Top 10 Cricut Cartridges for Cardmaking

Top 10 Most Versatile Cartridges for Card Making and WHY!

1.       George and Basic Shapes: This is a tough one to get your hands on, but if you find it, grab it. This Cartridge has a cute font as well as all of your “Basic Shapes”! When combined with the Cricut Design Studio, the possibilities are ENDLESS!!!

2.      Create A Critter: I love this Cartridge because all of the animals are so Darn Cute! A LOT can be done with this cartridge from using the adorable animals to make baby and birthday cards, to using certain animals (reindeer, turkey, Chick, Bunny etc.) for holiday cards! Plus all of the added icons are handy to have as well. PLEASE REMEMBER TO USE ALL OF YOUR CHEESY PUNS with this cartridge: Cow (Udderly Adorable), Monkey (Let’s Hang Out), Bee (Bee Mine)…. I could go on forever! I also consider a pack of wiggle eyes to be a must have with this cartridge!

3.      Doodlecharms: Again, a good basic cartridge with a mash up of a little bit of everything! There is a lot you can do with this cartridge from birthdays to holidays and I find myself using it quite a bit.

4.     Indie Art Solutions: This is BY FAR my favorite Solutions Cartridge EVER!!!!! The images are really cool and not “Cutesy” like most other cartridges. I cannot tell you how often I use this cartridge! It is an awesome one to have on hand for making masculine cards and ones for teenagers who are in their “I-Am-Way-Too-Cool-For-This-World” phase! You can use the guitars for “You Rock” cards or birthday cards… again, just a really cool set of graphics on this cartridge… I urge you to get it!

5.      Storybook: This is always my “Go-To” Font! It is so classy and elegant! The layers are wonderful and can add something really special to your card or layout (I find I use this a lot for titling my scrapbook pages as well)! For cards, I would use this more for Monograms, but there are a lot of features and variety packed onto this cartridge! **TIP** Try embossing some of the layers! It will end up being such a cool look and add another dimension to your project!

6.     Life’s A Beach: This is a must have for me and anyone else that lives in Florida! So much can be done with this cartridge, but I find I have used it more for scrapbook pages and invitations more than I have for cards. There are a lot of extra icons and features on this cartridge as well as a super cute font! 

7.      Sweet Treats: I cannot tell you how many cards I have used this for! This is a great one to keep on hand. It contains cute images from cakes, cupcakes, and sundaes to very cute sets of numbers. You can whip up a really nice invitation, birthday or Valentine’s Day card in no time with this one!

8.      Designers Calendar: I really thought I would NEVER use this cartridge because I would NEVER make a calendar. Trish taught me to “Think Outside The Box” with this one and to learn to love it for its added icons and words! Now I use it often. Think about it, this cartridge has EVERY holiday, month, day of the week and number on it as well as coordinating icons! I have also used its “Calendar Graphs” as grids to make behavior and chore charts! I LOVE IT!!! You will get use of it for ANY card! 

9.     Happy Hauntings: For years after purchasing my Cricut I asked, “When will Provocraft come out with a Halloween Cartridge?” They heard me and slammed me with 3 in one year! It is hard for me to pick a favorite because I really do love them all. I find that this is the most versatile because the images range from “cutesy” to “Spooky” to cover all the bases for card making. If you only make “Cutesy” children-friendly cards, I would suggest going with “Mini Monsters” OR If you like to capture Halloween in all of its Gory Glory and make creepy adult-friendly cards or invites, I would suggest “October 31 Solutions Cartridge”. But if you want a little of everything, this is the cartridge for you.

10   Christmas Solutions OR Winter Woodlands: Last but not least, everyone should have a good “winter-themed” cartridge. I listed 2 for 2 reasons: If you make a lot of Christmas Cards, I would suggest the Christmas Solutions cartridge BUT it is retired. Getting your hands on this one may be tricky, but worth it if you make a lot of Holiday cards or pages. Winter Woodlands is a good runner up and maybe more versatile because it is geared more towards the winter season than the winter “holidays". Both contain images that I would consider more classy than cute. The WW cartridge also contains a really sweet font as well as 3-d projects that are NOT complicated. **TIP** I used the 3-d trees on WW as an art project for 6 and 7 year olds. I cut out the trees for them and let them decorate the trees with sequins and glitter. Once dried, they were used as holiday decorations around the house!