I Got a Cricut Joy, Thoughts/Review

 Hey Y'all!

Hubby recently got me a Cricut Joy, mostly to use when traveling. I've done a few projects with it, and am ready to give my thoughts.

Find Joy here:

https://cricut.com/en-us/cricut-joy

It was extremely easy to set up, however it's important to note it's used exclusively through Bluetooth. The few projects I've done were fairly simple, and worked out well. (Mobile is still not my favorite way to use DS, but I don't have Bluetooth capabilities on my PC.)

Here's a short video of the Joy in action:

It's very quiet, and a huge space saver, as well as lightweight. Very easy to craft virtually anywhere.

Here's my pro/con list:

PRO~

1) Compact, easy to travel with/simple to store.

2) Lightweight, easy to move around/carry anywhere.

3) Quiet.

4) Easy to use, blades and pens/markers swap out with ease.

5) Ability to use Smart Materials. (4ft max length, single cut)

6) Perfect for card makers, so many potential projects already in Design Space.

7) Most affordable of the Cricut machines.

8) The most FREE designs in DS are for the Joy.

CONS~

There are only two that I can think of, but they're biggies...

1) Size limitations, at just around 5in max width really limits your potential projects.

2) Can only cut a few select materials (more limitations).

So do I recommend?

It depends on what you want to do. 

I really like the Joy, and got it for a specific reason, and it's prefect for that. However I mostly do shirts, and other apparel- I think that'd be far more difficult and troublesome with just the Joy. If you want to do mostly smaller crafts, or cards, the Joy may be perfect for you. If you think you want to do other/larger crafts I'd go for the larger machines. 

I do find it interesting that in an initial search Cricut website doesn't even list the Joy on their comparison chart:

https://cricut.com/blog/cricut-machine-comparison/

If you dig a bit deeper you can find one that includes ALL the machines:

https://help.cricut.com/hc/en-us/articles/360009505193-Cricut-Machines-Comparison?gclid=CjwKCAjw586hBhBrEiwAQYEnHQbOmKTF6rOly_LR_1WtHPZqCZy6OrWfishgAWCotrHHKCMA-2-Z7hoCKuQQAvD_BwE

To finish up, I really enjoy the machine, but if I could only have one I'd save up and chose the Air 2, or Maker. I think the Joy is a great little machine but by itself it wouldn't do everything I wanted/needed it to do. 

What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below!

Have a great day,

Craftin' Wife