We are all looking for ways to make extra money, especially these days. Did you know you can make money with your Cricut machine? If you love crafting as a hobby, why not turn it into a way to make a part time or even full time income? I’m going to walk you through how you can make money doing something you already love doing.
This is a sponsored post on behalf of Cricut. All opinions are my own. Post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I will earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
The great thing about starting your own business is you can go at your own pace. You can put as much time and effort that you want or are able to. What I love about using your Cricut to make money is that it can all be done from your home, which is perfect for busy crafters and moms who are short on time.
How You Can Make Money with your Cricut
Getting Started
When starting a new business the thing that really stops people from taking that first step is the cost. If you are going to start a business with your Cricut, the startup costs will be relatively low.
I’m assuming you will already have a Cricut machine of some sort but if you don’t, a Cricut Explore Air 2 Machine Bundle starts at less than $300 and comes with all of the tools and accessories you will need to start making products.
You will also need a Cricut Access membership so you can use all of the hundreds of thousands of fonts and images to create your amazing designs. Plans start as low as only $7.99 per month!
You can also buy or create your own SVG files to upload to Cricut Access but this gets us into my next point.
Know What you Can Legally Sell
When it comes to selling items, you can sell pretty much whatever you can think of. The designs on those items is another story. Stay away from using any kind of design that is trademarked.
This will include things like: Marvel, Disney, Star Wars, Martha Stewart, etc.
If you are going to use a font or design from Cricut Access or one that you have purchased, make sure to read the licensing agreement. You can sell things that are for commercial use, not designs that state they are for personal use only.
Before you start going crazy making items, do your due diligence about what you can and can’t sell or even consult a lawyer before you begin.
Get Experienced
You will want to get some experience using a Cricut machine before you start cranking out items to sell. You want to make sure you are selling quality products so that your customers keep coming back for more. Figure out what you want to sell and spend several weeks making those things.
Use Youtube video tutorials to help you get ideas for tips and tricks that may help you save time on projects and to help you hone your skills. Make things for friends and family and get their opinions on what could be improved.
What Can I Sell With my Cricut?
The possibilities are pretty much endless. My advice is to figure out what you love making the most and become an expert at that. There are too many things you can make that if you try to do it all, your quality will go down and you will get burnt out.
Go to Etsy or Amazon and see what are the bestsellers of homemade goods. Then see how you can put your own spin on those items.
Some items you may want to look into are:
- Mugs: Cricut has a new Mug Press to make it even easier and faster to create!
- Leather and faux leather earrings and bracelets
- Engraved jewelry, Cricut sells engraving tips for their machines.
- Kid and baby clothes are really popular
- makeup bags
- home decor: doormats, pillows, wood signs
- the list goes on and on
Stand Out from the Crowd
Once you decide on what you want to make and sell, you need to check out your competition. How can you stand out and put your own special twist on these items?
Will you sell shirts with snarky quotes on them when everyone else is selling shirts with inspirational ones? Can you use glitter material when everyone else is using matte material?
Find out what is trending and put those things on your items: New TV show quotes, things that are new in politics or news stories. Retro designs or old school pop culture references can make comebacks and sell due to nostalgia.
Trends can be seasonal as well. Make things for specific holidays (I made the shirt above for Valentine’s day), wedding season, graduations, baby showers, etc.
Quality Over Quantity
When it comes to the items you sell, always go for quality over quantity. Anyone can go to the dollar store and get a plastic basket to put a monogram on. It looks OK but it could look a lot better on a much higher quality basket. People are willing to pay more for something that is going to last longer.
That doesn’t mean you have to go out and buy the most expensive materials. You can source materials from wholesalers and buy in bulk to save money on your items.
Look for materials that will last for your clients and make sure your skills as a crafter and using your Cricut machine are high quality as well. It is amazing how much better your products will be the longer you keep practicing on your craft and how much more you can charge for each item.
Where Can I Sell My Cricut Crafts?
Just like how many items you can make with your Cricut, there are so many places you can sell your homemade products.
The most obvious place is Etsy. You can also list your items on Amazon as a third party seller. Facebook Marketplace is another great site to list your items. Don’t forget to show your products off in Facebook groups, especially if your neighborhood as a Facebook page.
Farmer’s Markets and Flea Markets are great for getting face to face contact with people. Also be on the lookout for any local festivals or fairs that accept vendors.
Make sure you look at all of the fine print and fees that will be involved with using any of the places listed above and remember to add that cost into your products.
What Should I Charge?
Figuring out what to charge for your products depends on many factors. Ideally you want to make 3-4 times as much as the cost of materials.
You also need to take into account how much time it takes you to create each product. Make sure you are at least charging minimum wage for each hour you spend making a product to make it worth your time and effort.
Get a starting point of how much to charge by looking at what your competition is charging. Take into account the quality of products they are using and how “special” their items are. If yours are more unique and stand out, you may be able to charge more.
It is always better to charge a higher price over a lower one. It is much harder to raise prices once things start selling but it is easier to lower prices if you aren’t selling as much as you would like.
Passive Income
Another way to make some money off of items you are already creating is to sell the SVG files that you have personally designed for those items.
Some people may not want to buy the exact item you are selling but maybe they like the design and want to use it to make something else themselves. You can always list your designs or cut files that you created on a blog or website.
You only have to create it once and whatever money you make off of those files is passive income. This idea isn’t for everyone but if you notice that a certain item isn’t selling as much or it is too time consuming to make, you can still make something off of the SVG files you spent time making.
These are just a few ideas for how you can make money with your Cricut. I think for such a small upfront investment it is definitely worth a try. There are people that make thousands if not more every month being creative and doing what they love.
It is hard work and you have to have the drive and passion for it, but if you are interested in using your Cricut to supplement your income or allow you to quit your job I hope this has given you a great starting off point.
bell says
Wow this is really too good about the make money with your circuit the side hustle for crafters thanks sharing this article