Making Frames in Cricut Design Space

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Have you ever made frames or borders in Cricut Design Space?  It is really easy to do by using the basic shapes button along with the slice function.

Start off by making a shape like a square from the shape button on the left hand side of the screen.  Then unlock that square by clicking on the little padlock icon in the lower left corner of the image.  Adjust the square to make a rectangle by stretching it, or by entering the dimensions you want it to be in the tool bar on the top of the screen.

Next, right click on that rectangle and duplicate it.  Adjust the sizing for the second rectangle so it is slightly smaller than the first one.  

Now place one over the top of the other.  Make sure you now have both of the rectangles selected, and use the Align tool at the top of the screen to center the rectangles on top of each other.  Now Slice the smaller one out of the larger one.

Here is a quick video to show you how it all comes together.

You could also do this same technique with a circle to make a ring shape.  

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Using Press n Seal as Transfer Tape

Did you know that you can use Glad Press'n Seal instead of transfer tape?  I have also used painter's tape, but for me it was much harder to see what I was doing with the blue painter's tape over the top of the image.

With the Press'n Seal it is clear so you can see to more easily move and line up your image.  It is also nice because then you don't have to worry about a transfer tape that will not release your image.  Here is a quick video I did to show you just how easy this is.

For larger projects, I would probably still use a transfer tape, but it is nice to know that this can be used if you need it.

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Uploading images with more than one color to Design Space

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In one of my earlier posts, I walked you through the steps for uploading and cleaning up a coloring book style image in Design Space.  If you have not already master this process, you can see that full tutorial HERE.  This is a great way to start to work with images you find online, but sometimes you cannot find a black and white coloring book style image for what you want to make.  

Finding an image with crisp lines and no shadows will always be easier to convert to a cutting file.  I recently had someone ask me to help them convert this image into a cutting file in Cricut Design Space.

She wanted to cut just the U without the green background, so we need to create three layers for this image . . . one white, one green and one orange.  To do this, you will need to upload the image three times, and focusing on cleaning up and removing everything you don't want cut for each specific color.

Here is a video that shows how I achieved this, and then layered the colored layers back together to create the final image.

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Cards with Sweet and Sassy by DCWV

Today I want to show you two cards I made using the Sweet n' Sassy stack by DCVW.  There are some great patterned papers in here, and one pattern is filled with 24 sayings.  I like to take these sheets and cut the sayings apart and use the sentiment for a card or scrapbook layout.

First I started by just using a paper trimmer and cutting all of those little sayings into separate tags.  Once you have this done, you can have them all in a stack and then you can quickly and easily add them to a card or scrapbook layout.

Next I cut two card bases out of white paper.  I used some cute little woodland critter images from my Lawn Fawn stamps and colored those in and cut them out so I could apply them to the cards.

I found this adorable triangle pattern in the same Sweet n' Sassy stack that I thought would work perfect for the background of both of my cards.  I used my Cricut to cut the triangle patterned paper into rectangles to fit on my card base, and then cut a dark teal paper slightly larger to layer behind it.

Last was just layering and gluing all of the pieces together into a cute and simple card.


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Fixing a Bad SVG File

Have you ever purchased a svg file, or been sent a link to a shared file, and when you bring the image into Design Space you find that the design is broken into hundreds of tiny pieces?  Frustrating!!!

What causes this?

Sometimes it is because the person who created the svg does not understand how to create a svg for a die cutting machine, and set it up with the proper groupings and break it apart by colored layers.

Sometimes it is because the svg was created by using a tool that converts an image into a svg, and that tool broke the image down into too many pieces.

How can you fix this?

First, if you purchased this image, reach out to the seller and let them know that their svg is broken.  They might be able to repair it.  If they cannot, or will not, I would recommend leaving a review on their site so that others will know the quality of the svg files that they produce.

Next, you will have to try and repair the image so that it cuts like you expected it to.  To do this, you will have to get all of the little pieces that should have been connected to be joined together.  I did this by clicking on each of the touching parts of the same color and then clicking on the weld button to join them into one cut.

If there are sections of the image that do not touch, but you want them to stay positioned and group together so they cut out better for layering, select them and then click on the attach button.

Here is a video to show you how I did this with one bad, broken svg that started off with over 100 layers/cut mats . . . in the end I got it down to just a handful of layers/cut mats.

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Coffee Mug

To continue on yesterday's post about using iron on vinyl on a coffee mug, I wanted to try the process with a design that had some thin or small parts to the design.  I also wanted to do a review of two products . . . Firefly iron on vinyl and BetterSub mug press.  Links for the products are at the end of this post.

I found this saying on LoveSVG . . . if you have not checked them out put this on your list of places to go look for free svg files.  They have so many images and sayings, and they are all free.  I have used several different images from them, and they always cut beautifully.



I uploaded the svg for the saying to Design Space and then cut it from the Firefly iron on vinyl on the iron on setting.  I have to tell you, I have used several different brands of iron on vinyl over the years, and this brand by far weeded the easiest!  I am in love with it!

Next I put the mug into my BetterSub brand mug press.  I followed the suggested time and temperature in the product manual.  The hardest part of this process is letting the mug cool down before removing the carrier sheet.  I am not good at waiting.

And here is the finished product!  I would recommend hand washing mugs with vinyl on them.

If you are interested in the products that I talked about in this post, you can purchase them from the links below.





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Iron on vinyl on a mug

Let's talk about personalizing coffee mugs.  I was all excited to try some heat transfer ink pens that I got on Amazon with my mug press.  I tried them with regular copy paper (per the directions on the packaging) and with some sublimation paper I had samples of.  Neither one worked so I am going to have to go back to the drawing board on the pens. 

Then I did a search for information on using iron on vinyl on coffee mugs, since I had plenty of iron vinyl in the house.  I found several people that had tried it, and it worked so I thought what the heck, it can't go any worse than the heat transfer ink pens I used.

Here is what I really liked about using the iron on vinyl for the mugs . . . 

• You don't have to have perfect coloring skills, like you need with the ink pens
• You don't need heat resistant tape to stick and hold the design on the mug since the carrier sheet for the iron on vinyl is already sticky

I cut the image with my Cricut on the iron on setting.

I used my PlanetFlame mug press which can be found at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07J4FKV5R/

I pressed it at 360 degrees for 190 seconds.  Remember to use a towel or hot pad when you remove the mug from the press.  It will be hot!

One I took it out of the press, I let it cool completely before removing the carrier sheet.  The slight purple bleed that you see under the image is left over from my attempt at the heat transfer inks.

I would hand wash a mug with iron on vinyl on it, because the heat of the dishwasher could re-activate the vinyl.  This is also why I recommend air drying shirts with iron on vinyl on them. Keep following me and join my Teach Me Cricut Design Space group on Facebook!

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Shawn's Teach me Cricut Design Space Group
Crafty Chic's Blog on Facebook //  YouTube  // Instagram  //  Crafting Pixie