Easy Dirt Pudding Recipe without Cream Cheese

How to make a doormat with Cricut Iron-On Vinyl to form a stencil that is more leak proof than any other methods. This is the easiest and most effective method for creating a doormat with Cricut. The results have nice crisp edges, even with intricate paterns.

There's several popular methods for using your Cricut to create a doormat.  We're going to use iron-on vinyl to create a stencil, and look at why it's the easiest and most effective way to use your Cricut to make a doormat.  

You might also like How To Sharpen Your Cricut Blade, How To Make Earrings With Your Cricut, and the Beginner's Guide to Cricut Mats.

Create a Custom Look

Making a custom doormat is a fun way to create exactly what you're looking for.  Take a boring, plain doormat and choose your own saying, name, house number, fonts, and colors to create your custom look.  These are great for decorating your front porch, or for giving as gifts for friends to use at their front door, or even for selling.  Start with a blank doormat and turn it into a funny doormat that welcomes guests, or a pretty doormat that matches your personal style.  

Materials:

Why Iron-On Vinyl?

There's many popular different ways to create a doormat using your Cricut machine.  Using iron-on vinyl to create a stencil is the easiest way to create a doormat with your Cricut.  I've tested out several other popular methods, but they all have more draw backs than advantages. 

Regular Vinyl

One popular method is to cut out regular adhesive vinyl and then adhere it to your doormat to create a stencil.  The problem with trying to create a doormat this way is that you can not use transfer tape with a doormat.  The doormat itself is too rough and textured for the transfer tape to adhere to it, making it impossible to peel off of the vinyl.  

Some people try to use vinyl as a sticker stencil.  The problem is that the sticker stencil is quite large -large enough to fit a doormat, and also usually full of a detailed design, including intricate fonts.  It's extremely difficult to remove the vinyl from the backing and then stick it down on to large doormats without it getting all stuck to itself and turning into a sticker ball, rather than a nice flat stencil.  

If you do manage to get it down onto your mat, the regular vinyl doesn't stick well to the outdoor mat, so it won't create nice crisp lines for you stencil. The paint often seeps under the stencil and results in a messy paint job.

Stencil Vinyl

You might think Cricut stencil vinyl would be easier to use.  It is almost as difficult to work with vinyl stencil as it is to work with regular vinyl for this project.  It has the same problem, since it's also sticky on the back, and hard to move from the carrier sheet to the doormat.

Freezer Paper Stencil

Some people like to use freezer paper and then iron it onto the mat.  The small bit of wax melts into the coir material of the doormat and sticks, helping create crisp edges to the stencil.  The problem with using freezer paper is that it's so delicate that it's very difficult to get it off of the sticky cutting mat all in one piece.  

Some people work in small pieces rather than the entire design, and then piece it together on the doormat as a work around, but it's still flimsy, and very difficult to work with, without tearing it when removing it from the Cricut mat.  It's also difficult to position the cut out part of the design, like the inside of letters.  

And with all of these methods you will still need something like painter's tape, or straight pins to help hold certain places down, as well as a hair dryer or iron to try and help make either one stick to the doormat.  Both of these methods often result in frustration and wasted materials.  I found the best way to create a doormat is to use iron-on vinyl to create a stencil with your Cricut machine.  This is such a good option for saving frustration.

What Kind Of Paint Should You Use For A Doormat?

We used regular acrylic craft paint for our doormat.  It offered the best range of colors for our rainbow color scheme.  It is not the most durable paint.  We gave it two coats of paint in most places and applied it until it was opaque.  It may wear off after a season or two, depending on how much foot traffic your welcome mat gets.  You could spray it with a clear outdoor acrylic spray to help protect it.  You could also use a detail brush to touch up any areas that need it in the future.

Some people like to use different kinds of paint for doormats that are more durable.  Many people recommend using flex seal, because it gives really great coverage and is long lasting.  It's available in limited colors, but it's a great option if you're just using black or white.  Just make sure you spray it in a well-ventilated area.

Another option is using an outdoor acrylic paint, or an exterior paint that will be more long lasting and hard wearing then regular acrylic paint.

Free "Hello Sunshine" Cricut Cut File

If you want to create a mat exactly the way I did, search for "Life is a Party" using the search bar on the home page of Cricut Design Space.  Scroll down to the bottom of the screen to the Community Members section, and click on the follow button for "Life is a Party -Dannyelle Nicolle-Ramjist".  On my profile page, click on the "Hello Sunshine Doormat" project, and choose to customize or make it.  Or use this link directly to the Cricut Design Space cut file.

Video Tutorial

Check out our step by step tutorial video, to see exactly how to create your own custom doormat.

Instructions:

1. Design Your Mat In Cricut Design Space

Create a mat template by adding a square shape to the canvas, unlock the measurements and adjust to the size of your doormat. Change the colour to brown.

Add a text box and type the word "hello". Change the font to Babette.

Add another text box with the word "summer" all in capital letters, in the Cricut Sans font.

Drag the text boxes down to the lower right of the brown rectangle mat template and adjust the font sizes. Use the letter space box along the top menu to adjust letter spacing in the word "summer".

When you're happy with the word sizes, select both and use the align center along the top menu to align them.While they're still both selected use the attach button at the bottom of the layers panel to attach them.

Use hide button beside the brown square mat template to hide it from the canvas so that it will not cut out. Use the save button to save your project.

Or use our "Hello Sunshine" Cricut design in Cricut Design Space.

2. Cutting Out Your Iron-On Vinyl Stencil

Click make it. Be sure to turn mirror on. Select your iron-on vinyl from the materials list. We used a Cricut Maker 3, so we took advantage of the ability to create oversize pieces and used smart vinyl. If you are using a regular Cricut you could make the design a smaller size, cut it out in multiple pieces, or use a 12 x 24 inch cutting mat.

If you're using smart iron-on vinyl, feed the smart vinyl into your Cricut with the shiny side down. If you're cutting your iron-on vinyl out on a mat, be sure to to apply it shiny side down.

3. Weed Your Vinyl

After the material is cut on the Cricut, use your weeding tool to remove the letters. Remember you're reverse weeding this project and removing the letters, and keeping the background to create a stencil.

4. Apply The Stencil To The Mat

Position your iron-on stencil on your blank coir doormat and use the Easy Press or an iron to apply it. We pressed at 310 degrees for about 30 sec. at a time. Slowly work the heat press over the entire piece, moving your Easy Press section by section. While the vinyl is still hot, use a small scraper tool to burnish it. Take special care around the inside of the letters, and any very small pieces,

Once the iron-on is cool to the touch, you can try to slowly remove the backer piece. If the vinyl is not fully adhered, repress again. This part may take several attempts, and touch ups in some areas. Save the backer piece, and set aside for later.

5. Paint Your Doormat

Use a dapping down motion to stencil the letters with your paint, using a regular paint brush or stencil brushes. Use just a little bit of paint for each coat, so that excess paint doesn't seep underneath, and so you create nice crisp edges to your letters. You may want to give it a second coat of paint for full coverage. We used black paint for "hello" and rainbow colors for "Sunshine".

6. Remove The Stencil

Once the paint is dry remove the iron-on vinyl, by peeling it off of the doormat. If it's difficult to remove, use the Easy Press at 310 degrees and press for 20 seconds. Be sure to replace the backer piece before pressing so that the vinyl doesn't stick to your Easy Press. Use the weeder tool to remove little pieces, like the insides of the letters

More Cricut Inspiration

Frequently Asked Questions

If you try this Doormat Made With A Cricut Iron-On Stencil or any other idea on my blog please leave a star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting today!

Recipe

How To Make A Doormat With Cricut and Iron-On Vinyl

5 from 1 vote

Print Pin Rate

Cook Time: 1 hour hour

Total Time: 1 hour hour

Servings: 1 Doormat

Author: Dannyelle Nicolle-Ramjist

Cost: $20

Equipment

• Cricut Easy Press or iron
• Cricut cutting machine

Materials

• blank coir door mat
• iron-on smart vinyl or regular vinyl with a standard grip cutting mat
• craft paints
• paint brush
• "Hello Sunshine" Cricut Design Space Cut File

Instructions

• Create Design

  If you want to create a mat exactly the way I did, search for "Life is a Party" using the search bar on the home page of Cricut Design Space. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen to the Community Members section, and click on the follow button for "Life is a Party -Dannyelle Nicolle-Ramjist". On my profile page, click on the "Hello Sunshine Doormat" project, and choose to customize or make it.

  If you want to create a different version, follow this tutorial and change the words, fonts, and locations to create your own design. Begin with a blank canvas in Cricut Design Space.

  Create a mat template by adding a square shape to the canvas, unlock the measurements and adjust to the size of your doormat. Change the colour to brown.

  The next step is to add a text box and type the word "hello". Change the font to Babette.

  Add another text box with the word "summer" all in capital letters, in the Cricut Sans font.

  Drag the text boxes down to the lower right of the brown rectangle mat template and adjust the font sizes. Use the letter space box along the top menu to adjust letter spacing in the word "summer".

  When you're happy with the word sizes, select both and use the align center along the top menu to align them.While they're still both selected use the attach button at the bottom of the layers panel to attach them.

  Use hide button beside the brown square mat template to hide it from the canvas so that it will not cut out. Use the save button to save your project.
• Cut Out The Iron-On Vinyl

  Click make it. Be sure to turn mirror on. Select your iron-on vinyl from the materials list. We used a Cricut Maker 3, so we took advantage of the ability to create oversize pieces and used smart vinyl. If you are using a regular Cricut you could make the design a smaller size, cut it out in multiple pieces, or use a 12 x 24 inch cutting mat.

  If you're using smart iron-on vinyl, feed the smart vinyl into your Cricut with the shiny side down. If you're cutting your iron-on vinyl out on a mat, be sure to to apply it shiny side down.
• Weed Stencil

  After the material is cut on the Cricut, use your weeding tool to remove the letters. Remember you're reverse weeding this project and removing the letters, and keeping the background to create a stencil.
• Apply Stencil To The Mat

  Position your iron-on stencil on your blank coir doormat and use the Easy Press or an iron to apply it. We pressed at 310 degrees for about 30 sec. at a time. Slowly work the heat press over the entire piece, moving your Easy Press section by section. While the vinyl is still hot, use a small scraper tool to burnish it. Take special care around the inside of the letters, and any very small pieces.

  Once the iron-on is cool to the touch, you can try to slowly remove the backer piece. If the vinyl is not fully adhered, repress again. This part may take several attempts, and touch ups in some areas. Save the backer piece, and set aside for later.
• Paint The Doormat

  Use a dapping down motion to stencil the letters with your paint, using a regular paint brush or stencil brushes. Use just a little bit of paint for each coat, so that excess paint doesn't seep underneath, and so you create nice crisp edges to your letters. You may want to give it a second coat of paint for full coverage. We used black paint for "hello" and rainbow colors for "Sunshine".
• Remove The Stencil

  Once the paint is dry remove the iron-on vinyl. If it's difficult to remove, use the Easy Press at 310 degrees and press for 20 seconds. Be sure to replace the backer piece before pressing so that the vinyl doesn't stick to your Easy Press. Use the weeder tool to remove little pieces, like the insides of the letters

Notes

Because the heat transfer vinyl is removed after it's used as a stencil don't worry if there's a few wrinkles in it after you've applied it to the doormat.  The main important thing is that it's well sealed around the edges of the words or images.  

Also, because the vinyl will be removed after it's used as a stencil, feel free to use up any colors you're not too fond of, or look for iron-on vinyl that's on sale, because the color or pattern won't matter at all.

The Beginner's Guide To Cricut Mat Sizes and Types: learn exactly which cutting mat to use for which project, with free printable guide.

When you first get a Cricut machine it feels like there is a lot to learn, and it can be very confusing. Today we're going to take a deep dive into Cricut mats. We talk about what they are and how to you use them, and then get into how you know what Cricut mat sizes to choose, and what colour mat you need which depends on the material your cutting. It can feel a little complicated at first, but I promise that by the end you'll know exactly what mats to buy and when to use them for all your Cricut projects.

What Is A Cutting Mat?

First things first, what are Cricut cutting mats, and why do I need one? A cutting mat is what you use to hold your material while the cutting machine is cutting it. They are sticky to hold your material as the blade passes through it. If your mat isn't sticky enough (they lose their stick with use) then your material may slide out of place and be ruined during the cutting process. Check out this post on The Best Way To Clean A Cricut Cutting Mat.

The different mats come in different colours. Each colour is a different level of tack or stickiness designed to hold different materials.

Cricut mats are covered in a 1 inch grid to make lining things up and measuring easier. If you're having trouble picturing a finished project size, use the grip mat like a ruler to figure your finished project size. There is also centimetre metric measurements along 2 sides.

Mats have a top and bottom, the top is the edge with the hole for hanging at the top. You can feed either the top or bottom into your Cricut machine. Varying which end you feed into your machine will help your cutting mat wear more evenly. You can not feed the sides of the mat into the Cricut machine first.

Do I Always Need A Mat?

No you don't always need a cutting mat. If you have a Cricut Maker 3, a Cricut Explorer 3, or a Cricut Joy machine then you can use smart materials without a mat. Keep in mind though that this only works for what Cricut labels smart material, and even with these newer machines many materials still require a mat to cut them. Chances are that even with a new machine you will still need to use a mat sometimes.

Cricut Cutting Mat Colours and Types

In the Cricut world, cutting mats come in different colours and the colours correspond to different types of cricut mats. The different types of mats have different grip strengths. One of the most common questions is which mat do I use?

The Cricut can cut such a wide variety of materials. For each new project, you will have to choose which cutting mat is best for the material you using.

Blue -Lightgrip Mat

The blue mat is the light grip mat and is designed to be used for lighter materials. You would choose this blue lightgrip mat to cut more delicate materials, and lightweight materials.

You would use this mat to cut out:

• scrapbook paper
• light cardstock
• regular office copy paper or printer paper
• vellum
• construction paper
• wrapping paper

Green -The Standardgrip Mat

The green mat is the standard grip mat and is the mat you will probably use 90% of the time to cut the most common materials. This mat is the most of the multi-purpose mats, and standard mats can be used with a wide range of medium-weight materials.

You would use the Standard Grip mat for cutting:

• cardstock
• permanent or removable vinyl
• Iron-on (HTV -heat transfer vinyl) vinyl
• sticker paper
• infusible ink

Purple -StrongGrip Mat

This purple mat is the strong grip mat, and used for heavier material that requires a stronger, sticky-er mat to hold them. At times this mat is used with the addition of painters tape around the outside of the thicker material, for even greater hold. The purple stronggrip mat is necessary for heavyweight materials.

• heavy cardstock
• glitter cardstock
• balsa wood, or basswood
• chipboard
• poster board
• leather
• cork
• magnet sheets

Pink -The Fabricgrip Mat

The pink mat is the fabric mat, and designed to hold fabric. This fabric grip mat is used with bonded fabric for the Explore machine , or with the rotary blade for the Cricut Maker machines.

• fabric
• felt
• crepe paper

Free Cricut Mat Cheat Sheet Here

We have a free cheat sheet that you can print and refer to anytime you need to see what materials you can cut with which Cricut cutting mat. Never get confused about the different grips again. It's available for free to any of our subscribers. Subscribe below for instant access.

What If I Don't Choose The Correct Mat?

Since Cricut cutting mats come in different grip strengthsIf you use a mat that is not sticky enough to hold your material, it may slide during the process and ruin the cut.

If you choose a type of mat that is too sticky, it may be difficult to remove your material resulting it rolling and curling or ripping.

Cricut Cutting Mat Sizes

Cricut cutting mats come in a variety of sizes and are available at the craft store. The different sizes are useful for cutting out different size projects. The material size will help you choose the cutting mat size.

Explore and Maker Series Cutting Mats

12 x 12 Mat with 11.5 x 11.5 Cutting Space

The standard cutting mat size for all of the Explore and Maker series Cricut machines is 12 x 12. You will definitely need this size of mat in your collection. You can buy the lightgrip, standardgrip, stronggrip, and fabricgrip mats in this size. A lot of the materials, like scrapbook paper, cardstock, and vinyl are sold in 12 x 12 sheets.

The mat size is slightly larger than the cutting area. Cricut Design Space requires a ½ inch margin to ensure that the edge of a projects isn't cut off.

12 x 24 Mat with 11.5 x 23.5 Cutting Space

If you are making larger projects, you can also get a 12 x 24 size mat. This is excellent for big projects like larger signs. It allows you to make larger projects, without having to split a design up into smaller pieces.

There is also something called Larger Than Mat projects, these are often things like a large character cutout that you might use as party decor. These projects are larger than even the largest mats and are typically carefully divided into pieces that are then glued together. The over size 12 x 24 mat is very helpful for these projects.

Cricut Card Mat 2 x 2

This new Cricut mat is based on the popularity of the Joy card mat. It allows all Explore and Maker machine users to cut out up to 4 folded greeting cards at a time, and is compatible with all of Cricuts insert and cutaway cards.

Cricut Joy Cutting Mats

4.5 x 6.5 Mat with 4 x 6 Cutting Area

This is the regular sized mat for the Cricut Joy, that you will use most often.

4.5 x 12 Mat with 4.5 x 11 Cutting Area

This is the longer mat for the Cricut Joy, that will allow you to cut longer projects on your Joy.

Cricut Joy Card Mat

This mat is specially design to be used for card making. It is compatible with all of Cricuts insert and cutaway cards.

How Many Cutting Mats Do I Need?

This depends on what materials you are cutting on your Cricut machine. You will definitely need green standardbrip mats. I recommend having at least two of them, so that if you are cutting out a large project you can be loading one into the machine, and unloading the first one during the second cut time. This will help cut down the cutting time of larger projects.

You may want to buy the rest of the mats as you need them. It of course handy to have at least one of each colour, and perhaps the oversized version of the green mat. You may also want to have a new spare one on hand for each colour also. There's nothing more frustrating than getting already to cut out a new project and discovering you can't make it because your old mat is worn out and not sticky enough.

Mat Care

How do you care for your Cricut cutting mat?

The first step to maintain a sticky mat is to be sure to clean off any leftover paper, or debris after cutting. Use the scraper tool with a little bit of pressure or use tweezers to remove anything from the machine mat. Some people like to use a lint roller to remove debris from their cutting mat, especially after cutting fabric.

The second step, and one of the easiest ways to keep your mat sticky is to always replace the transparent cover to any cutting mat after you're finished using it, and to store it with this protective cover in place. This will greatly increase the life of your mat.

Another tip is to rotate the mat and use the bottom as the top sometimes. Often the top of the mat, in the left corner is the first area on a mat to lose its stick, because it's the most used. When cutting smaller materials you can place your material in another less used area, and move the object on the cut preview screen.

What If My Cutting Mat Isn't Sticky?

If you're cutting mat has lost its stickiness you can clean your Cricut mat. Read all about how to use baby wipes, or mild dish soap to to clean a cutting mat that isn't sticky anymore here.

Cricut mats don't last forever. You can expect to get around 40-50 cuts out of your mat before having to replace it. Watch for sales, or multi packs to help save on the cost of replacing them.

TroubleShooting

If you're material is sliding around during the cut and moving on the cutting mat then it may be time for a new mat. If you don't get a clean cut, your mat may have lost its stickiness. You can try cleaning it to restore some of the stick -see how to clean your Cricut mat here or you may have chosen the wrong tack level for your material. Use our free cheat sheet to help you decide on the right mat.

Storing Cricut Mats

The main thing to remember is to always store your Cricut cutting mats with the transparent cover on them. This will protect your mat from dust and debris and extend it's life. You will also want to ensure that the mat is somewhere where it can lay, stand, or hang flat and that it doesn't become bent.

All the Cricut cutting mats come with a small hole in the top, that's handy for storing them. If you're lucky enough to have a craft room, lots of crafters like to store their mats hanging on the wall with a simple hooks. You can also use this method inside a craft closet or on the back of a door with a removable command hook.

I store my regular size mats on my bookcase, standing vertically. This means I can find them easily, and they're always close at hand for using. It's easy to find any different colour I need.

For the extra long 12 x 24 inch mats, I saved the original shipping box that they came in to help protect them from bending and have it tucked in the side of my craft closet. Since these ones are so large, under a bed or couch might be a good spot too.

You now know everything you need to all about Cricut mat sizes and types.  Happy Cricut crafting!

More Helpful Cricut Information

You might also like our post on How to Make Earrings with a Cricut here.

Also check out How To Sharpen A Cricut Blade here.

You might also enjoy How To Cut Vinyl on a Cricut here.

How To Connect Cursive Letters On Cricut: learn how to use letter spacing and ungroup letters to connect letters in Cricut Design Space.

If you've ever added a cursive font to your Cricut Design Space canvas and noticed that the letters weren't touching this tutorial will teach you everything you need to know to connect them. Don't worry you can use any pretty script font, cute font, font style, or fancy script font you like with great results with these simple beginner methods in this free tutorial.

How To Connect Cursive Letters On Cricut YouTube Video

Prefer to learn by watching? Check out the YouTube video below to see exactly how to do it.

Kerned Fonts vs. Unkerned Fonts

Kerned text means that that the spacing between the letters has been automatically adjusted to look pleasing. Unkerned texts are not adjusted.  

Do I Need To Worry About This With A Kerned Font?

Lots of cursive fonts in Cricut Design Space are kerned, and when you add them to your canvas the letters will already be spaced out perfectly and touching. When you cut out these letters, they will automatically cut out all as one word. If your font is already kerned in Cricut Deisgn Space you'll be able to skip all the steps below. You can filter for only kerned fonts when you're choosing your font. To do this, click on the font, and then make sure the "only kerned fonts" box is checked, so that Cricut will only show those options.

Unkerned Fonts

There are still some unkerned cursive Cricut fonts though that you might see if you don't have the "only kerned fonts" filter box checked under fonts, or if you upload free fonts you may also have unkerned fonts, where you will have to manually adjust the lower case letters so that they are touching and then weld the letters together before cutting so that it cuts out as all one word rather than individual letters. There are a few different ways to adjust the letter spacing, and it's very easy to do, and doesn't take much time.

Whether you are cutting out words or using the writing feature with a pen, you'll want to make sure that the letters are connected together first.

Adjusting Letter Spacing Of The Whole Word

The first thing I like to do is to adjust the letter spacing of the entire word of a script font. You can use the letter spacing tool in the text edit menu at the top of the screen in desktop, between the font size and the line spacing tool. The letter spacing tool will equally adjust the spacing between the letters of the entire word. If you can't see the text edit menu bar, you need to first make sure a text box is selected. Adjust the letter spacing up and down arrow button. Adjust the spacing until the font tails are touching and where you like them. Don't forget to weld the script text together to cut them out as all one word and not individual letters.

Adjusting The Spacing Of Individual Letters

You can also adjust the spacing of individual script letters within a word. To do this, make sure the word is selected and click on advanced at the right hand side of the text menu on the top toolbar of your canvas in desktop. Then choose Ungroup To Letters.

Now you can click on the individual letters and adjust each letter space by itself. Don't forget to weld them together afterwards if you want them to cut out as all one continuous word and not individual letters.

Tips On How To Connect Cursive Letters On Cricut:

• start your adjustments in the middle of the cursive text word and work outward so that you don't have to move every single letter
• use the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard to adjust the letters from side to side. This the best way to keep the letters aligned on the bottom.

Combining Adjusting The Letter Spacing Of Whole Word And Individual Letter Adjustment

I usually begin adjusting a word with using the letter spacing tool, and getting the word adjusting so that most of the letters are touching and in a position I'm happy with. Then secondly I usually ungroup the individual letters and fine tune the spacing by adjusting individual letters as needed. I find using both methods together gives the best and easiest results.

Welding The Letters Together

If you don't weld the newly spaced letters together, even though they are touching they will still cut out as individual letters.

If you want the word to cut out as a single word, without cut lines between letters you must first use the weld tool to join them together. Don't forget this important final step. The easiest way to check your work is to look on the cut preview screen for any overlapping cut lines to make sure you haven't forgotten before cutting out on your Cricut machine.

To use the weld feature to weld a word together select the entire word by holding down the shift key and dragging a selection box around it with your mouse. You can also use the select all button at the top of the canvas in desktop if it's the only item on your canvas. You can also select it by holding down the shift button and clicking on each letter in the layers panel. Once your word is selected, click on the weld button at the bottom of the layers panel in the lower right corner of your canvas in desktop.

Once it's finished it will say weld result in the layers menu.

Now when you go to Make It, you will see on the cut preview screen that each of the letters will cut out all together as one word.

Troubleshooting Connecting Cursive Letters

Why Did The Loops Fill In When I Weld?

Sometimes if a font is quite small, the loops will fill in when you weld it together. If this happens, use the undo button to unweld the word. Next, make the word much lager with the scale button or font size. Now with the whole word still selected, weld the word again. It should weld together without filling in any loops. You can now adjust the size of the font back to the smaller size.

Why Did My Word Cut Out As Individual Letters?

You forgot to weld your letters together. Don't forget to select all the letters of your word and weld them together. This is like super gluing all the individual letters together and will ensure that each word cuts as all one piece.

I Moved Each Letter And Now My Text Isn't Lined Up At The Bottom

If you move each individual letter with your mouse, it can sometimes be hard to line up the text horizontally. You might have thought that you could use the align feature. But, it unfortunately doesn't work for this if you have any letter included with downward strokes, like g or p for example. If you use align bottom, the downward stoke letters will be moved to far up. So how do you fix this problem? The answer is to adjust the spacing of the individual letters using only the left and right arrows on your keyboard. That way they only adjust from side to side, and stay in place horizontally.

How Do I Curve The Text?

If you want to curve the text of unkerned cursive letters that needs to be attached and welded, you will have to do it before ungrouping to individual letters. The curve text function in Cricut Design Space is only available to you before you ungroup the letters. After you ungroup the letters the curve function will disappear from the text edit menu at the top of Cricut Design Space.

It can be slightly difficult to adjust the curve to your desired amount when the letters are spaced out. Begin by adjust the letter spacing and curve until you are happy, and then choose to ungroup and adjust individual letters lastly for some fine tuning. Once you are happy don't forget to weld the letters together.

Where Is The Unweld Button?

There is no unweld function in Cricut Design Space. You can use the undo button to go back if you decide to you want to unweld. Unfortunately this only works while you are editing in Cricut Design Space. If you open a saved project, you will not be able to use the undo button to reverse the weld function. Read this entire blog post all about how to unweld and what options you have here. It is sometimes helpful to think of weld as similar to permanent glue. It can not easily be undone.

I hope this tutorial on how to connect cursive letters on Cricut has been helpful and that your feeling confident to use letter spacing, and ungrouped letters to create exactly what you want to in Cricut Design Space.

More Helpful Cricut Posts

Make beautiful one of kind earrings with your Cricut machine. See how to design leather & faux-leather earrings in Cricut Design Space, cut, add iron-on vinyl, and assemble.

Cricut earrings are a simple project to make and there are so many ways you can combine materials to make endless combinations. We're using Cricut leather for ours, but there is faux leather available too. There are many different colours you can use as well. We also added some Iron-On vinyl to ours, which increases the possibilities for different colour combinations and patterns.

Materials:

• Cricut Maker machine: I used my Cricut Maker machine to make this project with the deep cut blade to cut out the leather. You can also use the Explore with the deep cut blade. If you have a Cricut Joy, you will have to use the faux leather and the fine point blade for this project.
• Cricut deep cut blade
• strong grip mat
• painter's tape: Use the paint's tape to help hold the leather to the mat for cutting.
• leather or faux leather: Cricut makes leather and faux leather that you can use for this project. You can also look for leather at craft stores or on-line.
• sharp scissors: These are just for trimming any fuzzy edges of the back of the leather after it's cut into shape.
• earring wires
• jump rings: Look for different sizes, small, medium, and large.
• chain: This is optional to add some interest to your earrings. Choose whatever thickness and silver or gold that you prefer.
• needle nose pliers
• wire cutters: These are for cutting the chain to the right length.
• leather hole punch: Earrings need a hole in the top to connect the earring findings too. I didn't include these as part of my design. Most of my earrings are cut out of real leather, using the Cricut Maker machine, and knife blade. This tiny hole is too fine to cut out well with real leather and the knife blade.

• Cricut easy press mini: The easy press mini worked great for this project. Check the Cricut Heat Guide for guidance on timings and settings. If you don't have an easy press mini, you can also use a regular iron for this step.
• iron-on vinyl: We used shiny gold and mat gold, but you can use whatever colors you like.

Watch the Video On How To Make Earrings With A Cricut

If you prefer to see how to make the earrings, check out the YouTube video below.

Design Your Earrings

Start by opening a new project in Cricut design space to create your earring design. You can either choose from some of the earring projects in ready made projects, or design your own cricut cut file using simple shapes.

To design your own, go to the shapes button on the left side on desktop, and choose one or more different shapes for your earrings. We made a few designs and used the semi-circle, square, teardrop, and arches. Play around with different sizes and combinations until you're happy with it. You might want to think about joining several shapes, as well as using different colours of genuine leather or faux leather or faux suede. Make some in larger or a smaller size, depending on your preferences.

Rectangle Earrings:

Start with a square from the free shapes and adjust to 1.5 x .43

Teardrop Shape Earring:

Add a teardrop from the shapes and adjust to 2 inches long.

Inverted Pinched Teardrop:

Add a teardrop from the shapes and adjust to 2 inches long, rotate the shape 180 degrees.

Arch and Semi Circle:

Start with the solid arch. Duplicate and make a smaller one. Use align to centre it horizontally. Select both arches and use the slice tool to cut out the centre. Delete the extra pieces. Add a semi-circle, and rotate it 270 degrees. Make the semi-circle the same width as the width of the arch. The finished size for the arch is a height of 1.75", with a width of 1.324" and the semi-circle is 1.324 wide and 0.667 tall.

Solid Arch:

Add an arch shape from the shapes, size 2.2 x 1.45"

Design The Iron-On Vinyl Overlay

For some of our earrings, we added some heat transfer vinyl on top of the leather. This is a fun way to add more detail and different layers to your earrings. You can choose any colour of iron-on vinyl, including foil iron on, which add a little sparkle. Combining the different material adds a lot of interest to the earring design.

To create our iron-on vinyl overlay we started by searching for "mandala" in images. Look for ones that are not too fine and detailed because it will be really difficult to weed, when it's made small enough to fit onto an earring. The larger and chunkier the lines, the easier it will be to weed and work with.

We choose Mandalas #M4A771F6 and also Mandalas #M4A771F6 (from Cricut Design Space).

Once you've chosen your image lay it over your earring shape and change the colour to gold -or whatever colour you choose, and then play around with size and rotate the mandala until you're happy with the design. I liked it off-centre and oversized. Next, select the mandala and the earring in the layers panel and slice. Delete the extra layers, so that you're left with the exact pattern to fit the earring.

Once we're completely happy with the design, we'll use the duplicate button to make an exact copy so that we have a full pair of earrings cut out that match perfectly.

Cutting Out The Earrings and Vinyl

Leather

I cut out most of the earring shapes in real leather using the Maker cutting machine and a the knife blade.

You can also cut out leather on the Cricut Explore or Cricut Explore Air using the deep point blade.

I love the weight of the leather, and how it hangs, as well as the texture and natural variations. I didn't find the leather hard to work with, although you may find it helpful to do a test cut first. There are many different kinds of leather to work with. Choose different colours or even metallic leather for a little bling.

Settings

When you're ready to make your earrings, click on the Make It button on the top of the canvas. This will bring you to the cut preview screen. Make sure everything looks right and that the sizing looks good on the mat, then press the continue button.

Next you set your Base Material. Click on Browse All Materials, and type leather in the search bar. You will see lots of different leather options.

I chose the Tooling Leather 4-5 oz. material settings for my cuts, which uses the knife blade in the Maker.

The genuine leather uses the deep cut blade, and is compatible with the Explore and the Maker.

Preparing The Cutting Mat

Use the stronggrip purple mat for cutting leather and tape the outside of the leather onto the cricut mat with painter's tape.

Take some care though, I found that some of my leather was marked by the painters tape. Either flip the leather over, or apply the tape with a very thin overlap to avoid this problem. Note that I found a more clean cut with the leather good side up.

The leather may leave a lot of debris on your mat, so use an older stronggrip mat for this job if you have one. You can clean the mat afterward with your scraper and the baby wipe or dish soap method afterward -read more about how to clean your mats here. Some people also like to cover their mat with transfer tape before cutting something messy like leather. That way, when you are finished you just peel off the transfer tape and are left with a clean mat underneath. This might be something you'd like to try.

After cutting the leather, you may need to trim any frayed edges with some sharp edges to clean them up slightly.  Cut just the frayed bits, taking care not to cut into the shape.

Faux Leather

You can also make these earrings out of faux leather. It's very similar to leather but much thinner and easier to cut. It's a great option if you'd like to make these earrings with a Cricut Joy, because you can cut it with a regular fine point blade. You can also cut the faux leather with a regular green standardgrip mat.

Some people don't like the back of faux leather, and cut out an extra and glue them together with a glue like E600, or cover the back with iron-on vinyl. You can also leave it plain, which ever look you prefer.

Iron-Vinyl

To cut out your iron-on vinyl, use the iron-on vinyl setting on the Cricut and make sure your fine point is in place. Use a standard grip green mat, and apply the vinyl backing side or shiny side down.

Once your iron-on is cut out it's time to weed it. Use the weeding tool to remove the negative pieces from the design. This can be tricky with such small pieces, so take your time, and make sure to work in good light.

Applying the Iron-On

We used our Cricut Easypress Mini to apply the iron-on, you can also use a household iron -see Cricut's heat guide for settings.

Set the Easypress Mini to low, and wait for the light to turn green when it's ready to use.

Align your iron-on vinyl and use the Easypress Mini for about 10 seconds to apply the design. Wait for it to cool, and then carefully peel off the backer sheet.

The heat guide suggested a much longer pressing time, but we found it was too long and created ghosting -where the glue had over melted and oozed out around the design leaving a white line around it. My advice is to practise with scrap pieces of leather and iron-on and work out the best timing for your materials.

If you under press the iron-on it won't stick to the leather, and will peel off with the backing piece. You can always press it more if you have this problem.

If you over press the iron-on it will create the ghosting effect where there's a white outline of glue, or it won't stick to the leather and will come off with the backing piece. If you've got ghosting you can usually remove the excess vinyl by heating it up again and carefully peeling it off of the leather. You can then try again with a new piece.

Assembling The Earrings

To put the DIY leather earrings together you will need some earring hardware including jump rings, the earring hooks, chain, needle nose pliers and wire cutters.

Jump Rings

To open the jump rings, use two sets of needle nose pliers to grasp each side and twist the ring in opposite directions. Use jewelry pliers to close the ring by twisting it back together in the same way.

Leather Punch

For all of the earrings, except for the inverted pinched teardrop, and the arch and semi circle earrings, begin by creating the hole in the top of the earring with the leather punch. As a general rule you want the hole to be placed at a depth of about half of the depth of the jump ring you're using, from the edge of the leather. We used assorted jump rings that came in a small, medium, and large, and adjusted the spacing of where the hole in the leather was accordingly.

Hanging Direction

A word about hanging direction as you begin to actually put the earrings together. There are several styles of earring wires to choose from, I went with the really simple earring wire style, but choose whichever you prefer. When you're putting the earrings together, you will want to make sure that the finished earring hangs so that it faces outward. This will depend on the direction of and how many jump rings you use. Every jump ring changes the direction. If you don't want extra jump rings, you can also twist the actual earring wire. Use your small needle nose pilers and twist the direction of the hanging loop on the ear wire, if you want to avoid adding extra jump rings to turn the hanging direction of your earring. This will make more sense when you start putting the earrings together.

Rectangle Earrings:

To put together the rectangle earrings, use the pliers to twist the direction of the earring wire, and add a medium jump ring ring to the top hole in the earring, along with a piece of chain. Cut two matching lengths of chain with wire cutters to your prefered length, longer or shorter than the leather rectangle.

Teardrop Shape Earring:

To assemble the popular teardrop shape earring with the vinyl overlay, use a medium jump ring to the leather piece, and then a smaller jump ring to attach it to the earring wire.

Inverted Pinched Teardrop:

To make the inverted teardrop earrings, you want to make two small holes at the top of your earring about 1 cm apart using the leather punch, these will be used to pinch the leather together. Cut two matching pieces of chain, slightly longer than the earring. To assemble the earring, put a medium jump ring through the first hole, the chain, the second hole, and the earring (in that order), then close the jump ring.

Top Arch and Bottom Semi Circle:

For the earrings with the arch on top, and the semi circle on the bottom, use the leather punch to create one hole at top of the arch, and two holes at the bottom, one on each side. Take care to centre the holes, as you want the earrings to be well balanced. You can create a paper template of the earring, and fold it in half at each stop to find the exact centre spot for the holes if you want to. For the semi circle, make two holes on the flat side, lined up with where they'll attach to the arch piece.

To put it all together, use a large jump ring at the top of the leather arch, into a small jump ring, and then into the ear ring wire. Next, attach the semi circle to the bottom of the arch with two large jump rings.

Top Semi Circle and Bottom Arch:

For these earrings, start by making an earring hole in the top and bottom of the semi circle piece. You will want to take care to make sure these are centre, so that your earrings hangs well when it's put together. You can use a paper template, folded in half to help if you need to. Next punch a hole in the top of the leather arch, again right in the centre.

Now the final step is to attach the semi circle to the earring wire with one large jump ring. Twist the ear wires to make it hang straight. Next, use another large jump ring to attach the arch to the bottom of the semi circle.

Solid Arch:

Use a medium jump ring in the faux leather arch, then a small jump ring to attach them to the earring wire.

Customize

You can play around with the sizes and number of jump rings, as well as the chain you use to create any look you love. There's no right or wrong way, just have fun and enjoy the creative process. There is no end of different ways of putting together combinations of leather and faux leather in different colors, vinyl top layer colours, or jewelry finding metal finishes. Cricut jewelry is my new favourite hobby. It's such an easy project and has such amazing results.

Use these as your own earrings, or give them to friends and family as great gifts. These are also the easiest way to create gorgeous earrings to match any outfit. I hope the step by step tutorial on how to make earrings with a Cricut has been helpful. With beautiful earrings like these, life really is a party!

More Cricut Posts

If you have tried any of these Cricut Earring Ideas or any other ideas on my blog please let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting today!

Recipe

Cricut Ear Rings

Make earrings using your Cricut to cut out leather, suede, or faux leather and iron-on viny.

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Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 2 hours hours

Total Time: 2 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Servings: 7 Paris of Earrings

Author: Dannyelle Nicolle-Ramjist

Cost: $20

Equipment

• Cricut cutting machine
• Cricut Knife Blade
• Strong Grip Mat
• Cricut Easy Press Mini
• leather hole punch
• Needle Nose Pillers
• Wire Cutters
• sharp scissors

Materials

• Leather, Suede, or Faux Leather
• Iron-On Vinyl
• Painter's Tape
• Jewlery Chain
• Earring Wires
• Small and Medium Sized Jump Rings

Instructions

• Start by opening a new project in Cricut design space to create your earring design. You can either choose from some of the earring projects in ready made projects, or design your own cricut cut file using simple shapes.

  To design your own, go to the shapes button on the left side on desktop, and choose one or more different shapes for your earrings. We made a few designs and used the semi-circle, square, teardrop, and arches. Play around with different sizes and combinations until you're happy with it. You might want to think about joining several shapes, as well as using different colours of genuine leather or faux leather or faux suede. Make some in larger or a smaller size, depending on your preferences.

  Rectangle Earrings: Start with a square from the free shapes and adjust to 1.5 x .43

  Teardrop Shape Earrings: Add a teardrop from the shapes and adjust to 2 inches long.

  Inverted Pinched Teardrop Earrings: Add a teardrop from the shapes and adjust to 2 inches long, rotate the shape 180 degrees.

  Arch and Semi Circle Earrings: Start with the solid arch. Duplicate and make a smaller one. Use align to centre it horizontally. Select both arches and use the slice tool to cut out the centre. Delete the extra pieces. Add a semi-circle, and rotate it 270 degrees. Make the semi-circle the same width as the width of the arch. The finished size for the arch is a height of 1.75", with a width of 1.324" and the semi-circle is 1.324 wide and 0.667 tall.

  Solid Arch Earrings: Add an arch shape from the shapes, size 2.2 x 1.45"
• To create our iron-on vinyl overlay we started by searching for "mandala" in images. Look for ones that are not too fine and detailed because it will be really difficult to weed, when it's made small enough to fit onto an earring. The larger and chunkier the lines, the easier it will be to weed and work with.

  We choose Mandalas #M4A771F6 and also Mandalas #M4A771F6 (from Cricut Design Space).

  Once you've chosen your image lay it over your earring shape and change the colour to gold -or whatever colour you choose, and then play around with size and rotate the mandala until you're happy with the design. Next, select the mandala and the earring in the layers panel and slice. Delete the extra layers, so that you're left with the exact pattern to fit the earring.

  Once we're completely happy with the design, we'll use the duplicate button to make an exact copy so that we have a full pair of earrings cut out that match perfectly.
• Cutting Out The Earrings

  Leather: When you're ready to make your earrings, click on the Make It button on the top of the canvas. This will bring you to the cut preview screen.

  Next you set your Base Material. Click on Browse All Materials, and type leather in the search bar. You will see lots of different leather options. Real leather varies greatly in thickness, see the tips above to get the best cut.

  Use the stronggrip purple mat for cutting leather and tape the outside of the leather onto the cricut mat with painter's tape. Take some care though, I found that some of my leather was marked by the painters tape. Either flip the leather over, or apply the tape with a very thin overlap to avoid this problem. Note that I found a more clean cut with the leather good side up. The genuine leather uses the deep cut blade, and is compatible with the Explore and the Maker.

  Faux Leather: You can also make these earrings out of faux leather. It's very similar to leather but much thinner and easier to cut. It's a great option if you'd like to make these earrings with a Cricut Joy, because you can cut it with a regular fine point blade. You can also cut the faux leather with a regular green standardgrip mat.
• Iron-Vinyl: To cut out our iron-on vinyl, use the iron-on vinyl setting and make sure your fine point is in place. Use a standard grip green mat, and apply the vinyl backing side or shiny side down.

  Once your iron-on is cut out it's time to weed it. Use the weeding tool to remove the negative pieces from the design. This can be tricky with such small pieces, so take your time, and make sure to work in good light.

  Applying the Iron-On: We used our Cricut Easypress Mini to apply the iron-on, you can also use a household iron -see Cricut's heat guide for settings.
• Rectangle Earrings: To put together the rectangle earrings, use the pliers to twist the direction of the earring wire, and add a medium jump ring to the top hole in the earring, along with a piece of chain. Cut two matching lengths of chain with wire cutters to your preferred length, longer or shorter than the leather rectangle.
• Teardrop Shape Earring: To assemble the popular teardrop shape earring with the vinyl overlay, use a medium jump ring to the leather piece, and then a smaller jump ring to attach it to the earring wire.
• Inverted Pinched Teardrop: To make the inverted teardrop earrings, you want to make two small holes at the top of your earring about 1 cm apart using the leather punch, these will be used to pinch the leather together. Cut two matching pieces of chain, slightly longer than the earring. To assemble the earring, put a medium jump ring through the first hole, the chain, the second hole, and the earring (in that order), then close the jump ring.
• Top Arch and Bottom Semi Circle: For the earrings with the arch on top, and the semi circle on the bottom, use the leather punch to create one hole at top of the arch, and two holes at the bottom, one on each side. Take care to centre the holes, as you want the earrings to be well balanced. You can create a paper template of the earring, and fold it in half at each stop to find the exact centre spot for the holes if you want to. For the semi circle, make two holes on the flat side, lined up with where they'll attach to the arch piece.

  To put it all together, use a large jump ring at the top of the leather arch, into a small jump ring, and then into the earring wire. Next, attach the semi circle to the bottom of the arch with two large jump rings.
• Top Semi Circle and Bottom Arch: For these earrings, start by making an earring hole in the top and bottom of the semi circle piece. You will want to take care to make sure these are centre, so that your earrings hangs well when it's put together. You can use a paper template, folded in half to help if you need to. Next punch a hole in the top of the leather arch, again right in the centre.

  Now the final step is to attach the semi circle to the earring wire with one large jump ring. Twist the ear wires to make it hang straight. Next, use another large jump ring to attach the arch to the bottom of the semi circle.
• Solid Arch:  Use a medium jump ring in the faux leather arch, then a small jump ring to attach them to the earring wire.

Notes

Every jump ring changes the direction. If you don't want extra jump rings, you can also twist the actual earring wire. Use your small needle nose pilers and twist the direction of the hanging loop on the ear wire, if you want to avoid adding extra jump rings to turn the hanging direction of your earring. This will make more sense when you start putting the earrings together.

How To Slice in Cricut Design Space: step by step guide of how to slice on Cricut, including when to use this tool for cropping, making new shapes, and creating a split monogram.

Slice is an important tool within Cricut Design Space that will allow you to slice shapes and text that you want to create with your Cricut machine.

What Actually Is Slice?

I like to think of the slice tool like a cookie cutter, because that's how it functions. It might be helpful to picture your dough, cookie cutter, and the cookie cut out of the dough, as the material, the item you're slicing out, and the piece that is sliced out of the material. You can then delete any items you don't want in your design. There are many different ways to use the slice tool in your Cricut projects which is sure to make it one of your favorite tools in Cricut Design Space.

When Do You Use Slice?

To Create a Hole, or Slice Text Out Of An Object

Slice is a great way to remove or slice some text or a shape out of another object and leave a hole there. Again think of the cookie cutter, or hole punch if that's helpful. So it's great for slicing text out of a shape, or adding a hole to an object when you're making something like a gift tag.

Create New Shapes

One of my favourite ways to use the slice function is to create new shapes and make new shapes. For example, slice a circle into a crescent moon shape. With weld and slice working together you can create just about any shape you want from the free basic shapes in Cricut Design Space.

Crop Items or Cut Off Unwanted Parts

If you have an item and you want to crop it, or remove a certain part of it, slice works really well for this. You would use a free shape, and make it large enough to cover the unwanted part, then select both and slice. Then simply delete the unwanted parts.

Cut An Item Into Multiple Pieces

Let's say you have an item that has a single image and some text and they aren't different layers. You can use the slice tool to separate the text item from the rest and move it around wherever you would like it in your design.

Things You Need To Know About Slice

• You have to have two overlapping layers to use slice. You cannot use slice on individual layers. This one is pretty logical if you think about it, you need something as a bottom layer to slice out of, and you need the item you're using to slice with (the dough and the cookie cutter).
• Slice only works on two layers at a time. If you have more than two layers selected the slice tool will be grayed out and unavailable to select.
• You can slice text.

Where Is The Slice Tool?

Desktop -on your desktop device slice is located at the bottom of the layers panel, on the lower right corner of your canvas.

iOS -you will find it under the actions menu. So first click on the actions menu at the bottom of your screen, and then look for the slice button.

Android -on an Android device using the Cricut Design Space app you will find the slice button as part of the actions menu, so first click on the actions button, and then look for slice.

Troubleshooting Slice -Why Is Slice Grayed Out?

If your slice tool is grayed out and unavailable to select in Cricut Design Space, it's a sign to you that you aren't fitting the requirements for using it. The most common issues would be that you have more than two layers selected at once.

Remember slice only works for two layers at a time. It won't work on a single layer, and it won't work for three or more layers selected at once, so first check that you only have two overlapping layers selected.

Often when something is grouped you are not able to slice. To fix this ungroup the items, then select just two overlapping items at a time to slice them.

How To Use Slice

If you prefer to a video, check out our YouTube video here all about how to slice, and the different ways to use it.

Next, select the text tool and type out a word or phrase to add it to your canvas. You can change the font to one of your own or use one of the free fonts, or size to fit your design.

Then position the text over the heart, and make sure both the heart and the text are selected.

Click the Cricut slice tool, at the lower right of the canvas, at the bottom of the layers panel, on desktop.

After the slice, you will see the "slice results" in the layers panel. You will have three different parts now -the original shape that is now sliced, for us the heart with the the text cut out of it. There will also be the text that was sliced out of the heart -which is the pink text for our example. And lastly there is the original black text.

We can delete the pink and black text and we're left with the new design with the text sliced out of it.

Using Slice To Crop An Object

Sometimes if you're using someone else's image cut file, or a image from Design Space, there may be elements of it that you would like to crop out.

To do this in Cricut Design Space all you have to do is select a free shape by clicking on shapes and selecting one that will cover what you want to crop.  Next, when it appears on your canvas, adjust the size and place it over top of what you'd like to crop out.

Then select the item layer, and the shape layer and press the slicing tool button. This will create new cut paths .Look for the slice result in the layers panel and use delete to remove the slice result and the original shape.

Using Slice To Create New Shapes

Sometimes when you are designing you want a shape that isn't available in the free shapes menu library. You can often create the shape yourself from two different shapes using slice and/or the weld tool to create your own new shapes at no additional cost.

The first thing to do to create a crescent moon shape from free shapes is to start with a new canvas, and then add a circle shape. Next use the duplicate button to add another circle to the canvas. Now position the circles so that they are overlapping to create a crescent moon.

Select both layers and choose the slice feature. You will be left with a new crescent shape, along with the the other two slice results. You can delete the results you don't want and use the new free crescent shape moon design in your Cricut projects.

This example is quite simple, but you can also use this method for more complex designs with multiple slices, and also welding pieces together to create lots more new shapes.

Using Slice To Cut An Item Into Multiple Items

Sometimes when you're using already made images from someone else, or Cricut Design Space there are elements that you would like to move around, but the item is a single-layer image, so you can not select certain elements and move them. The slice option is a great tool to help. As we did with the cropping example, we start by selecting a shape from the free simple shapes library that covers what we want to slice.

Next we'll select both items and click slice. Now we can look at our slice results in the layers menu, and delete the shape we used as well as the shape cut out piece. The text will now be it's own layer and we can delete it, re-size it, move it to the top, or do whatever we like with it, because it has become it's own layer.

Creating A Split Monogram

A popular project that uses slice is to create a split monogram made by slicing individual letters and adding in a name. It's very simple to do.

Open a new canvas, and click on the text button, and type a letter in the text box. Choose any font or font size that you like.

Next, add a square shape to the canvas, and click the lock on it's dimensions, then use the scale button in the lower right corner of the bounding box to drag it into a long and narrow rectangle. Select the letter and the rectangle and click on slice.

Now delete, the rectangle, and the pieces cut out of the centre of the rectangle.

Now, create another text box and type out the name, choosing your font and sizing it to fit in the empty spot. Then move the name to the middle of the cut out letter.

To add a line to the top and the bottom of the split, add a square to the canvas and unlock the dimensions.  Size it to form a thin line the width of the monogram.  Now use the duplicate button to copy it.  Position one at the top and one at the bottom.  Select both lines and the monogram and then click the weld button.

That's how easy it is to create a split monogram using the slice function.

There are so many different projects you can make using slice. I hope you've found these explanations and examples helpful. Be sure to check you the youtube video if you prefer to see a live demonstration of how to use slice. With all these cool tricks for using slice, life really is a party!

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How To Clean A Cricut Mat: tips and tricks to extend your mat life by cleaning with baby wipes, and dish soap cleaning.

Sometimes, after many uses in your Cricut machine, Cricut cutting mats lose their stickiness, but before you throw your's out and buy a new mat, there are some ways to clean your Cricut mat and make it sticky again! And most of the cleaning methods are really quite easy and simple to do, with no need for special products. Cleaning your Cricut mat whenever it needs it is a really good idea , and can really extend the life of your mat.

How Often and When To Clean A Cricut Cutting Mat

On average a Cricut cutting mat will last for 40-50 cuts. They do not last forever, but you can certainly extend the lifetime of your mat by cleaning it every once in awhile. If your mat isn't holding items very well anymore, than it's time to clean it. Or if you've just cut something that's left alot of debris behind, like glitter cardstock, then it might be time to clean it.

All these methods will help extend the life of the mat, but they will eventually wear out and need to be replaced with a new Cricut mat.

Tips For Keeping Your Mats Clean

It's inevitable that a mat will eventually get dirty, and ultimately need to be replaced, but we want to get as much use out of mats as we can. Remember these tips to keep your mats from need a big clean too often:

• Always store the mats with their plastic covers.
• Occasionally or after cutting something messy like glitter vinyl, run a lint roller over your mat to remove debris.
• Use the right mat for the right job. Choose a lower tack mat or higher tack mat depending on the needs of the material you're cutting.
• Rotate your mat from time to time. The upper left corner tends to see the most use. Remember you can move object on your mat in the print preview screen, or load the mat upside down to spread out the use a little more.

Use Baby Wipes to Clean Cricut Mats

Our number one favorite way to clean a Cricut cutting mat is to try using alcohol-free baby wipes. This method is quick and easy way and really does a great job to get your mat sticky again. Just remember it must be an alcohol-free baby wipe, otherwise you may act as an adhesive remover and remove the adhesive, not just the dirt. Wet wipes seem to be a brand that works well. To clean your Cricut mat with a baby wipe, simple use the wipe and rub the mat in circular motion, to remove any dust, dirt, or debris. Slowly work your way around the entire mat, and be sure to also get to the edges of your mat. Some people also like to use a plastic scraper to remove larger pieces. No plastic scraper? Try using the edge of an old credit card, or a plastic gift card.

Pay particular attention to the top of your mat, since area tends to receive the most wear and tear by being the most frequently used spot.

Once you've finished wiping the entire mat, let it dry fully before using it. This usually takes around 10 min. Afterward, your mat should once again have a sticky surface and be ready to use again. Remember to store your clean mats with the plastic cover on them. Always putting the plastic cover on your sticky mats for protection.

Recipe

How To Clean A Cricut Mat With A Baby Wipe

How to extend the life of our Cricut cutting mat, by cleaning with a baby wipe.

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Course: Cricut

Prep Time: 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes minutes

Author: Dannyelle Nicolle-Ramjist

Materials

• Alcohol Free Baby Wipes

Instructions

• Make sure your baby wipes are alcohol free, otherwise they might damage the mats adhesive. To clean the dirty cutting mat, use a baby wipe, and wipe the mat in a circular motion, until the entire surface is clean.
• Let the mat dry, and then be sure to add the protective cover to keep it clean.

Use Dish Soap To Clean Your Cricut Mat

Another great way to clean your mats is to use a mild dish detergent. It works really well, but is a bit more involved and tends to take a little longer for them to dry complete.

To wash your mats with dish soap, place your dirty mats in a sink full of warm to lukewarm water, you don't use hot water or cold water. Add in some mild dish detergent, a lot of people like to use Dawn dish soap. Use a wet paper towel and clean the entire surface of the mat slowly rubbing it in a circular motion to remove all the debris right to the edges of the mat. You can also use a soft brush to scrub your mats. Just be careful that you're not accidently removing all the adhesive by scrubbing too vigorously. 

Once the mat is clean, for best results you must leave it to air dry. Try resting it on a flat surface or on your drying rack to dry. Once it's dry, you should have a sticky mat again.

Recipe

How To Clean A Cricut Cutting Mat With Dish Soap

No ratings yet

Print Pin Rate

Course: Cricut

Cook Time: 5 minutes minutes

Additional Time: 10 minutes minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes minutes

Author: Dannyelle Nicolle-Ramjist

Equipment

• cleaning cloth
• scrub brush

Materials

• mild dish soap like Dawn

Instructions

• Wet your dirty mat in the sink, and add some mild soap like Dawn, to the surface. Scrub gently in a circular motion with a cleaning cloth or scrub brush, taking care not to scrub too hard and remove the adhesive.
• Let the mat dry on a flat surface. Once dry, be sure to add the protective layer to keep it clean.

Using Other Cleaning Products And Methods To Clean Your Cricut Mat

Many people like to use L.A. Awesome cleaning product from the Dollar Tree in the US, or look for it online, to clean their mats. Definitely try the milder cleaning methods of baby wipes and dish detergent first, but if that isn't enough and your mat still isn't clean and sticky you have nothing to lose by trying a more aggressive cleaning method.

To clean a Cricut mat with L.A. Awesome cleaner, first remove any debris you can, then spray the mat and let it sit for 5-15 minutes. Use similar cleaning methods to above with something like the Cricut scraper tool to remove dirt and residue. Do not clean the mat too aggressively or this cleaning process may remove all the adhesive from your mat, and rather than be a sticky cutting mat again after washing it maybe ruined.

I don't recommend using something like a Magic Eraser or an all purpose cleaner , because they're just too strong of cleaners and may remove all the adhesive.

Can I Add Adhesive To An Old Mat?

Some people recommend adding new adhesive to old mats. Keep in mind that DIY's like this can lead to voiding your Cricut warranty so if you choose this method, proceed with caution. If you add too much adhesive you risk getting the adhesive inside of the cutting machine and damaging it.

The basic method of adding new adhesive to your cutting mat is to use painter's tape or masking tape around the border of the mat, where the guide wheels are, to keep it free from adhesive. You can then apply a spray adhesive. If you are applying a repositionable adhesive spray be sure to do it in a ventilated area, and protect the surface underneath from over spray. Let the adhesive set 10-15 minutes or according to the package instructions.

What About The Pink Fabric Mat?

The pink fabric mat is special. It's not as sticky as the other mats and requires a little bit of special care. Do use tweezer to remove large debris and if necessary try the baby wipes or dish detergent method taking care to be gentle and not accidentally scratch the more delicate adhesive off.

Cleaning Up After Cutting Felt

Felt is the worse offender when it comes to messy materials in your craft room to cut with your Cricut. Because it's so fuzzy it always leave behind residue on a cutting mat. We have a few suggestions to help tackle felt.

• Use a dedicated mat just for felt so that it doesn't ruin multiple mats.
• Try lining your mat with a piece of transfer tape, sticky side up and applying the felt to it. When you're finished, or when the transfer tape is no longer sticky, you can peel it off and have a clean mat underneath. Transfer tape is less expensive than new mats, so you might find this method worthwhile.  Some people use it for for more than just felt as well.

Even with these tips your cutting mats will not last forever, but these ideas can help extend their life.  

With clean cutting mats that are ready to use with your Cricut, life really is a party!

More Cricut Tips

You might also like The Best Cricut Accessories You REALLY Need post here.

The Best Cricut Accessories You REALLY Need: with so many Cricut accessories available we'll tell you which ones you need to begin with.

There are so many cool products you can get to use with your Cricut. But, which accessories are the ones you really need to get started and will get the most use out of?

I've had a Cricut for over 10 years -that's a long time, and have been lucky enough to work with Cricut and been sent some really cool Cricut accessories over the years. Let me share with you the best accessories that I've found most helpful and used over and over again, and would definitely recommend for the beginner. There are some accessories that are nice to have, but can wait until later. Let's start with what the new cricut owner needs.

My Must Have Cricut Accessories

• Basic Tool Kit
• Brayer
• Transfer Tape
• Extra Standardgrip Mat
• Replacement Blades
• Cricut Pens
• Storage Solutions

The Cricut Basic Tool Set

I would highly recommend the basic tools kit for anyone starting out as my number one cricut accessory. I've used all the tools at one point or another. You can buy these Cricut tools individually, but it's a better deal to purchase the whole kit.
My favourites are the weeding tool, which you will need to weed any vinyl project you make. The sharp little hook like end makes it easy to grab the vinyl you're weeding away.

The scraper tool is great for getting any little bits off of your mat that have been left behind when removing a project from your cutting mat. There is also an XL scrapper, that is helpful, but this is one of those accessories that's nice to have but that you can get later.

I really like the Cricut scissors. I'm sure all of us already have scissors, so what makes these ones make it to my must have list for new Cricut users? They are small enough to use for intricate projects, the ends are nice and pointed for getting into tiny corners, and they are very sharp, making them a really great tool. Store these with your Cricut machine and don't let anyone use them around the house to keep them nice and sharp.

The spatula tool is really helpful for paper craft projects. To avoid tearing paper with intricate designs as you remove it from the cutting mat, use the spatula tool to lift the paper off the mat from underneath. This also helps avoid the paper curling.

The Brayer

This tool is so helpful to run over materials you are adding to the cutting mat. Can you use your hands to pat things down? Yes of course, cut the brayer applies even pressure over the entire material, and is faster too. This is a tool you will use all the time.

The Paper Trimmer

This is a tool that I was sent and was surprised at how much I use it. I have a larger paper trimmer, but this is the one I grab all the time. It's lightweight, easy to store, and really useful. I use it to cut paper when I need a straight edge. I also love that you can replace the cutting blade really easily, so if it gets dull from using it alot, it's not ruined. Swap out the blade for a new one, and it will cut perfectly again. It also has a ruler guide that pops out for aligning larger pieces, like 12 x 12 -a lot of people don't know about this feature and it's really useful.

Transfer Tape

When I first started cutting out vinyl on my Cricut Machine, I didn't think I really needed transfer tape. Big mistake. It's so much easier to apply your vinyl when using the transfer tape. It not only helps to line things up with the grid, or keep them aligned exactly the way they cut out, but it also keeps you from accidentally stretching or messing up your vinyl trying to transfer it with your fingers. I like the Cricut brand transfer tape, partly because of the grid printed on it that makes it easy to line up. One time I did buy extra strength tape, thinking it might be better, but it was too sticky and I couldn't get my vinyl project off of it. I learned later that it's only for things like glitter vinyl, so avoid the mistake I made and stick with the regular transfer tape.

Extra Standardgrip Mat

You don't have to have an extra mat, but it's one of those things that can make life a little bit easier for you. All Cricut mats do run out of stick and need replacing eventually, so you'll have to buy a new mat at some point.

But there is another reason to get at least one of the green mats that you'll use most often right away. Very often when you're cutting out a project on your Cricut machine, the project will require multiple mats to cut it all out. You can run one mat through the machine, remove the material, and reload it for the next cut. But, it's much faster if you have two mats and you can be cutting out the next one, while your removing the material from the mat of your first cut. This system will just speed things up for you, and since you ultimately need to buy more mats at some point, it just makes sense to get at least one more green one right from the start.

If you are cutting larger projects, you might also want to invest in the larger size cutting mat. The 12x24 mat is really useful for big projects, but not something you likely need right away as a beginner -so consider it in the nice to have category.

Extra Replacement Blades

Another item you will need eventually is a replacement fine point blade. This is the most commonly used blade, and over time they wear out and need replacing. You can replace just the blade, not the entire housing. You won't need a replacement blade right away, you'll have many, many great cuts before you need to put a new one in. But, it will need replacing eventually, and it can be very frustrating when you realize it's time to replace the blade and you're in the middle of a project, but don't have one on hand. So I think it's better to buy one and have it ready.

You can store it on the magnetic strip inside your tray in the Cricut Maker and Explorer machines -in fact this is what that strip is designed for, and that way you won't lose this small part or not be able to find it when you do need it.

Cricut Pens

The Cricut machines are designed to work perfectly with their pens. Make sure you purchase the ones that are compatible with your machine -there are specific pens for joy or explorer and maker machines. They come in lots of different and beautiful colours, and if you work with paper at all, I think they're worth getting.

Storage Solutions

It's a good idea to think about storage solutions right from the beginning. If you are fortunate enough to have a craft room, you might want to consider how you will store your Cricut machine, accessories, and materials. If things are packed away and hard to get to, then you will be far less likely to use them regularly. So consider where you will put things and in what kind of storage.

Different bins or shelves can be helpful for organizing paper and vinyl supplies that you don't want to wrinkle or crease while storing. Lots of people enjoying housing their Cricut supplies on a rolling cart for easy access. This is a great way to keep all your supplies together, and makes it easy to roll everything to your work area for a project and roll it back when your finished.

Difficulty in storing extra supplies is just one of the arguments for not over buying, especially in the beginning when you're not sure of what materials you will end up using the most. I recommend buying materials for individual projects. Many Cricut crafters are tempted buy bundle packages that save money, but if you never use the supplies or don't love the colours and end up having to store them and have money tied up in them are they really such a great bargain? These are all things to consider.

Cricut Accessories That Are Nice To Have For Specific Materials

A lot of what you need depends on the different materials you will be cutting for different cricut projects. These specific accessories are nice to have, but not essentials for the beginner. As you work with your Cricut and become more confident, these supplies make sense for working with special materials.

For Paper Projects:

If you plan to use your Cricut for a lot of paper projects, you will find the scoring tool very helpful. You can also use the scoring stylus, but it doesn't score as deeply and most paper crafters prefer the scoring wheel. There are two different scoring wheels available, the single scoring wheel and the double scoring wheel. The single is recommended for thinner and lighter materials like paper, and the double is recommended for cutting heavier materials like card stock.

A variety pack of card stock in different colours that you use often is also really helpful to have on hand, if you find you do a lot of paper crafts. Look for sales at craft stores for these. Many cricut crafters also have a strong preference for a solid core cardstock, rather than the white core cardstock. If a cardstock is solid cord, it means that the core runs all the way through the cardstock down to the core, whereas white core cardstock has the colour on the top and bottom layer, but is white in the middle core. Many people don't like the white showing on the edges of their cut projects.

Cardstock also comes in many weights, from 65lbs, to 110 lbs. Many people have a preference for working with a weight of 80lbs. You can experiment and figure out what you like best, but it's good to keep these things in mind and not stock up before you figure out if you prefer a certain weight and solid core vs. white core.

For Fabric Projects:

If you have a Cricut Maker series machine you can cut fabric using the rotary blade. You will also need the pink fabric mat. Another great accessory for someone who sews is the washable ink fabric pen, which allows you to add patterns or stitch lines to fabric as well. These are probably all on the must have, buy right away list for anyone who uses their cricut for sewing projects, but more on the nice to have list for anyone who will only use their cricut for sewing occasionally. I wouldn't recommend the bonded fabric blade right way, because it's specially for fabric with a bonded adhesive backing, and the rotary blade is for regular fabric.

For Vinyl Projects

If you plan to use your Cricut many for vinyl projects then the main thing you'll need is vinyl. There are lots of different brands of adhesive vinyl available. Different users have different brand preferences. I tend to use Cricut brand, but lots of other makers have lots of good to say about other brands too. My advice would be to buy small quantities and experiment a little in the beginning until you find what you like working with best. You will definitely need the weeding tool, and transfer tape for vinyl work, which I've already mentioned.

For work with Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV) the Cricut easypress is definitely nice to have. You can use a household iron with HTV, but the Easy Press is easier -thus the name. I don't think it's something the beginner needs, but is definitely nice to have if you plan on using HTV or infusible ink often. It's also available in different sizes, depending on the projects you plan to make with it.

Cricut Joy Projects

If you have a Cricut Joy, I would get all the things I mentioned on list at the beginning, the toolkit, extra mat, pens, just be sure things like the mats and pens are specifically for the Joy. I think the card mat and card inserts that work with it are fun for making cards too, probably in the nice to have category, along with the Cricut Joy carry bag. Because this little machine is so light and portable compared to the larger machines, the carry case is definitely handy to transport it safely. There are some other joy specific products, like labels that are great if that's something you want to make, but not necessary.

Wood, Engraving, Leather, Foil

There are lots of fun accessories for the Cricut machine that allow you to cut and use these more unusual materials. The foil tool is a fun accessory if you want to add foil to project -something like a special paper card. Is this a must have? Certainly not. Is this a nice to have? If you will use it, it is very cool.
There are several things that only the Maker machines can do, and if you bought one, chances are you wanted to experiment with some of these materials. I feel the same way about most of these as I do about the foil tool. Very nice to have, but not necessary for the beginner. The engraving tool can create some really cool projects, nice to have if that's something you'd like to do with your Cricut.

The Cricut can cut leather, faux leather and wood. Some people even use the engraving tool to tool leather. There are really some amazing things you can create but you will need things like a stronggrip mat, and a deep-cut blade or knife blade, as well as the actual wood, leather, or faux leather. Definitely buy these supplies with a specific project in mind. These materials are actually harder to cut, and may involve a bit of experiment so they are not on my must buys for a beginner, in fact, even someone very experienced might never try these materials. So please don't feel the need to buy all these specialty materials at the beginning.

Blanks

You may hear people talk about blanks in the Cricut community and wonder what they are talking about? A blank is a general term for a blank item that you can add something you've made on your Cricut to. Things like plain tote bags, t-shirts, cups, signs backgrounds, and mugs are all nice to have, but especially at the beginning I would buy these as needed for specific projects so that you have the size you need and aren't storing blanks that take up a lot of room.

With all the best Cricut accessories that you will really use, life really is a party!