Stop Doing This with Your Cricut Crafts

It is time to stop doing this with your Cricut crafts! We have a list of several things we see Cricut crafters doing again and again and we have found a better way. These Cricut tips can save you time and money.

We love to share our knowledge with all of you. Crafting is more than just a hobby for us; it’s a way of life. We want to see you as successful with your Cricut projects as possible so take a look at these hacks that will improve your die cutting techniques.

Stop Doing This with Your Cricut Crafts

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Stop unloading your machine before checking your cuts.

When your Cricut has finished cutting your project, the first thing you should do is make sure it has cut properly. Don’t unload the machine! Check it while it’s still in the machine. If it hasn’t cut all the way through, you can simply press the button again. As long as you haven’t unloaded your machine, it will still be lined up properly.

Stop weeding as soon as you remove your vinyl from the machine.

Be sure to cut away the excess vinyl first so you can reuse it. Leave about a 1/2 inch border around the design and cut away the rest. We recommend using a True Control Knife for this.

Next, you want to make sure to burnish your design down. Sometimes the vinyl will lift away from the backing a bit during the cutting process and by burnishing, you can help that all lay flat again, making weeding so much easier.

Finally, we always advise that you weed on the mat. It’s like having a third hand to help hold down your design while you weed.

Stop eyeballing your design

It’s easy to eyeball the size of your design but this can lead to craft fails. Our method takes very little time but can save you money and aggravation. Use a measuring tape to measure the available space for the design on your blank. Then, you can go into Design Space and add a shape the same size. This allows you to truly visualize how your finished project will look and size your design accordingly.

Pro Tip: Measure twice, cut once

Stop using cursive fonts that haven’t been kerned

Have you ever seen a project with cursive text on it over on Etsy and thought, “there’s something that’s just not quite right” about it? Often, it’s because the cursive lettering hasn’t been kerned. Kerning refers to the spacing of the letters. With cursive fonts, the idea is that they should join together to look like handwriting.

Cricut Design Space did an update a while back and now most fonts are already kerned. However, you will find that when you upload some fonts into Design Space, they will actually need to be manually kerned. Once kerned, be sure to weld your text together.

Scroll down and check out the video below for a full demonstration on how to do this.

Stop cutting on so many mats

If you’re making a design with multiple colors and layers, you don’t necessarily have to cut them on separate mats. Use Color Sync to make them show up as all one color. Design Space will place them all on one mat. Then, you can simply move them to different parts of your virtual mat. On your cutting mat, place your pieces of vinyl to line up with where the designs are placed in Design Space.

Scroll down and check out the video below for a full demonstration on how to do this.

Stop peeling your paper projects up from your cutting mat

When you do this, you are very likely to find that your paper will curl. Instead, we find it works beautifully to flip the mat upside down and then gently peel the mat away from the paper. This helps keep the paper flat!

Stop placing felt directly on your mat

When you place the felt directly on the cutting mat, you end up with a mat covered in fibers that you’ll need to clean off before doing any more projects. Instead, use a place of contact paper and cover your felt with it. Now, you can place it contact paper side down on the mat and it will stay clean.

Stop using Cricut vinyl and HTV

We don’t get the best results with Cricut brand vinyl or iron on vinyl. We prefer to use Siser Easy Weed HTV and Starcraft Permanent Vinyl. They give us more consistent and better results and are more cost-effective too.

Stop thinking foil will sharpen your Cricut blade

It can be helpful to scrunch up a ball of aluminum foil and poke your blade into it several times when you’re having issues getting a good cut. However, that’s not because it sharpens the blade. It actually cleans it off.

Give it a try and if you are still having cutting issues and need a sharper blade, it’s time to get a new one. We recommend keeping a few on hand for just such occasions.

Stop using vinyl for small fonts

When working with really small fonts, you will often find that you have difficulty getting a nice clean cut when using vinyl. We recommend using HTV instead of vinyl whenever possible for small fonts. It is able to handle those smaller, more intricate cuts much better and we get great results with it.

Pro Tip: Remember, you can use HTV on many different surfaces besides fabric: metal, wood, leather, and more!