DIY Paper Pinwheel

September 12, 2022 by Paula W

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate 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.

Who doesn’t love a pinwheel? It reminds us of those days when we were little and had no cares in the world other than running in the breeze with one of these. So, how about making your own DIY paper pinwheel?

We will take you through the process step by step. These are a fun gift for kids or are perfect party favors for a little one’s birthday party. Let’s start crafting!

DIY Paper Pinwheel

Cut File Used:

Pinwheel

Supply Links:

Step-by-step Instructions:

Upload your cut file into Design Space. You actually don’t have to size the pinwheel cut file unless you want yours smaller than ours. We changed our pinwheel colors to white.
Go to “basic shapes” on the left side of your layers panel and grab a circle. Make the circle 0.5” and then duplicate it. Make the duplicated circle 0.095” and center the smaller circle with the bigger circle using the “align” tool at the top of your layers panel.
Select both circle layers and click “slice” at the bottom of your layers panel. Delete the slice results until you’re left with the 0.5” circle with the small hole in the center of it. This will be a decorative piece on the front of your pinwheel that hides any glue imperfections
Get a square from “basic shapes” and unlock the size ratio. Make the square 0.9” by 2.36”. This will be rolled and go between the back of your finished pinwheel and the pinwheel handle.
Get another square from “basic shapes” and unlock the size ratio. Make the square 5.9” by 8.25”. This will be your pinwheel handle!
Make sure your basic shape layers are all the same color so they can be cut out of the same piece of paper.
Click “make it” and set your material setting to “Medium Cardstock – 80lb”.
While your Cricut is cutting your paper, turn your hot glue gun on and allow it to begin heating up.
Allow your Cricut to cut out all of your pieces. Be gentle when removing the paper from the mat.
Once all your pieces are cut lets assemble your pinwheel. Please refer to the video at time 12:04 for a clear understanding of this process. Lay one of your pinwheel layers down on your work surface with the skinny cut edges facing to the right. Now, lay your second pinwheel layer down the same exact way, then rotate the second layer so that it is offset but even with your first layer in the center. Again, the video at time 12:04 contains better visual directions for this process.
Once you have the positioning correct on your two pinwheel layers, add hot glue to the back of the second layer of your pinwheel and place it back down where you had it, being very mindful to keep it centered and positioned correctly.
Now your goal is to pull all of the long thin pieces on the bottom pinwheel layer up with the same pieces on the top pinwheel layer. Please refer to the video at time 13:38 for a clear understanding of this process.
Now that all of your pinwheel pieces are in the front you can begin gluing. This step will bring your project to life! See time 14:33 in the video for visual instructions on this process. Add hot glue to the front of one of the small thin edges of the pinwheel layers next to the pre-cut hole. Now fold it over and place it glue side down onto the center of the pinwheel lining up the holes.
Repeat that process until everything is glued down.
Time to splatter paint! Place your poster board on your work surface and squeeze a little bit of paint in each of your small cups. Add a few drops of water at a time mixing with a craft stick until the paint is pretty thin.
Put gloves on and place your assembled pinwheel on your poster board. Dip a brush into one of your colors of paint and splatter. You can hit the paintbrush on your non-dominant hand to splatter, or you can hold the brush and use your finger to sweep the bristles of the brush to splatter. Whatever you find works best for you!
Once your pinwheel is painted allow it to dry and clean your work surface.
Now we can assemble the other pieces of this project. Take your small cut rectangle and using a quilling tool, roll it up tightly and evenly adding glue on the edge to secure. You can also use a toothpick for this. Remove the toothpick or quilling tool from your small rolled tube.
With your larger cut rectangle, take the skewer, and starting at one of the four corners of the paper, roll the paper onto the skewer. Roll tightly. Once at the edge add glue to secure. Remove the skewer from the large rolled tube.
When your pinwheel is fully dry bring all of your pieces back to your work surface. Using tweezers add a dot of hot glue to your small cut circle to the front of your pinwheel being sure to line it up correctly.
Insert a pin from the front of the pinwheel through the back.
Place your small rolled tube onto the back of your pin.
Now push the exposed end of the pin through your large rolled tube. While holding it all together, add hot glue inside the top of your large tube as well as all around the seam where your large and small tubes meet.
Once the glue has fully dried look for areas that might need more glue.
Once fully secure, enjoy your pinwheel!

3D Card Box

September 12, 2022 by Paula W

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate 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.

This 3D card box is a stunning greeting card, handmade gift, and work of art all in one. It may look complicated, but with our step-by-step tutorial, we’ll show you how you can make this for your loved one.

This one is perfect for a wedding or anniversary, but we have lots of cut files you can use to customize it for your special occasion. You can make one for birthdays, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and so much more!

You can find more amazing 3D cut files here.

3D Card Box

Cut Files Used:

Card Box
Just Married
Happily Ever After
I Have Found The One My Soul Loves
Tie & Bouquet
With My Whole Heart For My Whole Life
Tree
Cake Slice Box
Greenery

Supply Links:

Step-by-step Instructions:

Due to the complex nature and visual components of 3D files, we recommend following along with the video as you assemble your project. You can always pause the video and re-wind as needed.

3D Paper Castle

September 12, 2022 by Paula W

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate 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.

This 3D paper castle will be much-loved by any fairy tale fan. It would make a perfect display piece for a little one’s bedroom or a birthday party. Using cardstock and a hot glue gun, this fairytale castle is simple to assemble with our step-by-step instructions.

There are a lot of pieces to this Cricut project so be sure to pause the video as needed to follow along. Paper crafters, you’re going to love this 3D die cutting project.

Find more 3D craft projects here.

3D Paper Castle

Cut File Used:

Castle

Supply Links:

Step-by-step Instructions:

Due to the complex nature and visual components of 3D files, we recommend following along with the video as you assemble your project. You can always pause the video and re-wind as needed.

3D Paper Letters

September 8, 2022 by Paula W

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate 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.

Learn how to make these adorable 3D paper letters! Spell out a whole word or make someone’s initials. Either way, they are an adorable way to make some fun home decor projects with your Cricut.

Use your die-cutting machine to make a personalized gift for someone special or create party decorations! Follow our step-by-step instructions to learn how easy it is to make this 3D craft project.

Find more 3D projects here.

3D Paper Letters

Cut Files Used:

3D-E
3D-S

Supply Links:

A 3d Letter Made With A Die Cutting Machine

Step-by-step Instructions:

Due to the complex nature and visual components of 3D files, we recommend following along with the video as you assemble your project. You can always pause the video and re-wind as needed.

DIY Stenciled Stovetop Cover

March 14, 2022 by Paula W

We simply adore this DIY stenciled stovetop cover that we made with the help of our Cricut machines and some vinyl for stenciling! Sometimes known as noodle boards, these handmade stove top covers are really useful too. They give you some much-needed extra kitchen counter space and if properly sealed with a food-grade sealant, they can be used as a stove top cutting board or kneading board for dough too.

It’s easy to make one of these stove toppers, even if you don’t have any previous woodworking experience. We’ll also share our best Cricut hacks for stenciling and getting professional looking results. These wooden stove covers make great gifts too!

Stove Top Cover Stenciled With Cricut 1 1

DIY Stenciled Stovetop Cover

If you’re planning to use your stove top cover as a cutting board, remember that the knife marks may affect your design. You might want to think about the placement of your stenciling to bear that in mind.

Supplies Needed:

1 – 19×30 piece of ½ inch plywood
1×4 cut into 2 19 inch pieces
Grey Chalk Paint: https://amzn.to/3Gh9NtN
White Chalk Paint: https://amzn.to/3rffkg5
Wood Glue: https://amzn.to/3APb223
Ryobi Air Nailer Set (optional): https://amzn.to/3cLbjHt
Black Metal Pulls: https://amzn.to/3IRKOih
Stencil Vinyl: https://amzn.to/3og0Vyf
Our Favorite Weeding Tool: https://amzn.to/3pwnJc2
Masking Paper Transfer Tape: https://amzn.to/3bB57jJ
Vinyl Gloves: https://amzn.to/371mCtR
Sanding Blocks: https://amzn.to/35476Le
Paint Brushes: https://amzn.to/3ANZBHP

Cut Files/Fonts Used:

Grid File: https://makersgonnalearn.com/fonts/family-name-grid-3/
Font File: https://makersgonnalearn.com/fonts/vintage-jeans/

Step-by-Step Instructions:

Making the wooden board:

1 – We bought a piece of wood and had Home Depot cut it down to size for us. Measure your stove to see just how large to make yours. If you have power tools available, you can also cut it to size yourself. Our board is 19 x 30 inches.

Two Boards Placed On Either Side Of The Larger Board

2 – You also need to cut down the 1 x 4s to fit the main board so that you can place them on either side.

3 – Sand the edges of all the pieces of wood until smooth. Use a circular motion to sand the surface of the pieces.

4 – Paint all of the wood pieces. We used chalk paint because we like the look and it dries really fast. One consideration when it comes to deciding whether to use paint or stain is that we are using two different kinds of wood. If we tried staining them, each kind would take the stain differently. By using paint, we are getting a cohesive finish on all of them.

PRO TIP: For a more finished look, be sure to paint the bottom of the board too!

Creating the design in Cricut Design Space:

5 – While the paint is drying, you can work on your design for the stencil. To make this really easy, we have a Grids category in our fonts section. These grids do most of the designing for you!

6 – You can see that in this grid, all we have to do is plug in the name and established date right where those red rectangles are. You can choose whatever font you want, but you’ll see that there are suggested fonts available if you’re not sure what to pick.

Suggested Fonts To Use With The Grid Are Available

7 – Upload your grid into Design Space. Add your text and drag it into the rectangle. Size as needed. Repeat for the second rectangle.

Type In Your Text And Place It In The Boxes

8 – Select everything and use Align, Center Horizontally to get everything lined up.

9 – Once you have everything where you want it, click off the whole design and select only the Family Name Grid over in your layers panel and delete to get rid of the red boxes.

10 – You can finetune the placement of everything until you like how it looks. To keep it all together, select the whole design and Weld. Doublecheck the size of your design – we wanted ours to fit on one cutting mat.

Cutting the stencil:

11 – Now you can click Make It to cut out your design. Choose your materials and follow the prompts to get your stencil cut out.

PRO TIP: Move the design into the middle of the mat to give some extra space around it. This is really helpful when you’re using a vinyl design as a stencil.

Adding the handles:

Use A Drill Or Screwdriver To Add The Handles To The Wood 1

12 – Next, we’re going to add the handles to the side pieces of wood. Use a measuring tape to ensure that they are centered. Screw them in place with a screwdriver or drill.

13 – Glue the sides pieces to the main backing piece of wood using a good wood glue. We’re using Gorilla Glue. If you have clamps, use them to secure the wood in place while the glue dries. If not, find some heavy books, buckets, or other items you have lying around! We have a brad nailer so we nailed ours in place.

Applying the stencil:

14 – Mark your measurements so that you can center your stencil perfectly on the board. Peel the backing off the stencil slowly and carefully.

15 – Line up the stencil in place. Remember you only have one chance to place this down so work slowly. We find the taco method makes it easier. Gently bend the design in the center to make a taco shell-like shape. Lay the middle of the design down first and then move your hands out to lay down the sides. This helps not only ensure it’s centered, but also helps prevent air bubbles.

Use A Burnishing Tool To Ensure There Are No Air Bubbles 1

16 – Use a burnishing tool to make sure the design is flat and well-adhered with no bubbles or wrinkles. Remove the transfer tape. Peel it up slowly and carefully so you don’t pull up any of the middles of the letters.

Stenciling:

Paint Over The Stencil With The Same Color As The Background 1

17 – Paint over the stencil using the same color as the background! YES! This is an important stenciling hack and helps you get amazing results. Paint on an even light coat and this will help seal the edges of the stencil and give you nice, crisp results.

Paint Over The Stencil With White Paint 1

18 – After this is dry, paint over the stencil with the desired color. In this case, we used white. You might need more than one coat.

Work Carefully Especially Around The Edges Of The Stencil 1

19 – Work carefully around the edges. If you get some white paint onto the gray board, just cover it with some gray paint.

20 – Once you have painted all the coats of paint needed for the stencil and it has dried, peel off the stencil.

PRO TIP: Remove the larger parts of the stencil first. Then, it’s easier to go back in and remove the smaller pieces.

Finishing touches:

21 – Flip the board upside down. Apply little felt pads to help protect the top of your stove.

Sand The Wood To Create A Distressed Look 1

22 – Run your sanding block along the edges and over parts of the board to create a distressed look.

And that’s it! Your decorative wooden stove top cover is ready to use. If you want to do food prep right on the board, be sure to add a food-grade sealant over your paint and design.

DIY Cricut Birthday Cake Topper

March 8, 2022 by Paula W

In this craft tutorial, we are going to show you how to make an adorable Cricut cake topper. This isn’t just any birthday cake topper though. This has a shaker element to it and it’s filled with glitter!

This may look complicated, but it’s a simple Cricut beginner project, especially once you see all of our crafting tips and tricks. Our step-by-step craft tutorial will walk you through it so that with the help of your Cricut machine, you can make one of these beautiful paper cake toppers too. Paper crafters and party planners, you’re going to want to see this!

DIY Cricut Birthday Cake Topper

Materials Needed For Shaker Cake Topper 1

Cricut cake topper materials needed:

Cricut machine like a Cricut Explore 3 or Cricut Maker 3
Lynn Lilly Hot Glue Gun
Scotch ATG Gun
Zig glue pen
Our Favorite Cutting Mats
Scissors
Cardstock
Foam tape
Spoon
Skinny dowels
Clear protective sheet from an old Cricut cutting mat (you could use some other clear plastic or acetate sheet if you don’t have one of these but this is a great tip for recycling!)
Mermaid Santa Suit cut file
Jingle Shells cut file
Fishy Wishy font

Step-by-Step Tutorial – How to make a Cricut birthday cake topper:

Working in Cricut Design Space:

Santa Mermaid And Jingle Shells Cut File Design

1 – Upload the Santa mermaid cut file and the Jingle Shells cut file into Cricut Design Space. We’re going to tweak these files so we can use them just as we’d like.

Delete The Black Layer And The White Layer

2 – Select the mermaid file. Over in the layers panel, delete the white and black layers by clicking Hide on each of them. (The eye shaped icon)

3 – Select the mermaid file again. To delete the hat, we’re going to use Contour.

Choose A Shape To Cover The Shell You Want To Use

Use Shapes To Cover The Part You Want To Cut Out

4 – Now, to get the shell you want to use, simply cover it with shapes from the Shapes menu on the left sidebar. Select both shapes and Weld.

PRO TIP: You can only slice through two layers. So, we welded the two shapes together to make them one layer.

5 – Next, you can select the main Jingle Shells file with the shells in it and the welded shapes. Choose Slice. Discard everything except for the shell for your design.

Customizing your design as desired:

Use Fishy Wishy Font To Type In The Number

6 – Open a textbox and type in the number for the birthday. We used the Fishy Wishy font for this to have i work well with the mermaid theme.

7 – Arrange your design elements as you’d like and size them accordingly.

Cleaning up your design:

8 – Sometimes, a design can start looking too busy or “messy” with several layers placed on top of each other. To help separate some of the elements and make it look a little cleaner, you can use the Offset tool. Move the slider to adjust the size of the offset.

9 – You might want to change the colors of your cake topper design to mimic those of your final craft project. This will help you visualize it better. The colors don’t need to match your materials perfectly. This is just to give you an idea of what it will look like.

PRO TIP – This will also help remind you of which materials you’ll need to place on your cutting mat.

Simplify your design:

Pointing At The Scale Design On The Bottom Half Of The Number 6

10 – Select both layers of the number and Duplicate. As it stands now, there would be a lot of tiny pieces of cardstock cut out from the scales portion of the number and these would be quite tedious and intricate to try to place properly. So, we have a Cricut hack for that!

Remove The Slice Results You No Longer Need

To fix this issue, choose both layers of your duplicated layer and select Slice. When you start moving away the slice results, you’ll see that you’re left with this layer in the center. In this one, the scales are attached to the outline/offset and this will be much easier to place on your design!

Place The New Offset Over The Number Background

Now you have a layer that has the scales and the offset that can easily be glued on top of the base layer for the number.

Using contour:

Add An Offset To The Tail And Shell Part Of The Design

11 – Select the tail and shell layers and add an offset to them as well. Then, with that selected, choose Contour. Select Hide All Contours.

This will make the offset a solid shape.

Contour Out The Accent Pieces In The Shell Cut File

12 – To further refine and simplify the design, select the shell shape and go to Contour. Contour out the little accent pieces.

13 – Duplicate the seashell outline layer so that you can use it to make the shaker part of the cake topper.

14 – With that duplicated layer selected, choose Contour. Click Hide All Contours.

This Represents The Layer Of Clear Plastic For The Shaker

Now you have a solid shell shape that will be cut out of the clear plastic to form the shaker section of the cake topper.

Cutting out your design:

15 – With the whole design selected, size it however you’d like. We think that 6 inches high is a great size for a cake topper.

16 – Click Make It to cut out all of your layers. Remember to select the appropriate materials for each layer.

Assembling your cake topper:

17 – Begin assembling the cake topper. Glue the shell outline on top of the clear plastic shell piece and the number 6 outline with the scales on top of the plain number 6 background. Glue the mermaid tail to the background.

Use Foam Tape To Attach Top Layer Of Shaker To Base 1

18 – Use foam tape to apply the top layer of the seashell (the one that’s glued to the clear plastic) to the base.

Adding the final details:

Attach The Clear Shaker Part To The Background 1

19 – Add glitter. Remove the backing strips on the foam tape. Attach the background piece to the clear shell shaker piece.

Attach Dowels To The Back Of The Cake Topper 1

20 – Adhere the number to the front of the cake topper. Glue the dowels on the back.

You can find more cake topper ideas here:

Mother’s Day Cake Topper

Father’s Day Cake Topper

Make an Explosion Box

December 3, 2021 by Paula W

We love these explosion boxes! If you want to learn how to make an explosion box, you will definitely want to check out this blog post and video. We’ll take you through the process step-by-step! This is a really fun way to use your Cricut machine to make a great gift for someone you appreciate!

These explosion boxes are such a special way to present a little gift to someone. Fill it with candy, money, or any other lightweight items you’d like. With ours, we have used them as a photo album/scrapbook, placing pictures and memorabilia (ticket stubs and so on) on each flap. One of our members suggested using an explosion box for a gender reveal. What a fantastic idea!

Make an Explosion Box

Gather up your supplies and follow along with our tutorial so you can make your own box. Remember, even though we made a Christmas themed box, you can make one for any occasion or theme you want by changing up the paper you use!

Supplies Needed:

Step-by-Step Instructions:

Cut The Sides Of The Box With A Craft Knife

Prepare the boxes:

1 – We do have a some box cut files available here at Makers Gonna Learn that you can use if you’d like, but we have found that the premade boxes are much sturdier for filling with candy. So, using a craft knife, cut down the sides of each box.

2 – Cover the cut edges with masking tape.

Use Tape Gun To Attach Paper To Box Flaps

3 – Measure the box flaps and cut your pieces of patterned paper to size. Attach them to both sides of the flaps using your tape gun.

Design Space With Photos And Snowflake Cut Files In It

Working in Design Space

4 – In Cricut Design Space, we uploaded the photos that we want to use. Size them to fit the flaps as you’d like. These will be a Print then Cut.

Snowflakes As Centers Of Dollar Bill Rosettes

5 – The little snowflakes in circles are the centers for our dollar bill rosettes. Upload the snowflake cut file into Design Space.

Add A Circle As The Background For The Snowflake

From the Shapes menu, add a circle. Place the snowflake on top of the circle. Use Arrange and Send to Front to bring the snowflake to the front of the circle. Size the snowflake to fit well in the circle. Select both layers and choose Align, Align Center.

6 – With both layers still selected, go down to the bottom of the Layers Panel and choose Flatten. That turns the snowflake and circle into a Print then Cut. Size them to fit onto the rosettes – we made ours 1.25 inches in diameter. Then you can duplicate them so you have enough for all of the rosettes.

Import The Tag Cut File Into Design Space

7 – Upload the tags cut file into Cricut Design Space.

8 – Use the eraser to erase away and delete the tags that you aren’t going to use.

9 – Add the remaining tag as a cut file to your canvas in Design Space.

10 – Add “Merry Everything” to the tag and size appropriately.

Cutting your design:

11 – Press Make It to print and cut the snowflakes and the photographs. Cut the Merry Everything from heat transfer vinyl and the tag from cardstock.

12 – Weed the HTV. Apply to the tag using your EasyPress Mini.

Use Accordion Fold To Fold Dollar Bills Into Rosettes

Putting it all together:

13 – To make the dollar bill rosettes, fold the dollar bill back and forth in an accordion fold. Secure in the middle with a piece of twine. Fan it out and join together with some tape.

14 – Add a snowflake to the front of the rosette. We suggest using a foam dot.

15 – Apply the photos to the middle layer of flaps.

16 – Wrap the chocolates in pieces of paper and use ribbon to wrap around the box. Attach a bow.

Glue The Wrapped Chocolates To The Smallest Flaps

17 – Glue the wrapped chocolates either the to smallest or largest flaps.

18 – Attach the dollar rosettes to the either the smallest or largest flaps (depending on which ones you used for the chocolates).

That’s it. Hold it together, add your candies, and pop on the lid.

This is such a fun Cricut gift idea! When you lift the lid off the box, it “explodes” with candy (or whatever you’ve filled it with) for a fun surprise. Who wouldn’t love receiving such an amazing handmade gift?

Ultimate Guide to Cricut Smart Materials

July 9, 2021 by Paula W

We were first introduced to Cricut Smart Vinyl with the release of the Cricut Joy machine. Now, with two new machines being released – the Cricut Maker 3 and the Cricut Explore 3 – there is even more buzz about it. What is it? What makes it so different? Is it easy to use? We’ll answer these questions and more with our Ultimate Guide to Cricut Smart Materials.

Ultimate Guide to Cricut Smart Materials

Since the Cricut Joy has been out for a while now, we’re going to focus on using these materials with the Maker 3 and Explore 3. If you purchased one of these machines, you’ll find some samples of the smart materials in the box so you’ll be able to try them out for yourself too.

We’re going to walk you through a Cricut project using all 3 kinds of the Cricut Smart Materials so you can see just what it’s like to work with each one.

Materials we’re using:

Machine: Cricut Maker 3
Machine: Cricut Explore 3
Iron-On: Cricut Smart Iron-On For Maker/Explore 3
Vinyl: Cricut Smart Permanent Vinyl For Maker/Explore 3
Cardstock: Cricut Smart Paper Sticker Cardstock

Cricut Explore 3 With Smart Vinyl And Smart Iron On

What exactly are Cricut Smart Materials?

They are meant to be used in your Cricut Joy, Cricut Maker 3, or Cricut Explore 3 by loading them directly into the machine without a cutting mat. You can purchase Cricut Smart Vinyl (in Permanent and Removable), Cricut Smart Iron-On, and Cricut Smart Paper Sticker Cardstock. We’ll talk about the pros and cons of these new materials and share our honest impressions of them.

Tell me more about each of the different kinds of Smart Materials.

Removable Smart Vinyl

This vinyl can be removed without leaving behind a residue. Cricut recommends it for indoor projects or craft projects you might want to change up later. For renters, Cricut asserts that you can apply this to your walls and then remove it without any damage.

Permanent Smart Vinyl

This smart vinyl is weather-resistant so it’s recommended for outdoor craft projects or any projects that you want to last as long as possible. In addition, Cricut asserts that projects with this vinyl applied can be placed in the dishwasher (with certain restrictions – further info below).

Note: In general, we have found that all vinyl is removable. Some, having less adhesive, is easier than others to remove. And when Cricut talks about “permanent” vinyl – we prefer to think of it as “long-lasting” instead, because unless you use Infusible Ink, none of it is truly permanent. We have not yet tested just how long-lasting Cricut Smart Vinyl is for ourselves.

Smart Iron-On

In Cricut testing, Smart Iron-On lasted through 50+ washes. You can layer up to 3 colors of Smart Iron-On.

Smart Paper Sticker Cardstock

With this sticker cardstock, you don’t need to use any glue. While for many of our projects, it really isn’t worth the extra cost to us simply to be able to avoid using glue, we can see some fun uses for this. For example, you could easily make sheets of stickers to give away or sell with this product.

Which machines can cut Cricut Smart Materials?

As mentioned above, they were meant to be used in the Cricut Joy, Explore 3, and Maker 3. Cricut says that these machines were specifically designed and optimized for using Smart Materials.

Can you use smart vinyl on a Cricut Explore Air 2 or a Cricut Maker?

However, you can use them with the older models of the Maker and Explore. Cricut advises that you use them only on a mat with these machines. They assert that the newer machines were optimized to work with the Smart Materials for matless cutting. If you use them with older machines for matless cutting, they may jam the machine, cause cutting errors, or damage machine parts.

How much do Smart Materials cost?

As of July 2021, these are the prices (USD) from Amazon (which usually has better prices than on the Cricut website especially when you take shipping into account). Bear in mind that prices change frequently and that you may be able to get a deal with a bundle, sale, or coupon.

Permanent Smart Vinyl (Cricut brand)- 13 inches by 12 feet – $19.45

Smart Iron-On (Cricut brand) – 13 inches by 9 feet – $39.99

Smart Paper Sticker Cardstock (Cricut brand)- 10 pack of 13 x 13 inch sheets – $13.99

Cricut Explore 3 Loaded With Smart Vinyl On A Roll

What size are Smart Materials available in?

Cricut Smart Vinyl – 13 inches wide. Available in rolls that are 3 feet, 9 feet, 12 feet, 21 feet, and 75 feet long.

Cricut Smart Iron-On – 13 inches wide. Available in rolls that are 3 feet and 9 feet long.

Cricut Smart Paper Sticker Cardstock – as mentioned previously, this is available in 13 x 13 inch sheets

What is Smart Vinyl used for?

Smart Materials can be used for matless cutting, allowing you to cut much larger designs. A Cricut Explore 3 or Cricut Maker 3, using Smart Materials, can cut a single image or repeated cuts up to 11.7 inches wide and 12 feet long.

If Smart Materials are 13 inches wide, does that mean I can cut designs that are 13 inches wide too?

No. Despite the fact that the Smart Materials are 13 inches wide, as mentioned above, the widest designs you can cut are 11.7 inches. Your Cricut machine will leave an allowance on either side for feeding the material through, as well as a small allowance above and below your design as well.

So, when you load your Smart Materials, your Cricut will then measure it to ensure that there is enough there for your project, including these extra allowances. It’s important, because of this, to wait until after your design has been cut to trim your materials when using Smart Materials.

Is that the only difference between Smart Materials and regular materials – the width of them?

No. Not only are Smart Materials wider than traditional materials, they are also thicker. They have a special backing on them that makes it easier to feed them through the Cricut Maker 3 or Cricut Explore 3 without a mat.

Since you don’t use a cutting mat, are there special instructions for loading Cricut Smart Materials into the machine?

Line up your Smart Material with the left-hand guide on your machine and then slide it under the mat guides so that it is against the rollers. Press the Load button. Once your design has been cut, you can trim off the excess and save it for future craft projects. Be sure to trim the material straight across in order to use it again later.

With pieces that are less than 13 inches wide or less than 6 inches long, Cricut advises that you place these on a cutting mat to use them.

Uh oh. My Smart Materials went into the machine crooked. What do I do?

Your Cricut will try to straighten out the materials as it measures them. If they are still crooked after that, unload your materials and reload.

Are Smart Materials dishwasher safe?

We haven’t personally tried placing an item with Smart Vinyl on it in the dishwasher. However, according to Cricut, the Smart Permanent Vinyl is dishwasher safe when you follow their guidelines:

Be sure to apply the vinyl to a dishwasher-safe surface.
Make sure that the surface is clean before applying the vinyl. We advise cleaning it with rubbing alcohol on a paper towel to get rid of all dust, oils, and debris.
Ensure that the surface is completely dry before applying the vinyl.
Apply the vinyl smoothly – burnish well and use our simple Cricut hack for applying vinyl smoothly to a rounded surface.
Wash your item on the top rack of your dishwasher only. Avoid settings that involve extra heat like “sanitize” and heated drying. The more heat your design is exposed to, the more likely it is lift up.
Before washing your item for the first time, let it sit for at least 24-48 hours to allow for curing time.

How easy is it to apply Cricut Smart Materials?

We found that our Smart Materials cut well and weeded easily. Unfortunately, when it comes to applying most of them, we aren’t a fan. The thickness of the material makes them a little trickier to work with and more difficult to apply to our surfaces.

Cricut states that regular Cricut transfer tape works well on most Smart Vinyls. With vinyl that has a textured finish, such as the Shimmer Smart Vinyl, they advise using the StrongGrip Transfer Tape.

It is still quite important to burnish. Once you apply the transfer tape, burnish from both the front and the back of your design. Be sure to burnish again when you apply the design to your surface, before peeling up the transfer tape.

And, although Cricut now makes longer rolls of transfer tape in order to accommodate the longer projects you can make with your Cricut Maker 3 or Cricut Explore 3 and Smart Materials, they also advise that it can be easier to cut designs into smaller sections for application.

Note: We have heard of people who struggled to transfer their Smart Vinyl using either regular or stronggrip transfer tape. In addition, we ourselves have experienced issues with this. You’ll see as we demonstrate using the materials what happens – essentially we often find that it doesn’t stick well to the transfer tape.

Can you score the Cricut Smart Paper Sticker Cardstock?

You cannot score when working without a mat. Your materials must be on a cutting mat if you wish to score them. Remember that Smart Materials are more expensive than the regular ones so if you want to create a project on a mat, you’d be better off simply using the regular materials.

Birthday Card Made With Cricut Smart Materials

Making the Birthday Greeting Card

We’re going to make this birthday card using Smart Iron On, Smart Vinyl, and the Smart Adhesive Cardstock. Although we don’t usually use Iron On on a card, we wanted to test out all 3 materials.

The Happy Birthday sentiment is a Makers Gonna Learn cut file. The flowers cut file is also from Makers Gonna Learn. The rest of the card was created using Basic Shapes in Cricut Design Space.

Making A Birthday Card In Cricut Design Space

Working in Design Space

We began by creating 2 rectangles in Cricut Design Space, sized to the size of the card we want to make. Make the plain white rectangle (the outer layer of the card) a little larger than the inner one. We attached a Score Line to each one.

Adding Cut Lines To Greeting Card Design

Here, we have added 3 horizontal cut lines.

Using Basic Shapes To Create Rest Of Cake Design

We used Basic Shapes to add 3 pink horizontal rectangles for part of the cake, 5 purple vertical rectangles for the candles, and then created the flames using triangles and circles that we welded together.

Where To Place Score Lines For Birthday Card

We placed more score lines at the ends of each of the pink rectangles and each of the 3 horizontal cut lines. The above image shows where all of the score lines should be.

Cutting your design

As you can see, you have the option for matless cutting or cutting with a mat. There is also the 3rd option, which is the one we chose: “Multiple Ways”.

Choose Matless Or Not For Each Section Of Design 1

This allows you to go through each section of your design and choose to make it matless or not.

Since we’re using Iron On for the Happy Birthday sentiment, we made sure to Mirror it.

Select your material.

Load Smart Vinyl Into Cricut Explore 3 1

Load your Smart Iron-On Vinyl into the machine. We’re using the Cricut Explore 3 here. Note: we aren’t using it here, but there is a roll holder available from Cricut for your Cricut Maker 3 or Cricut Explore 3. It not only holds the roll of vinyl for you, but also has a built-in trimmer. Cut your vinyl

Note: It seems to us that Cricut really intends us to use the Smart Vinyl and Smart Iron-On mainly for large projects. If you use them for smaller ones, there is some wasted vinyl. You can use this excess vinyl on a mat, but of course, you’d have to buy that mat separately as it doesn’t come with either the Cricut Maker 3 or the Cricut Explore 3. In addition, the fact that you need a straight edge in order to load your materials into the machine means that you may have some waste from trimming it.

Weeding your design

When it comes to weeding Smart Vinyl, this brings us to another point that we’re not a big fan of. Because we’re doing matless cutting, we can’t weed on the mat, as is our preference. This can make weeding a little trickier – particularly if you are making an especially intricate design.

Tip: You can create a weeding square. We don’t typically do this with our regular designs because we don’t find it necessary and it does waste some material, but it can be really helpful with Smart Materials.

So, what you do is create a square around your design in Design Space. Your Cricut will cut out this square along with your design. Because it doesn’t cut through the backing, you then don’t need to trim away the excess material. Then, you can simply load the roll back in for your next project without having to worry about cutting off excess and possibly wasting it if you don’t have a mat to use it with.

It’s still important with Smart Vinyl and Smart Iron-On to burnish your vinyl before weeding. Then, weed your design.

Loading Cricut Smart Cardstock Into Machine

Here you can see that we’re loading the Smart Cardstock into the machine. Because we’ve already cut out of this piece of cardstock before, it’s important to note that even when working matless, you can still go into Design Space and move your design around to ensure it’s where you want it to be.

Assembling the card

Fold your card along the score line and gently push the cake layers in the other direction along their score lines. Fold the outer card layer along the score line as well. Glue the inner card into the outer card layer.

Note: we did try to use the Smart Cardstock for the outer layer of the card. There were a couple of issues with it. One, as mentioned before, was that you can’t add score lines when doing matless cutting. Secondly, when we tried to fold the card ourselves, there was adhesive in places we didn’t necessarily want it to be and the pop-up part of the card didn’t work properly.

Add Pink Layers To Birthday Greeting Card

Peel up the pink cake layers from the Smart Cardstock that you cut. You’ll see that they peel up beautifully! Then, lay those pieces onto the cake layers on your card.

Apply the iron-on vinyl to the card and use your Cricut EasyPress Mini to heat and adhere it. We find that the iron-on applies well without any seepage like you might get when applying regular iron-on to a non-traditional surface.

Now, add your transfer tape to the Cricut Smart Vinyl flowers. Burnish really well. You can see that as we started to remove the backing, our design is not sticking to the transfer tape. This is one of the issues we have had with the Smart Vinyl. We find that we have to keep putting it back down, burnishing and burnishing, and working with it to get it to transfer well.

Adding Candles To Birthday Greeting Card

Once you have added your vinyl flowers to the card, it’s time to add the candles you cut from the Smart Cardstock. We suggest using reverse tweezers to apply tiny elements like these.

Birthday Card made with Cricut Explore 3 and Cricut Smart Materials

And there you have it! The finished card. If you would like to see the full video where we demonstrate using these new Cricut Smart Materials, check it out below.

Ultimate Guide To Cricut Smart Materials 1

Mom Pop-Up Greeting Card

March 25, 2021 by Paula W

This 3D Mom Pop-Up Greeting Card is a card and a gift all in one! Once you learn the technique for making this, you can use any word or number you want to convey the message you’d like.

We aren’t using a cut file here. Instead, we’re using one of the fonts from our newest font collection. This means you can create any word you want and aren’t limited to available cut files.

Mom Pop-Up Greeting Card

Any Mom would be thrilled to receive this extra-special card. This will be one of those cards that she keeps and treasures forever!

MGL Font Used:

Soft and Sweet

Check out the entire new font collection here.

Supplies Used:

8.5×11 white card stock

Double sided patterned card stock

You can find the full step-by-step video tutorial here:

Tutorial:

Insert 4×8″ rectangle in design space
Add 4″ score line and rotate to 90 degrees
select rectangle and score line and center them.
attach score line to rectangle
add a text box
using the MGL font “Soft and Sweet” type the word MOM
decrease the letter spacing so that the letters touch each other
weld the word together
size “mom” to 3.9″ wide and approximately 1.4″ high
add a 4×3.4″ rectangle
duplicate rectangle
place one rectangle above the word “mom” slightly touching the top of the word
place the second rectangle below the word “mom” slightly touching the bottom of the word
weld the two rectangles and “mom” together to make one layer. (the welded result should be approximately 4″x7.95″)
change the color of the welded result to white
add a 4″ score line and rotate it 90 degrees.
duplicate score line two times
you are going to place one score line .2″ from the bottom of the “mom” word
then place another score line .2″ from the top of the “mom” word
now place the final score line .75″ higher than the previously placed score line.
Add desired photograph to the top area of your card
select both the photograph and welded layer and flatten
right click the newly flattened layer and press “send to back”
select the flattened layer along with all three score lines and attach
click make it
place 8.5″x11″ white cardstock in your printer
send the print then cut image to your printer
once printed, place printed cardstock in the top left corner of your light grip mat
select the material setting “medium cardstock”
place mat in machine and press the flashing cricking button
once cut is complete unload the mat and carefully remove the mat from the cardstock
place patterned cardstock on your light grip mat in the top left corner of the mat
load the mat into your cricut and press the flashing cricut button
once the cut is complete, unload the mat and carefully remove your cardstock
using a bone folder crease score lines on both pieces of cardstock
apply dry adhesive tape to the back of the print then cut cardstock
line the print then cut cardstock up with the patterned cardstock and press down to form a good bond

This technique is going to be part of our April Monthly Members’ Craft Challenge so be sure to start brainstorming some ideas! We can’t wait to see what you come up with in the member-only Facebook group.

DIY Cricut Gift Boxes

August 4, 2020 by Paula W

If you are giving someone a gift, you probably want them to ooh and aah from the moment they see the packaging. These DIY Cricut Gift Boxes are sure to put a smile on any gift recipient’s face.

DIY Cricut Gift Boxes

We have rounded up some amazing gift box ideas that you can make with your Cricut machines. Stylish and adorable, we’ve got options here for pretty much every person and occasion.

Check these out and pick your favorites. You’re sure to find a fun way to package your next gift item. Whether you’re giving a big or little gift, these boxes will make them extra special.