus is a very useful tool even if you have one of the Cricut Makers. If you have any of the other machines, you need this if you’re going to make cards & envelopes & so forth. With the Cricut Maker machines, there are scoring wheels to use, but you can also use the stylus & leave it in your “A” tool holder instead. This saves some time by not having to switch out your tool.

• Light let there be light! You have to have good lighting when doing anything with crafts! Cricut has its new lights out a small desktop version & a floor lamp, but you can use any adjustable desk light. I use the one below & it does just fine. It has 3 different modes of lighting; cool, natural & white light which I didn’t think mattered, but it is nice to have. I couldn’t believe the difference it made! Also, mine has a magnifying glass top. Which I need now-a-days. 😒

• I use a paper trimmer at least a few times a day. You can cut your vinyl to the right size. You can also cut cardstock that’s leftover from a project & keep it as scrap paper. I use the one below that has an extension arm so you can measure at least 15″ long.

• The last thing on my list is a self-healing mat. These things are wonderful! I own a couple of them. I have a large one to cover my desk so I don’t get glue on it or cut into the desk, etc. I also own a small one that I can carry around with me. My craft room isn’t the best yet, because I have a small area, so I go to my kitchen table a lot to do projects & the small one is great for that.

I hope my list helps all you beginners out there or anyone that was wondering about what tools to buy. This isn’t all the tools you’ll need, but you can start out with these & add to it as you go. One last tip: Cricut has sets of these tools. They have a 5 piece, 7 piece & even a 7 piece one that includes a paper trimmer. Have a great day! 💕