This Cricut Explore Air 2 review is brought to you by Cricut. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Some links are affiliate links.
Would you guys get more crafting done if parts of the process went even faster? What could you do with some of that extra time that you save by not having to wait so long for your vinyl or paper to cut?
I love working with Cricut, and my Explore machine is my craft tool that I use almost every single day. If I posted about every single thing I did with it, you’d get sick of me 🙂
Sometimes it’s something for a kids’ school project (sometimes it’s something for my OWN school project.)
It’s a quick card to send to my grandma, it’s a monogram to attach to a gift bag for a birthday party.
It’s organizing labels, or a Deathly Hallows symbol for someone’s notebook, or even a circle of pink vinyl so my son would have something pink to wear to school for pink day.
But don’t worry, I will always show you the cool stuff, or the things that might teach you a fun trick you didn’t know about in Design Space.
So on to the new Cricut Explore Air 2 machine. (You can read more on their website too.)
Besides the fact that it’s this dreamy mint color, it’s just as portable as the original Explore, and it has bluetooth built right in. If you want to watch me unbox mine, you can see the video here.
You can even watch me pair my laptop wirelessly with the machine and cut something. The process is very fast.
And speaking of fast, the Air 2 can cut and write up to 2 times faster! There’s a check box you can click when you send your project to your machine.
If you have a really intricate design, you might not want to use the fast mode, but even on these vinyl spider webs, I did the fast cut and it worked great.
You can watch that video here! It’s in fast motion, but at the end of the video, I tell you the run time of both the Explore and the Air 2. There’s more than 2 minutes of time saved by using the fast option.
That adds up when you think about all the DIY craft projects I’m making every week! With that extra time I can move onto gluing, decorating, wearing, and even get around to reading the books on my nightstand!
The spider webs came from the Make it Now project (Spider Web Lantern) I only cut two of the webs that are included in the project. Make sure you pick a bigger one and a smaller one (the smaller one goes on the “door.”)
Weed the vinyl and apply it to the lantern. They work perfectly on my Halloween shelf!
Have any questions about the Cricut Explore Air 2? Let me know in a comment? What would you do with the extra time you save?
Click to see all my Cricut craft project posts.
Project supplies:
Ikea Lanterns
Cricut Explore Air 2
Metallic Vinyl Sampler
Transfer Tape
You might also like:
My 10 Favorite things about my Cricut Explore
Judy Hall
Tuesday 15th of May 2018
I wanted to know when it shows several things to cut on layers do you do 1 layer at a time or do you stack layers of cardstock or whatever you are using on top of each other? I also got some promotional stuff with it but I don't know where to find them on my acct. One last question. Do you have to pay monthly fee to use the design space? Thank you Judy
Stephanie
Wednesday 16th of May 2018
Hi Judy! Thanks for your questions! Yes, when the design has multiple layers, you will cut them separately in different colors of cardstock or vinyl. The program separates the different colors into different mats when you send it to cut. Then you layer each piece when you're making your physical project.
To find your promotional items, open Design Space and click "My Projects" on the top right. Then click the drop-down menu and scroll down to "Free for _____" then select the machine you have the free designs for.
Design Space is free to use, but not all the fonts, images and projects will be free. Some become free if you have one of the Cricut Access accounts (read about those here: https://craftingintherain.com/2017/02/new-cricut-access-plans.html) You should be aware that some fonts and images that are licensed (think Disney stuff, or Simplicity sewing patterns) will still have to be purchased - but they will have a 10% dicount if you have one of the Access plans.
Hope that all helps - let me know if you have more questions!
Mrs Major Hoff
Monday 24th of October 2016
I wanted to do a comparison like this, but sadly my room was not clean enough, LOL. I think I need to build a new desk for the new machine. It deserves to be on display like a trophy ;)