Moving from the Cricut Expression to the Explore

Well, tonight I made the first step towards using my new Cricut Explore machine.  I have had the Cricut Expression for YEARS, and then I added a Gypsy to my Cricut collection.  I liked that the Gypsy allowed me to alter some of the images I already owned.

So, I had MOST of my Cricut cartridges linked to my Gypsy.  With the Explore I will have to use the Cricut Design Space software to layout, adjust or alter any of my images.  So first I had to download the Cricut Craft Room software and once I logged into that software with my Cricut account there was an option to link my Gypsy to the Cricut Craft Room.  I thought it would take a while to do, but it was done in less than 2 minutes.  Easy!

Then I logged into Cricut Design Space, and at first I did not see my cartridges so I contacted the Cricut help desk and they recommended I log out of my account and then log back in.  I was happy to see that once I did that, I could see all of my cartridges that were linked to my Gypsy on my account.

SUCCESS!

If you cannot see your linked cartridges, go File > New and you will open up a virtual mat.
Click on Insert Image.
Then click on the funnel shape on the upper right side of the screen . . . I circled it in red in the image below.

Once you click on this, you can choose from just images on Cricut Access, My Images (which shows images you have purchased, are linked to your account or free images you can use) or you can choose to view images you have uploaded.

So now I can see all of the images that are on the cartridges that I have linked to my Gypsy in Design Space.  Now I can start to design with those, and cut them with my Explore.

I really thought the process of transferring all of those cartridges over so that I could use them in Design Space would take a long time, but I think it took longer to type up this blog post than it did to transfer the images.