For $24.99, you can purchase a set of Cricut tools at your local craft store. If you want them for less, you have to wait for a sale, because they're normally considered "papercrafting machine accessories" and excluded from coupons. So, do you bite the bullet and shell out $25 for a box of tools? Not if you're a cheapskate with a Cricut.
The set of tools contains a spatula, mat scraper, weeding tool, tweezers, and scissors (with protective cap). Let's look at those in reverse order.
You're a papercrafter. You're the kind of person who would buy a Cricut in the first place. At least I hope you are, if you're reading this blog; otherwise, you're very, very lost. So it can be assumed that you own a pair of scissors. Also another pair of scissors. And a third one. And probably more other pairs of scissors than any sane person really needs, not least because they are included with various things. On my craft workbench, I have no fewer than three pairs of different sizes. I really don't need to buy another pair. If I do find a need for more, discount stores and office supply stores sell an excellent assortment for under $3.00.
Then there's the tweezers. If there's anything I have more of than scissors it's tweezers. Little ones, big ones, foot-long ones to dangle food in front of my pet snakes with, I have all sizes. Like scissors, they tend to come with other things. I certainly don't need to buy more of them just to have a cheery little bug face on the handle. But if I need more, Harbor Freight has my back; they sell a set of 6 pairs of various sizes, shapes, and descriptions for $4.99. The cosmetics section of drugstores is another good source for really excellent tweezers for lifting and moving little pieces of paper.
Now, that weeding tool. That's certainly a must-have. I use mine all the time. Except mine doesn't have that little bug on the handle, either. Actually, mine is one of a set of four of various shapes (and it's extremely handy to have several, especially that little hook-shaped one for getting the inside flaps of 3D objects closed). Harbor Freight for the win, again -- they were $1.99. The price is nominally $4.99, but this is Harbor Freight we're talking about; I've never actually seen them sold for that.
Incidentally, there's a Harbor Freight store right next door to my nearest Jo-Ann's, so I've got it good. You might have to look around a bit more. But if you'd rather spend your money on things like cardstock (or more Cricut cartridges!) instead of overpriced tweezers, it's worth looking. Big-box discount retailers, even dollar stores, often have things that will serve the purpose quite nicely.
Next there's the mat scraper. As anyone who has ever tried to get those little bits of paper that adhere to a cutting mat loose knows, that's essential. I can tell you from experience that paper cuts under your fingernails hurt, hurt, hurt. But does it have to say Cricut on it? If not, you can get one where I did: in the grocery store. They're sold as pan or counter scrapers, for under $2. I actually have one of the real ones (it came with some Cricut stuff at a yard sale) and I've never used it; I like my grocery-store one better. For one thing, it's slightly wider, and the edge is thinner.
Finally we get to the one essential item: that little spatula. Now there hangs a problem. I have two spatulas. One, with a pointed end, is from Slice -- it came with the Slice deluxe set I bought on a clearance sale at a discount store. The other is a real Cricut one -- the old one. The one you can't get anymore, except for ridiculous prices on eBay. Yes, that same yard sale was involved in how and why I have mine. Provo Craft sells one now, packaged with a scraper, but it's a smaller size and in my opinion not nearly as useful as the old style. If I had to buy one, I'd get the Cgull 3-piece spatula set; it includes a pointy one like my Slice spatula and a wide one like the old-style Cricut spatula. You can get the 3-pack for around $10 or less.
And when I was looking up prices for that spatula, I found Cgull's papercrafting toolkit. If I did in fact have a need for all this stuff, instead of rummaging in my drawers, buying from Harbor Freight, etc., that's the one I'd go with. For a list price of $25.99 (and therefore cheaper just about everywhere) you get two sizes of spatulas, two weeders, scissors, tweezers (the self-closing kind), an X-Acto knife with spare blades, two scrapers, and a bone folder, all in their own separate pockets or elastics inside a rather nice-looking case.
Speaking of bone folders, now there's something absolutely essential for a papercrafter. I don't really get why the Cricut tool kit contains scissors, which we all have multiple pairs of, but no bone folder, which most people don't have lying around (I do, but I'm a leatherworker). If you've never used one, it's basically a stiff, tapered plastic tool, originally used by bookbinders, that you use for creasing, folding, scoring, rubbing, smoothing, and otherwise doing things to paper. If you want a nice crease in a card you're making, for example, forget running the back of your scissors down it; use your bone folder. You need this, and it's not in the Cricut tool kit. It is, however, available in craft stores, and only a few dollars if you have the weekly coupon.
There are papercrafting tools all around us. They're sold in Harbor Freight and Target, the dollar store and the drugstore. You just have to look at them with the right eyes.
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