The Cricut electronic die-cut machine paired with the Cricut Design Studio software has opened up a whole new world of designing possibilities for scrapbookers and cardmakers alike. While many of us have an abundance of tools and materials, the one thing we seem to be lacking more than any other is time. It is important to use the time we are able to find to the fullest if we want to complete more projects. Here are three ways to maximize your time spent creating.
1. Maintain proper maintenance on your tools, especially the machine, blade, and mat.
By taking a few extra minutes to keep your machine in proper condition you will save time and money in the end. The two biggest culprits are the blade and the cutting mat. Change your blade when it starts to dull so that you keep from wasting paper with torn or not-so-great cuts and the time it takes to your images again. If you try to stretch out the use of your mat too long the papers will start to move and slide when the machine cuts. It’s more than worth it to do things right the first time.
2. Become familiar with the people who can help you.Getting to know the resources available to help you will save you time when you get stuck using the machine and software. The most important resource in my opinion is the Cricut message boards. There are some wonderful people on there more than willing to answer any question you have and help with ideas.
3. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Unless you just enjoy designing and playing with the software, there’s no reason to recreate a file someone else has already made. There are numerous blogs and sites where other Cricut users share the projects and the corresponding files they have designed.
Don’t spend precious time creating cuttings from scratch when others have kindly put them on the internet for you to use. Even if you only use the base of the design as a starting point for adding your own additions, you will still save a lot of time not trying to figure out how to design the file from the beginning. One thing to remember is to give credit to the original designer, even if you adapt the file in one way or another.
Spend some extra time up front by keeping your tools in great shapecondition, become familiar with where to find help, and use designs made by other people when you can. If you do, when you sit down to create you may just find that you have more time to work on it than you thought.