Cricut Maker Vs. Cricut Explore Air 2

I was so lucky to get to attend the Cricut Mountain Makeathon earlier this year, and see the official debut of the Cricut Maker! Now that it's arrived and I have had a chance to play, I've put together a comparison of the Maker and my previous machine, the Cricut Explore Air 2. Here's what I found!

Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links and was sponsored by Cricut; all opinions are my own. 

I've always loved paper-crafting, and when vinyl crafting came on the scene I was intrigued! I hooked up with Cricut to try the Explore Air, and loved it - and quickly upgraded to the Explore Air 2, which cut even faster and better.

But now I've got the big boy... the Cricut Maker! The Cricut Maker is similar to the Explore Air 2  - same general shape, and pretty much the same size. It's a little bit heavier, but with a place on my workbench, I'm not too worried about moving it around.

There are also some cosmetic and practical changes - the Cricut Maker features gorgeous detailing all around! The storage in the door and interior lid feature lovely diamond shading and the storage bins have rubber bases, to keep your blades shape and safe.

And you might have noticed there's no dial! On the Cricut Explore Air 2, you use the dial to tell the computer what type of material you are cutting. But the Maker cuts hundreds and hundreds of materials - way too much for a dial! So now, the computer tells the machine what you're cutting!

Yep, that's right - hundreds of materials. Just like the Explore Air 2, you can cut paper and vinyl, iron-ons and poster board. But with the Maker, you can also cut unbonded fabric! You can just stick your fabric right to the cutting mat, and send it through the machine for precision cuts and perfectly matched pieces - so cool! And fabric includes leather... I can't wait to make leather tags for my crochet hats and bags, and I'm working on a plan for bag handles too.

Oh, and coming soon with the introduction of the knife blade, the Cricut Maker will be able to cut right through balsa wood too! A whole world of possibilities! I'm thinking custom photo puzzles for holiday gifts - and the ideas will keep growing, I'm sure!

But it's not just fabric and wood that have been added to the Cricut Maker's abilities - in total, there are nearly 300 custom cutting settings available with the Cricut Maker, and more are on the way. Because the cutting settings are done online, the machine will essentially keep updating with the new materials as they are added by the Cricut engineers. Brilliant!

Designing your own projects in Cricut Design Space is pretty easy - especially with the help of online tutorials. But you don't have to come up with your own ideas to use the Cricut machines! There are lots of free projects and cut files that come with each machine, and you can sign up for Cricut Access for much more!

I've also started a Cricut Pinterest board with lots of fabulous ideas from other bloggers and crafters!

So obviously I'm super excited about all the cool things the Cricut Maker can do, and I'll be showing them off here on Moogly in the months to come. I've already made a couple birthday cards with the Maker, including one with a fabric accent, and a custom iron on for my daughter's cosplay event. And recently I saw where someone was using the machine to draw on and cut shrinky dinks - that is going on my to-do list for sure!

But what if you're not into the fabric and wood, and just want to cut paper and vinyl? Then the Cricut Explore Air 2 might be the machine for you! It's got a lower price, includes Bluetooth and 2x fast cutting as well, and is still an amazing machine. So here's a comparison I put together so you can see which Cricut machine might be right for you!

So I hope that tells you a little bit more about what the Cricut Maker and Explore Air 2 can do! Both are amazing tools that I look forward to using for years to come. From last minute gifts to school projects to pretties for my home and embellishments for my crochet, my Cricut is one of my favorite crafting tools to use. You can click on any of the links in this post to learn more!

Follow Moogly on Facebook, Twitter, G+, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr, and don’t forget to sign up for the free newsletter at the top of the page!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.