SHOP UPDATE PREVIEW + I fixed my Cricut

HELLO FRIENDS I am,,, so so happy to say I fixed the (main) issue I was having with my Cricut, which allowed me to finish making the sticker designs that I planned on releasing for my next shop update 🎉 I mentioned in my last post that I was so defeated with fighting with my Cricut -- a bunch of new issues came up that I've never had troubles with previously, and on top of that, the quality of my cuts was going in a downhill trajectory as I went through troubleshooting (truly evil). my cuts were off centered and the bottom half of a sheet was even moreso off centered, plus I was having infuriating registration mark issues,, and,, so,,, much.. went wrong.

I really wanted to do a shop update in the first half of this month but most of my designs were stickers. I went back and forth on figuring out what to do and almost ended up outsourcing stickers which I really didn't want to have to do as I have everything at home to make my own (minus a functioning cutting machine) since it felt like a big expense. in a final act of desperation, I decided to try replacing the rollers on my Cricut since I noticed them actually falling apart and BEGGED that to solve my issues, and if not, I was going to find somewhere I could get a Silhouette cutter with a payment option 🤡

good news is replacing the rollers fixed (most of) my woes!!!!!! the more I learn about Cricut as a company, the more I am convinced they're fucking evil ??? I saw a Reddit thread about someone reaching out about their own rollers to get replaced, and Cricut responded by saying "sorry we don't sell those but here's a (bad) coupon so you can buy another machine" SO I did buy the new rollers off of Amazon


most of the help online regarding replacing your rollers involves quite literally tearing your machine apart which honestly ?? why would I do that to myself. why would I even attempt that. do I trust myself to disassemble my Cricut? sure. do I trust myself to be able to reassemble it? absolutely not. as soon as I realized that was the way to do this I immediately dismissed it, but THEN I found a lovely angel on YouTube who showed that she replaced hers by cutting the roller apart and just... kind of wrapping it around, then glueing the seam. absolutely genius.

it is kind of obvious that the rollers were my issue - I guess at some point it must've had direct sun contact because as we can see.. she... melted a bit. towards the end of my fight with this machine I was having to push it back into place since it kept moving to the left, which was the first time I even noticed the roller was fucked up.

all I had to do was use an x-acto knife to cut off the old rollers, cut a slit into each of the new ones, then pop them on! I still have yet to glue the seam but I actually haven't had any issues with using the Cricut as-is :D (also the new rollers seem like they're SO much better quality -- way firmer and feel like they'll last a long time)

I'm still running into issues with my Cricut reading registration marks, even on matte paper, so I've come to terms with needing to close the blinds and cut off any lights when using it. annoying but at this point? I'm just glad I could make stickers.

I was going to do my shop update next week and get everything ready on my end today, but my period has kind of been kicking my ass so I'm giving myself some leeway and am probably going to push the shop update off until a week and a half/two weeks from now. I'll make posts on a bunch of socials to keep you guys updated for when that happens!!! I'm also on a sticker sheet high and may or may not have another design for the shop update (maybe some prints too?? idk)

thank you for following along with my Cricut disaster, and I still plan on upgrading to a Silhouette in the nearish future to avoid further Cricut based emotional damage

♡ Chrissy