With the Cricut Explore machine, makers can easily and precisely cut more than 50 materials for their projects, ranging from paper, chipboard and wood veneer to aluminum sheets to leather.

Use a program like 3D builder -- free with Windows PCs -- to emboss names onto 3D models and you can make this a truly personal award.

The Joy is mainly limited to paper and vinyl projects; the more expensive machines allow you to cut a wider variety of materials, and create projects with etching tools, debossing tips and so on.

The Bambu H2D isn’t just a bigger 3D printer — it’s a laser cutter, pen plotter, and Cricut competitor too What if your 3D printer, Cricut, GlowForge, and iDraw were all the same machine?