Cricut machines are powerful, popular, and versatile and can help you craft a wide array of DIY goods. Whether you’re making custom t-shirts, aluminum jewelry, wall art, felted stuffed animals, or delicate paper flowers, a Cricut machine can help with your creative pursuits.
If you’re a skilled Cricut maker, you may already be thinking of ways to convert your hobby into a source of income—and the first step is deciding what kinds of Cricut projects to sell. Here are some Cricut business ideas to inspire you, as well as a few business and marketing considerations to help you earn a profit.
What is a Cricut business?
A Cricut business is a crafting business that sells products made using a Cricut machine, a smart cutting machine that reproduces digital designs by cutting them out of materials like paper, leather, fabric, vinyl, and wood.
To get started, you need to buy a Cricut machine, download the Cricut app to create or buy designs, and purchase the material to create your products. The machine, which is about the size of a home printer, recreates the design using your chosen material. Popular profitable Cricut business projects include paper goods, apparel, signage, home goods, and décor.
15 Cricut business ideas
- Wedding décor and favors
- Stickers and labels
- Party supplies
- Custom gifts
- Home décor
- Apparel
- Jewelry
- Stationary and cards
- Felted crafts
- Cricut designs
- Holiday crafts
- Event signage
- Keychains
- Phone cases
- Baby gifts
As with any commercial venture, the key to running a successful Cricut business is in selling a quality product that meets your audience’s needs. Here’s a rundown of some the bestselling Cricut projects:
1. Wedding décor and favors
Many couples are willing to spend a little extra to make their wedding memorable by having custom wedding décor and gifts. This can lead to high profit margins on Cricut projects. If you want to create a business targeting the wedding market, you could make Cricut cake toppers, bridal party gifts, groomsmen gifts, paper flowers, custom-printed wine glasses, menus, and signage.
2. Stickers and labels
You can use your Cricut machine to create stickers and labels for décor, gifts, and organization. Consider home organization systems for spice racks, pantries, cleaning supplies, scheduling tools like calendars or planner stickers, gifts like bumper stickers, and large-format stickers for home décor.
On her Instagram, Shopify store owner Created by Christine explains the steps for making stickers at home with a printer and Cricut machine.
3. Party supplies
Party supplies are another popular type of Cricut project. You can make and sell decorations for baby showers, bachelor and bachelorette gatherings, birthdays, and retirement parties. Some craft ideas that work well for parties include cupcake toppers, invitations and thank-you cards, place cards, banners, and pennants.
4. Custom gifts
Cricut crafts also make great gifts—especially if you offer personalization or customization options. Consider housewarming gifts like address signs, custom mugs, and personalized linens, graduation gifts like personalized journals or stationery, and gifts for new parents, like custom baby onesies and blankets.
5. Home décor
Home décor is another popular type of Cricut craft. You can create wooden signs, vinyl decals, or posters with fun pictures or witty sayings. You can choose to focus on a particular style or item, like farmhouse wall décor or bohemian kitchen hangings, or pick a room and function, like nursery décor, kitchen décor, or specialty items for the holiday season.
6. Apparel
Cricut clothes are made using iron-on vinyl and can include custom t-shirts, sweatshirts, and undergarments. You can go the customization route or launch a maker-designed product line featuring your unique Cricut designs and hand-selected colorways.
Giftware brand Fighty Pants used a Cricut to make t-shirts and other items to help empower people affected by cancer and other serious illnesses.
7. Jewelry
You can use a Cricut machine to make and sell aluminum, copper, wood, faux leather, or leather jewelry. Popular items include copper necklaces, leather earrings, aluminum-link bracelets, and menswear items like watchbands, tie pins, and cufflinks.
8. Stationary and cards
Greeting cards, thank you cards, get well cards, and stationery can all be profitable Cricut product lines. To differentiate yourself from other makers, lean into your unique aesthetic and consider honing in on a niche.
9. Felted crafts
You can also use a Cricut machine to create felted crafts like flowers, stuffed animals, holiday ornaments, and children’s toys. Consider stocking your shop with reliable classics like felted bears, lobsters, and zebras and offer to customize designs for more niche requests.
10. Cricut designs
If you’re a skilled graphic designer or illustrator, you can also earn money selling your Cricut designs as digital files for other Cricut makers to use for their Cricut projects.
Angie Holden sells Cricut designs for personal and commercial use, focusing on illustrations and phrases for holidays and seasons.
11. Holiday crafts
Holiday decorations are another great craft idea to make and sell. You could make Christmas ornaments, Halloween decorations, and items for other holidays like Easter. Other products like wreaths, gift tags, and banners can also work for your audience.
To keep customers coming back, try offering special seasonal items that are only available for a limited time.
12. Event signage
Your Cricut can create professional signs for business meetings, birthday parties, and family gatherings. Think direction signs, welcome signs, photo backgrounds, and table numbers. You can use different materials like acrylic, foam board, or vinyl to match any event’s style and make the signs look professional.
13. Keychains
Keychains and bag decorations make great personalized items. You can add names, initials, or inspiring messages to them. Try making them from different materials like fake leather, acrylic, or wood. Adding extras like tassels or shiny decorations can make them more appealing.
14. Phone cases
Phone cases are another cool business idea. You can create different styles of phone cases using glossy, matte, holographic, or glitter vinyl. If you want to add durability, you can apply epoxy resin coats over the designs to create a protective layer.
Customize your cases with monograms, quotes, or detailed patterns. Producing cases for popular models like the iPhone or Samsung Galaxy offers a broad market you can tap into.
15. Baby gifts
The baby gift market is active, with many parents and gift-givers looking for unique, personal items. You can create customized baby blankets, special clothing, wall decorations for nurseries, and items to track a baby’s growth, like monthly photo props.
Modern designs that work for any gender tend to sell well. Adding the baby’s name makes these gifts extra special for occasions like baby showers and first birthdays.
Things to consider when starting a Cricut business
If you’re a dedicated Cricut maker, you can earn money selling crafts locally, on an online marketplace, or through your own ecommerce website. If you’re excited by the thought of turning your hobby into a source of income, you might be ready to start your own Cricut business. Here are a few things to consider before you take the leap.
Target market
To develop a profitable Cricut business idea, you need to understand consumer needs and competitor activities—in other words, you need to know the market conditions. Conducting market research can help you understand the appetite for your products, segment your target audiences, set prices, and even design your product line.
For example, the research might tell you customers are willing to pay up to twice as much for wedding items as they are for holiday-themed crafts. Keeping this in mind, you might choose to position your products as wedding décor and favors, market them to engaged couples, and sell at wedding boutiques and fairs.
Production and shipping costs
Estimating your total production and distribution costs can help you set prices and ensure that you end up making a profit on Cricut craft sales. Estimate material and packaging costs, shipping costs, and startup and overhead expenses. Factor in the value of your time by giving yourself an hourly wage and estimating the amount of labor required to produce each item. Once you’ve calculated your expenses, you can then price your product by adding a markup.
Sales channels
Determining where you’ll sell Cricut projects can help you estimate your expenses and further segment your target market. You can sell crafts locally by partnering with nearby retailers or attending craft fairs or trade shows. If you plan to sell online, you can set up your own online store on an ecommerce platform such as Shopify, or join an online marketplace like Amazon Handmade or Etsy.
To make your choice, consider your target audience’s purchasing patterns as well as the cost of selling on each sales channel. If you plan to make and sell things online, estimate online store costs or marketplace selling fees. If you plan to sell locally, factor in any expenses associated with using your chosen venues, such as the price of getting a booth at a craft fair or a retailer’s cut of a sale.
Branding and marketing
The Cricut design market is crowded. A unique brand identity and a solid marketing plan can help you differentiate your company from competitors. You don’t need to finalize every detail of your long-term strategy before you start selling products. But it can be helpful to create an online store, refine a few key marketing messages, and identify the primary channels for initial marketing efforts to help you hit the ground running after launch.
Cricut’s Angel Policy
The Cricut Angel Policy states that business owners can make and sell up to 10,000 finished projects per year as long as:
- Those projects are made by only one person.
- Any Cricut designs used are licensed under the policy. This includes using licensed fonts and images from the Cricut Access subscription.
Note that not all images in Cricut Access library are licensed for selling, including many brands like Hello Kitty, Disney, and DC Comics. Consult Cricut’s terms of use for more information and to confirm your business activities comply with the company’s requirements.
Tools and materials
Recommended Cricut machines
- Cricut Maker 3: The most powerful Cricut machine in the lineup. It can cut more than 300 materials, like leather and balsa wood. Plus, it supports 13 tools for cutting, scoring, engraving, and more. It’s best for professionals or serious hobbyists who work with different materials.
- Cricut Explore 3: A step below the Maker 3, this Cricut machine can cut over 100 materials, including vinyl and cardstock. It’s perfect for hobbyists who don’t need advanced tooling.
- Cricut Joy: A portable machine for simple projects. It can cut 50 materials and is good for creating custom cards, labels, and small decals. It’s a great option for beginner crafters who have limited space and want to transport their Cricut.
Best materials to use
Depending on the machine you get, a Cricut can handle a variety of materials. The “best” materials will depend on your project, but some popular options include:
- Adhesive vinyl for wall decals or party decorations
- Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV) for fabric-based materials
- Cardstock for scrapbooks or 3D paper crafts
- Vellum for invitations or decorative overlays
- Faux leather for earrings, keychains, and other accessories
- Fabrics for sewing projects and custom patches
- Chipboard or balsa for frames, signs, or 3D crafts
- Infusible Ink transfer sheets for vibrant, permanent designs on fabric
Software and design resources
For beginners, Cricut Design Space is the starting point. It’s free and integrated with Cricut machines. Cricut also has its own library of images, ready-to-cut projects, and fonts called Cricut Access. It’s a paid tool, but you can use it in Design Space with no importing or conversion.
For more advanced users, you can mix and match different tools like:
- Adobe Illustrator for professional vector editing tools
- Canva for quick, eye-catching graphics and designs
- Creative Fabrica for a huge selection of designs for cutting machines
When using non-Cricut design software with your machine, you’ll just need to save your designs in a format Design Space can recognize, which is SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics).
Design Space is the computer software that communicates with your Cricut machine. Even if you create your design in Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, or another program, you’ll ultimately need to import it into Design Space to send cutting instructions to your machine.
Cricut business ideas FAQ
Are Cricut businesses profitable?
Yes. It is possible to make money selling Cricut crafts. Buying a Cricut machine costs upward of $179, and you have to purchase the materials you need to use, but the startup expenses are relatively low.
What is the salary of a Cricut maker?
A Cricut maker’s salary depends on sales volumes and profit margins. You can estimate yours by creating a Cricut business plan and projecting your expenses and total sales.
Can I start a Cricut business from home?
Because Cricut machines are about the size of the average home printer, it’s possible to start and operate a Cricut business from home. You also can operate from rented workspace if your business outgrows your home.