Cricut Explore Air is an all new Cricut product! Cricut sent me one to review for this post, and one to give away, but all opinions and crafts are 100% mine.
I have been a long time fan of Cricut Craft Machines. There are so many things you can do any time at home with the Cricut, but now it’s time for back to school with the amazing Cricut Explore Air.
The Cricut die cut machine is one of the best tools for teachers and schools, as well as parents. I’m also excited because besides giving me one to bring you lots of ideas, Cricut is also giving me a CRICUT EXPLORE AIR TO GIVE AWAY TO ONE LUCKY READER! (the giveaway has ended.)
First let me show you why you and your school have to get one of these amazing machines!
I have quite a few teacher friends, and my friend Becky teaches 4th grade in a predominantly Title 1 school. She asked if I would jazz up her classroom and make it a brighter place this year. I was totally on it and asked her a few questions about what she wanted.
She wasn’t quite sure, but said she calls her room “Beckmanville”, where she is the mayor and her students are the citizens. Instantly, I knew how to make her bulletin board fun and interactive for her class. Using a gingerbread man image as a template, I cut out little people, so each child could decorate it to look like him or her self. In addition, we cut out the Mayor’s office, school bus, and school house using the Cricut Design Space™ app.
Here is how great they turned out. Later in the week, the kids are going to interview each other, and next to the figures will be the results of the interviews. It’s a great way to get to know their classmates more.
Every year Becky does a word wall where they list all the new vocabulary words for each subject throughout the year. We used the Cricut Explore Air to cut out the letters, making cute themed pictures to match each subject.
There are lots of Free Images to get you started when you get your Cricut Explore Air!
All images are only $.99 cents, so you just buy what you want to use, with no more cartridges to buy. There’s also a monthly subscription available to have access to all images and fonts in the extensive library.
Now let me show you how easy all this is to make! The online Cricut software means you can access it from any computer, or even your iPad, to create anything and everything. Just sign in, choose your images, and size them.
Fist I imported the images I wanted into the dashboard.
Next, I customize the colors so when I cut them, each piece is cut in the right color at one time. This creates less paper waste and much less work!
Then I hit GO, and as you can see, it sets up each cut for you step by step. Using the software is seriously fool proof!
Here is Becky’s sad looking classroom helper chart, and just a few of the new ones I’m making for her.
You may be thinking:
I’m not a teacher, I’m a parent! How can I use the Cricut Explore Air™?
There are tons of uses for a parent to use a Cricut, like making your kids project stand out at the science fair with custom letters and pictures for tri-fold board displays. Or sucking up to the teacher, making her stuff for her room and students projects. Maybe custom labeling your kid’s water bottles, like these cute ones I made for my cousins kids.
Cricut Explore Air and the Cricut Design Studio
If you volunteer at your kid’s school on the PTA or other committees, you can make fundraiser signs, like this one I made last year. Just upload an image into the Cricut Design Studio design space, which is how I made our necklace thief.
This is a jewelry heist game, with weighted boxes filled with plastic pellets and fake jeweled rings. I purchased them from a local party store. In one box was a donated $600 pearl necklace. The boxes were sold for $25 each. After dinner, everyone opened them at the same time to see who won. It was lots of fun.
With these great ideas, plus more on my Cricut Pinterest Board, don’t you want a Cricut Explore Air?
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