With the new launch of Cricut Maker 3 and Cricut Explore 3, you must have noticed a lot of information about the new Cricut smart materials. If you have never heard of smart materials before or are wondering what smart material is, you have come to the right spot! Smart Material is crafting materials that work without a cutting mat to load materials straight into your cutting machine and start! Smart Materials are available in different types, including Smart Iron-On, Smart Vinyl, and Smart Paper Sticker Cardstock.
In this blog, we’ll break down everything you need to know about smart materials: what smart materials are, how it works, what are the major benefits, which Cricut machines are compatible with smart materials, and what type of smart materials are available in the market. So, let’s get started.
WHAT IS CRICUT SMART MATERIAL?
Cricut Smart Material is crafting materials work without a cutting mat, so you can load materials straight into the machine and start! Smart materials make crafting quick and convenient! It also lets you make longer cuts because you don’t have to use a cutting mat. On Cricut Joy, you can do individual cuts of up to 4 feet and repeated cuts of up to 20 feet. You can make cuts up to 12 feet long on the Cricut Maker 3 and Cricut Explore 3.
HOW DO CRICUT SMART MATERIALS WORK?
Cricut smart material sticks to a special backer that can feed through a Cricut Explore 3 or Maker 3 without needing a cutting mat.
The machine prompts you when it’s time to load smart materials and tells you how much you need. Once the material is loaded, the machine measures it to make sure there is enough for the project.
Your device leaves a small allowance of material at the top and bottom of the design for rollers to hold and load the material, to allow sensors to sense that enough material has been loaded, and to push the material back and forth through your machine. The machine considers allowance when estimating the amount of smart material needed for the project. To make sure you’ve smart enough smart materials for design, wait to cut them until the cut is done.
WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF USING CRICUT SMART MATERIALS?
The size of the mat no longer limits smart materials. You’ll have to cut it out on different mats to make something bigger. It’s faster to craft because you can load materials into the machine and hit! You can also ensure these are high-quality materials.
WHICH CRICUT MACHINES ARE COMPATIBLE WITH SMART MATERIALS?
There are 3 Cricut machines available in the market that are compatible with Smart materials: Cricut Explore 3, Cricut Joy, and Cricut Maker 3.
WHAT TYPE OF CRICUT SMART MATERIALS ARE AVAILABLE?
There are 3 types of Cricut smart materials available in the market: smart iron-on, smart paper, and smart vinyl (removable/permanent). All 3 smart materials work with the Cricut Explore 3, Maker 3, and Joy. Let’s look at each of these Cricut smart materials.
SMART VINYL
There are 2 types of smart vinyl available permanent and vinyl with Cricut Explore 3, Maker 3, or Joy. Depending on the needs of projects, both are great for crafting. Smart Vinyl has various colors, effects, and material lengths.
SMART PAPER
Smart Paper is basically sticker paper! With the Cricut Joy, the Smart Label is writable paper. The Smart Paper Sticker Cardstock for the Cricut Explore 3 and Maker 3. This material is a medium-weight cardstock paper with a sticky back. It’s ideal for making cards, stickers, labels, etc. Now you can skip the glue! Simply cut, peel and paste to make fun and easy cards, banners, posters, and other paper projects.
SMART IRON-ON
Smart Iron-on (another name for Heat Transfer Vinyl) is another type of Cricut smart material to use with Cricut Maker 3, Joy, or Explore 3. You can find smart iron-on in many colors, lengths, and effects.