Cricut Skills You Should Know
Disclosure: Some of the links below are paid links provided for your convenience. This means, at no additional cost to you, we will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase
We’ve been using Cricut machines for more than 14 years, and over the course of that time, we have learned many tips and tricks for using a Cricut. These crafting techniques have been refined over the years and are our absolute favorites! Take a look at the Cricut skills we think you should know below.
Our Cricut tips and tricks will help take your crafting to the next level, making it quicker, easier, and often less expensive, too, because you will waste less material. If you want to go from a Cricut beginner to a pro, this information will be really useful and helpful for you.
Cricut Skills You Should Know
Measure Your Blank
This might seem like a really simple tip to some of you, but we find it can be an often-missed step for other crafters. Having a measuring tape handy and using it to measure your craft projects is so important.
Measuring vs. guessing can make the difference between project success and project failure. Measure the working space on your craft blank, and then add a basic shape to your Cricut Design Space canvas sized to that blank. Now, you can create your design, working within that basic shape. This allows you to be confident that your design is going to fit on your blank perfectly!
First, click on Basic Shapes in the lefthand sidebar of your Cricut Design Space canvas. Find the shape that best matches your blank’s working space and add that to your canvas.
Next, with the shape selected, go up to Size in the top toolbar. Click on the “lock” symbol to unlock it.
Type in the measurements of your craft blank.
Click on the “lock” symbol to lock your measurements again.
Pro Tip: Once you have created your design and ensured it fits well within your available space, delete that basic shape (or hide it). You don’t want to cut it.
You Don’t Need to Pay for Design Space
Many times, people will talk about the cost of Design Space as a factor in their ability to use their Cricut machines, but you don’t have to pay for it. It’s a free app that you can use to create designs for your Cricut. You can pay for a subscription to get access to Cricut’s designs. It’s important to note that you can no longer use their designs (cut files, fonts) once you cancel your subscription. So, anything you have created with them will no longer be accessible. A few premium functions are also available if you pay for a Cricut Access subscription. For example, there are additional basic shapes available with Cricut Access.
When you join Makers Gonna Learn, you get access to our files and can keep and use any of them forever – even if you cancel your membership! Our files come with a commercial license, so you can use our designs to make and sell craft items, and we provide extensive education and support for our members.
Importing Files into Cricut Design Space
To use files you have received from outside of Cricut Access, for example, from Makers Gonna Learn, simply click on the Download button. Open the zip file.
Click Upload in Design Space and add it to your canvas for your project.
Pro Tip: Once you have uploaded a file into Cricut Design Space, you don’t have to upload it again. It will remain there in your files. You can search for them by name or subject.
Customize Your Designs by Using Contour
Remember that when you use an SVG, they are separated into layers, represented by the different colors. When you bring the SVG into Design Space, the layers are grouped together. This means that when you move it, all layers will move together at the same time. If you use Ungroup, each of the layers will move around independently of each other.
Once ungrouped, you can select one of the layers and delete it. But what if you want to eliminate an element within a layer? For this, you can use Contour. You can only contour one layer at a time.
Select the layer you want to contour. Choose Contour. A screen will pop up showing you the elements in that layer. Click on each of the elements that you want to eliminate. Contour allows you to simplify designs that you think are too complicated and detailed as well.
Use Slice to Create a Stencil
When it comes to using Slice, it’s important to note that you can only slice two layers at a time. So, the first step is to make your design all one layer so that then with the background, you have two layers to slice. Select the layers of your design and choose Unite (under the Combine menu). This will bring those together into one layer.
Now you can place that design on top of the background. Use Align, Center to help position the design. With both layers selected, choose Slice. You will end up with three layers. In this case, you want to keep the layer with the background because that will be your stencil. The other two can be deleted.
One hack we love to share is that Design Space always puts your designs in the top left corner. After a while, this can mean that this area of your cutting mat is getting more worn out than the rest. So, you can simply move it to another corner of your mat before cutting!
Pro Tip: When making things like stencils or small projects, be sure to use scraps from your scrap bin. It’s a great way to get the best bang for your buck!
When ready to cut, select your machine and choose your material.
Preparing to Cut
When prepping the vinyl onto your mat, once again, you can choose to place your design and your vinyl into a different spot on the mat so you’re not cutting again and again in the same spot. This is a great hack when using an older mat. Use your burnishing tool to burnish your vinyl onto the mat. If your mat isn’t sticky enough, you can use masking tape to tape it down for more security.
As you load your mat, use your hand to apply a little pressure and then press the Play button. Be sure that the fine point blade is in clamp B. Clamp A is for pens, the scoring tool, and so on.
Checking Your Cut
Before unloading the cutting mat from your Cricut, use your weeding tool to check and make sure that you got a good cut. If not, you can press the Play button again and have it cut one more time over the same lines. Otherwise, unload your mat.
Weeding
Start by using a burnishing tool or a brayer to press your vinyl down onto the mat. This will make weeding so much easier. We highly recommend leaving the vinyl on the mat while weeding. This is like having a third hand to help hold the vinyl down while you are weeding. Turn the mat around so that the design is closest to you and your arm isn’t resting in all of the adhesive.
Remember that when you’re weeding a stencil, you are weeding away the opposite elements of those you normally would. You want to leave behind the outline/background part. If any pieces try to lift up when you weed, just burnish and try again. Once weeded, apply transfer tape over your whole design. Burnish again and remove it from the mat. Burnish again from the back.
Pro Tip: Save your transfer tape. You can reuse it.
Applying Vinyl to Blanks
If you have a blank with a non-porous surface like glass, ceramic, or most plastics, be sure to clean it with rubbing alcohol and a paper towel. This will remove fingerprints, dust, oil, and debris that might interfere with vinyl adhesion. For surfaces like fabric, you can use a lint roller.
Use the taco method to apply your vinyl to the blank. Gently fold the design in half – similar to a taco shape – and lay it down on the blank center first. Then, you can slowly lay down each side, working from the middle out. This will help to minimize or eliminate air bubbles. Burnish the design onto the blank.
Custom Settings for Materials in Design Space
You’ll need to have something – even just a basic shape – on your canvas. Click Make. When you get to the screen where you select your materials, choose Browse All Materials. Select Material Settings in the bottom left corner.
Scroll to the bottom of the list of materials and choose Add New Material. Name your material. Press Save.
It will be added to the list in alphabetical order. You can now go in and change the cut settings as needed for your material – for example, pressure, how many cuts you want it to make, and what blade you want it to use with that material. Most brands of vinyl materials will come with their own settings in the instructions so you know just what to put in. Of course, if you have better luck with other settings for certain materials, you can also customize these. Press Save once you have the settings the way you want them.
Pro Tip: You can always go in and edit the settings of any materials if you need to.
Cut More Than One Color on the Same Mat
Usually, when you’re cutting multiple colors of vinyl, your Cricut is going to separate them out onto a different cutting mat for each color. But sometimes, it’s just more convenient to have them all cut on the same mat.
To do this, go to Color Sync. Drag all of the colors and sync them with one color. Now, when you press Make, you’ll see that all of the layers of your design (in this case, our 4 different hearts) are all on the same mat.
To make the placement of your vinyl easier, move each layer to a different area of the virtual mat.
Next, place your vinyl in the corresponding sections of the cutting mat. With this technique, you won’t have to load and reload your mat over and over again, saving you time and effort.
Using Heat Transfer Vinyl
In the past, when using HTV, we always had to remember to turn mirror on before cutting. With a recent update, Cricut Design Space now has an auto-mirror feature. If you select materials like “iron-on vinyl,” which require mirroring, it will turn on automatically. It’s a good idea, though, to double-check it and make sure that your design has been mirrored before cutting.
In addition, in the past, we (and Cricut) have always taught people to place HTV on the mat shiny side down. But, there are now so many different kinds of heat transfer vinyl available and not all of them are placed shiny side down. So, nowadays, we like to say place your HTV on the mat carrier sheet down.
Finally, it’s a great idea to keep your HTV carrier sheets. When working with printable heat transfer vinyl, it doesn’t have a carrier sheet. They generally come with transfer sheets, but they may go missing. So by keeping some from other HTV projects in your stash, you’ll always have some that you can use.
Handy Paper Hacks
When waiting for a project to print, you can open a new window and work on a second project. If you have two Cricuts, you could even have them both cutting at once.
After cutting a paper project, don’t just pull it up off your mat. Instead, flip the mat over and gently pull the mat away from the paper. This allows you to go with gravity and helps you to avoid having the paper curl up. Your project will be flat, as will the remaining paper, so you can save it and use it for another project.
To get all the little bits of paper off your mat, use your burnishing tool or an old gift card to lift them up.
Whether we’re using a Cricut Maker or a Cricut Explore, we prefer the scoring stylus instead of the scoring wheel with our paper projects. This way, it can stay in Clamp A, and you won’t need to swap it out with your blade as you’re working on your project.
With these Cricut tips and tricks, your craft techniques will be taken to the next level, and your Cricut crafting will be quicker, easier, and less expensive! Happy crafting!
