Must Have Cricut Maker Accessories and Tools for Original and Cricut Maker 3!

Mats are essential to have with a Cricut Maker and Cricut Explore. Even if you have a Cricut Maker 3, I would recommend mats because there are only certain Smart Materials that can be cut without a mat.

There are 4 different mat colors that correlate with materials they will be ideal to cut with. They all come in 12 in x 12 in size and 12 in x 24 in size. You will use the 12x12 more, but at least one 12x24 is great to have for bigger projects.

The differences between Cricut Mats:

Green Mat = standard grip mat. This is the mat you will probably use the most for cutting cardstock, certain vinyls, iron on vinyl, and more.

Blue Mat = light grip mat. This mat is ideal for light paper, light cardstock, vellum, and other light materials.

Pink Mat = fabric grip mat. Needed if you will be cutting fabric on your Cricut Maker.

Purple Mat = strong grip mat. For securing and cutting thicker materials such as chipboard, balsa wood, thick cardstock, kraftboard, and more.

You will need a new mat every few months depending on how much you are using them!

The Cricut Knife blade was one of the first released and is a must-needed tool if you want to cut chipboard, leather, and thin wood.

My favorite to cut is chipboard, I love making puzzles and large wall art with it.

I do have to admit I like the engraving tip. This is part of the quick swap housing which I mentioned above. Once you buy one of the blades/tips with the housing then you can just but the tips for a lot cheaper.

For example, this engraving tip and housing are $25 but you can buy just the tip (here) for $17.

The scoring wheel is great if you want to make boxes, 3D images, and folded cards. If you plan on cutting mostly vinyl and iron-on vinyl then you won't need a scoring wheel.

But a lot of times once you realize what you can do with a Cricut Maker that these extra tips start appearing on birthday and Christmas lists!

For the Cricut Explore Air there is a scoring stylus that works on thinner materials.

Another tip that is part of the quickswap family is the debossing tip. So again you can purchase it with or without the housing.

This one is fun to deboss on cardstock, kraft board, foil kraft board, posterboard, and more.

The perforation blade is another one that is not essential, but fun if you want to make perforated lines in cardstock. Think tickets, pull away cards, etc.

The last of the QuickSwap blades is the wavy blade. This adds fun waves to the edges of cardstock, vinyl, iron on vinyl, etc.

You won't need this right away because your machine will come with one blade, but replacement blades are always nice to have on hand. I recommend getting the premium fine-point blade.

There is also a deep cut blade that works with both the Maker and Explore lines that are for thicker materials.

If you are getting or have a bunch of blades, then organizing them and keeping them safe comes in handy. You can store blades in the fold-down organization drawer of the Cricut Maker itself, but I like being able to see the numbers on all my blades!

Not a must at first, but very helpful when you start accumulating blades!

Another fun tip is the Cricut foil transfer tip. I happen to love this kit (you can see some fun Cricut foil projects here) and use it all the time. This tip works with both the Maker and Explore machines.

Again, it's not a must-have, especially if you are working with mostly vinyl and iron-on. But if you want to add shininess to cards, it is fun!

You can check out a wide variety of different color foil sheets here.

The basic tool set is a great set to start with. You will use almost everything in this pack and if it's on sale, it's a great deal!

You will definitely need a weeding tool, a scraper, and the spatula (if working with cardstock). I also use the scissors a lot, but I'm not a big tweezer fan. I think it's just because I have thick fingers and it's hard for me to use because a lot of other crafters use them a lot!

If you want to save money, then the Cricut Joy starter kit (found here) has just the weeding tool, scraper, and spatula. They are the same size and not just for the Cricut Joy!

If you are working with larger projects, then I recommend also getting a XL scraper at some point. I use mine a lot!

I did not have a brayer for the first few years I used a Cricut, but when I finally got one, I can't believe I lived without one for so long!

I use mine all the time! If you are planning on cutting vinyl, iron-on vinyl, fabric, and Infusible Ink then you will want to invest in a brayer. It helps so much with getting the material flat and secure on the cutting mat.

I wouldn't say this one is essential, but it definitely comes in handy when cuts don't go all the way through. If you have some other kind of precision crafting knife, then you probably won't need this one.

You will get one pen in the Cricut Maker box, but if you plan on making cards then I would suggest getting more Cricut pens.

I tend to use black the most so it's nice to have black in all different sizes like this pack.

But you can check out the Cricut.com pen page to see all the different kinds you can get. I'm a fan of the glitter gel ones too!

Another item that is not essential, but is one I use a lot. The self healing mat helps prevents cuts from the trucontrol knife to go all the way through and also is super helpful with the rules and angles for cutting fabric.

Cricut has a bunch of sizes and colors that you can check out here.

An Easy Press is not an essential to using the new machines, but I would recommend getting at least one size if you want to use heat transfer vinyl to make Cricut shirts, pillows, tote bags, or other HTV projects.

Again, this only works with the Cricut Maker 3. It holds the long rolls of Smart vinyl and iron-on for those long cuts that you can make with only the Maker 3 and I love mine and use it all the time!