We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Delonda Ford a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Delonda , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?

I purchased a Cricut Explore Air 2 for my twin daughters as a Christmas gift in 2020. To my surprise, they didn’t want it and showed absolutely no interest in using it.

So I just figured I would learn how to use it and possibly go into sales. I quickly learned 2 hard lessons very fast: 1. Sales are not my thing and 2. There is a very steep learning curve for learning how to use Cricut Design Space.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hello Everyone!

My name is Delonda Ford and the name of my YouTube Channel is Crafting with Delonda. On my channel, I create video tutorials to inspire and teach others how to use a Cricut cutting machine. Believe it or not, I purchased my very first Cricut in November of 2020 for my daughters, as a Christmas gift. To my surprise, they had no interest in learning how to use it. Since I could not return it, I decided to take it out of the box and learn about all of the amazing things I could do with the machine.

I quickly learned that the machine and the software come with a very steep learning curve and it is not something that anyone can just learn to do over night. I have spent countless hours being frustrated because I really didn’t know what I was doing, and I decided that I did not want anyone to have these same experiences.

After posting a few of my successful projects on Facebook, one of my former co-workers suggested that I start a YouTube channel, and I laughed and wholeheartedly said, “Girl please, I would have 2 subscribers…me and you.” Well, after some time to think about it, I decided to take a chance and the rest as they say, is history.

I just received my Silver YouTube Play Button for reaching 100,000 subscribers and I am so grateful that I someone believed in me enough to encourage me to start a channel.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Since the very beginning of my journey as a content creator, my “why” has always remained the same. My goal and my purpose for being a content creator is to teach and inspire others to take their machine out of the box and use it. For this reason, I try my best to be thorough and do everything in a step-by-step manner that is easy enough to follow along with. I make mistakes and I think it’s important to share my mistakes with everyone. I feel that people will learn what to do if they happen to make the same mistakes. I always say, “perfection is overrated”.

I realize that everyone does not learn at the same pace, so I want be mindful of the fact that while some people in my community are familiar with the technical jargon that comes along with learning how to use a Cricut, there are others who are watching one of my tutorials for the very first time. My goal is to share every single thing I know about how to use a Cricut in a way that anyone can learn how to do it.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Two of the most rewarding aspects of being a content creator is when someone says that I have inspired them to take their machine out of the box. It makes me feel good when someone says that they are willing to try something because of how I made it easy for them to understand. It makes me feel like I am fulfilling my “why”.

Lastly, I feel so honored and blessed about the Facebook community that I have established. It is a group that I started so that new crafters would have a safe space to share their work, get help, and encourage others. It feels so much like a family and I love it. The rules of the group are simple…like it, love it, or keep scrolling!

Contact Info:

• Website: craftingwithdelonda.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/craftingwithdelonda/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083303854321
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CraftingwithDelonda