How a Cricut Maker Helps Me as a Scout Leader
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When I first decided I wanted a Cricut, it had nothing to do with Girl Scouts. In fact, I wanted the ability to create the intricate crafts that I would see on Etsy or even the simple name decals that I had ordered for my children's bedrooms to decorate and personalize their walls.
In case you have never heard of a Cricut, it’s a brand of electronic cutting machine. Some people mistakenly think it’s a printer, but this type of machine does not use any ink (unless you use a compatible marker or pen to write or draw designs). You purchase the materials that you would like to cut, either in the color that you would like the finished product to be, or in a blank state to be printed on or painted later.
While I’m not an expert and have only been using my cutting machine for the past 3 years or so, I can confidently say that it has been an invaluable part of my toolkit as a troop leader.
Craft Supplies
This is easily the biggest win for me– rather than needing to go out and purchase pre-cut materials, or trace and cut by hand, I can simply feed cardstock, craft foam, or even lightweight craft wood into the machine to cut any shape that I’d like!
Our troop has made wreaths, decorations for a World Thinking Day showcase, stickers, and more, simply by buying the needed materials (usually cardstock) and having our Cricut owners create the correct shapes.
I can’t imagine how long it would have taken to cut out all of these cardstock shapes by hand, and there is no way that I could have had the skill or patience to cut out hundreds of tiny flowers or leaves by hand.
A great bonus is that name tags can easily be cut out and written in your chosen font, by equipping the Cricut with a marker or pen, which is great for making reusable tags. The possibilities are endless!
Labels
When asking little scouts to bring items with them to meetings or camp, it’s inevitable: something will get lost, mixed in with another scout’s items, or left behind for the leaders to collect and attempt to return to the owner.
Labels can easily be created with a cutting machine and vinyl. We have labeled everything from custom water bottles to folders that hold important take-home items, like badges. We have even decorated personalized bags for camping trips!
Troop T-Shirts
Making t-shirts for our troop is a favorite activity of mine. It isn’t necessarily easy, because it does take a lot of time and effort, but the process is greatly simplified (I would say made possible) with a Cricut or similar cutting machine, and a heat press (I like the Easy Press).
Our troop likes to have a shirt for the year, which is fun for the scouts to wear around town, and also makes them easy to identify when in a group. For example, wearing a vest may not be practical at a camporee, but it’s much easier to identify our troop when we can visually distinguish them by t-shirts in a crowd.
We have also had a lot of success with recruitment from eye-catching t-shirt designs featuring our troop number, so if you are hoping to make your troop stand out and strike up a conversation, sparkly or brightly colored shirts are a great icebreaker.
An Additional Note
My Cricut machine has made crafting infinitely easier, but don’t expect to be an expert straight away. I was actually intimidated by mine at first, and didn’t try anything besides the sample project that came with it for a few months!
There are tons of resources out there, from Youtubers and Facebook communities that can offer advice, to free font sites like DaFont.com. Don’t be afraid to venture away from all things Cricut-branded either. Amazon has some great finds for cutting mats and other supplies, and as you create projects, you will learn all about what types of items and brands you prefer.
Happy Scouting!
