1. Start with what you want to make

Not the machine. The making. Paper flowers, felt gifts, party décor, personalized shirts? Write your list first, because it answers half the questions below before you ask them. The machine is a tool in service of your crafting, never the other way around.

2. The materials it can actually cut

This is where machines truly differ. Nearly every machine handles cardstock and vinyl. Far fewer handle wool blend felt cleanly, and crepe paper is the real dividing line: it needs a rotary blade, which only some machines offer. If delicate materials are on your list from question one, this single consideration may make your decision for you.

3. The blade system

A fine-point blade drags through material like a tiny knife, which suits paper beautifully. A rotary blade rolls, which is what fabric, felt and crepe want. Scoring tools turn flat cardstock into boxes and cards. Check which blades a machine accepts, not just which one comes in the box.

4. Cutting force

Measured in grams and mostly ignored by shoppers, cutting force decides whether thicker materials like chipboard and leather are ever in your future. You may not need it today. See question eleven before you decide you never will.

5. Cutting size

Machines cut to the width of their mats, and some compact machines cut noticeably narrower. If oversized blooms or large décor pieces are on your list, check the maximum cut size before you fall in love with a small machine's price.

6. The software

You will spend more time in the software than you expect, so it matters that it welcomes you. Look at how each program handles SVG files, since that is how designs like ours arrive at your machine, and check what the free tier includes versus what sits behind a subscription or a paid upgrade.

7. What it connects to

Computer, tablet, or phone? Bluetooth or cable? If you picture yourself crafting from the sofa with an iPad, make sure the machine and its software picture that too. Many do now. Not all do it gracefully.

8. Your space

A cutting machine needs a home: room for the machine, clearance behind it for the mat to pass through, and somewhere to keep mats flat and blades organized. Measure your craft space honestly, and listen to a machine run before you commit to sharing a small room with it.

9. The full budget, not the sticker

The machine is the beginning. Mats wear out, blades dull, and tools accumulate. Materials are the real ongoing cost, and the joyful one, since they become your projects. Budget for the machine plus a starter set of blades, mats and materials, and the first months feel like abundance instead of surprise.

10. Where your designs will come from

A machine only cuts what you feed it. Some crafters design their own files. Most of us want beautiful designs ready to cut, so look at the ecosystem around each machine: the file formats it accepts and the designers creating for it. Every project in our library includes SVG files, so whichever machine you choose can cut along with us.

11. Room to grow

Buy for the crafter you are becoming, not only the crafter you are today. The most common note we hear from our community is some version of "I wish I had bought the machine with the rotary blade the first time." If the stretch between two machines is modest and the bigger one opens materials you dream about, stretch.

What we cut with in our studio

• Our machine: the Cricut Maker family, because the rotary blade cuts every material we design for, including crepe paper
• Blades we use: fine-point for cardstock and frosted paper, rotary for crepe and felt, scoring wheel for boxes and cards
• Mats: standard grip for paper, fabric grip for felt and crepe
• The materials we cut: our three types of crepe paper, cardstock, frosted paper, and wool blend felt, all from our shop, and occasionally we cut vinyl

Questions from our crafters

Can I use an iPad with the Cricut Maker? Yes. The Maker connects happily to an iPad, and many of our crafters run everything from one.

What about the Brother ScanNCut? One of our crafters reported that the rotary blade on her ScanNCut DX cut crepe paper beautifully, especially the double-sided. We design and test on Cricut machines, but we love hearing what works across the crafting world.

I have a Silhouette. Can I use your files? Yes, with one note: opening SVG files in Silhouette Studio requires the Designer Edition upgrade. Once you have it, our files cut wonderfully. We also have a full workshop for you to learn how to use our files with the Silhouette.

Already know you want a Cricut?

Then your question is not whether, it is which one, and we wrote you a whole guide for exactly that decision, organized by what you want to make.

Link to "Which Cricut Should You Buy" when it publishes in October. Until then this section is hidden, or points at the 50+ Project Ideas post.

Try before you buy, sort of

Our Cricut Foundation Series is sixteen short videos where Meagan shows you the steps and settings for every material we design for: cardstock, frosted paper, crepe paper, felt, vinyl and more. It is free to watch and is a great guide to come back to when you have questions.

Which means you can watch each blade do its work before you decide which machine comes home with you. See how the rotary blade handles crepe paper. See what fine-point cuts look like in cardstock. Ten minutes of watching will tell you more than any comparison chart.

And once your machine arrives, the series will be right where you left it, ready to teach it what it can do.

Happy crafting, ~ Lia