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The Cricut Explore Air 2

The Cricut Explore Air 2 is perfect for making all sorts of crafts, cards or designs. The Cricut Explore Air 2 cuts everything from cardstock, vinyl and iron-on to specialty materials like glitter paper, cork, and bonded fabric. From cards to custom T-shirts to home decor, Cricut is the leading cutting device for crafts of all kinds.

If you wish to learn the basics of the Cricut, please access our website at About: Center for Student Innovation at Booth Library (eiu.edu)

The Design Studio

To use the Cricut you will have to download Cricut Design Studio onto your laptop. In Cricut Design Studio, users are able to browse different designs (free and pay to print) and quickly cut them into paper, vinyl, or cardstock. If you are new to the design space and would like to learn more about how to use the Cricut and design space check out the guides below.

Turning Pictures into SVG Files

What is an SVG file?

The Cricut needs a SVG file to print any design. A Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file will store images via mathematical formulas based on points and lines on a grid. This means that vector files like SVG can be significantly resized without losing any of their quality. They are used for designs for crafts, professional logos and images on websites.

Converting Images into SVG files

As mentioned earlier in this guide, you could find any number of designs in the Cricut Design Space, but it is also possible to make your own designs. For this process it is essential that you have Cricut Design Space downloaded to your device. Below is a video outlining the process as well as a link that outlines step-by-step how to create your own Cricut designs.

Here are some first project ideas:

30 Easy Cricut Project Designs