The “Weld,” “Contour,” and “Slice” functionalities:
These three tools will be activated at the bottom of the screen for designs that allow for these changes.
The “Weld” tool will allow you to merge two different designs to obtain one composite design, without any leftover seams and cut lines that might be present on the individual designs. It helps you in obtaining a single continuous cut for your design, so you do not need to glue and assemble multiple pieces to obtain the final design, for example, the creation of cake toppers, gift tags, and other decorations.
The “Contour” tool can be used to activate or deactivate any cut lines in any cut files, and thereby, allowing you to customize the image in various ways. So, imagine you have an image of a flower. You want to remove the details of the design and obtain more of an outline of the flower. You can do so by clicking on the “Contour” button at the bottom of the screen and selecting the different elements of the image that you want to turn on or off from the contour pop-up window.
The “Slice” tool can be used to slice a design from an image by cutting out or removing elements of the image, as shown in the picture below.
Use your search keywords wisely. The search functionality within the “Design Space” is not very dynamic, so your choice of keywords will make a big difference in the designs and projects that will be displayed to you. For example, if you search for images containing dotted designs and search with keyword “Dots,” you would be given around 120 images, but if you search with the term “Dot,” you would see almost twice as many images. You should also search with synonyms and closely related terms of your target project idea. For instance, if you wanted to create a Halloween project, you can search with terms like pumpkin, costumes, and trick or treat, among others. It will ensure you are viewing any images of your project.
The “Cartridge” image sets. It is likely that during your search, you like design more than any other made available to you, but it is not exactly how you want it to be. Well, simply click on the small information circle (i) at the bottom of the image, and you will be able to view the entire image set or “cartridge” of images similar to your selected image within the “Design Space Image Library.”
A treasure trove of free fonts and images. As a beginner, you would want to utilize a large number of free fonts and images to get your hands-on experience with your “Cricut” device. It is a great way to spend less money and still be able to create stunning craft projects. Within the “Design Space” application, you can click on the “Filter” icon next to the search bar (available within the images, fonts, and project tabs) and select “Free” to only view free resources within each category.
Use synchronized colors to save time and money. It is a great tool when you have designs that are either a composite of multiple images or inherently contain different hues of the same color. Instead of using five different shades of the same color, you can synchronize the colors, so you need to use only one colored sheet. To do this, simply click on the “Color Sync” tab on the “Layers Panel” on the top right corner of the screen. Then drag and drop the desired layer(s) of the design to your target color layer, and the moved layer will immediately be modified to have the same color as the target color.
Use the “Hide” tool to cut images from the Canvas selectively. When you are looking to turn your imagination into a work of art, you may want to view and take inspiration from multiple images while you work on your design. But once you obtain your desired design, you would not want to cut every other image on your canvas. It is where the “Hide” tool comes in handy, so you do not need to delete the images on the Canvas to avoid cutting them along with your project design. To hide the image, you just need to click on the “eye” symbol next to those specific image layers on the “Layers Panel.” The hidden images will not be deleted from the Canvas but would not appear on the cutting mat when you click the “Make It” button to cut your project.
Ability to change the design lines to be cut, scored, or drawn. With the latest version of the “Design Space” application, you can simply change the “Linotype” of design from its the predefined type to your desired action, instead of looking for designs that have predefined line type meeting your project need. For example, if your selected design is set at “Linotype” Cut, but you want the design to be “Linotype” Score, you can easily change the “Linotype” by clicking on the “Linotype” drop-down and making your selection.
The power of the “Pattern” tool. As you have learned from the last project of this book, “Personalized Fridge Magnets,” you can use your own uploaded images to be used as pattern fill for your designs.
Moreover, you will also be able to edit the image pattern and the patterns that already exist within the “Design Space” application to create your own unique and customized patterns. The “Edit Pattern” window allows you to adjust the resolution and positioning of the pattern on your design and much more. (Remember, to use the “Pattern” feature, you must use the “Print then
Cut” approach for your project, with access to a printer).
Utilize the standard “keyboard shortcuts.” The “Design Space”
application does have all the required tools and buttons to allow you to edit the images and fonts. Still, if you prefer to use your keyboard shortcuts to edit the image quickly, the “Design Space” application will support that. Some of the keyboard shortcuts you can use include “Copy (Control + C),”;
“Paste (Control + V),”; “Delete (Delete key),”; “Copy (Control + Z).”
You can utilize the “Slice” tool to crop the image. The “Design Space” application still lacks the “Crop” functionality, so if you need to crop an image, you will need to get creative. A good tip is to use the “Slice” tool along with the “Shapes” to get your desired image.
Change the position of the design on the Cutting mat. When you are
ready to cut your design and click on the “Make It” button, you will notice that your design will be aligned on the top left corner of the mat. Now, if you are using a material that was cut at its top left corner, you can simply drag and move the image on the “Design Space” mat to meet the positioning of your cutting material. You will be able to cut the image anywhere on the mat by moving the design on that specific position on the mat.
Moving design from one mat to the other. Yes! You can not only move the design over the mat itself, but you can also move the design from one mat to another by simply clicking on the three dots (…) on top of the mat and select “Move to another mat.” You will then view a pop-up window where you can select from the existing mats for your project to be used as the new mat for your selected design.
Save cut materials as Favorites for quick access. Instead of spending time filtering and searching for your cut material on the “Design Space” application over and over, just save your frequently used material by clicking on the star next to the “Cricut” logo on the “Design Space” application to save them under the “Favorites” tab next to the default “All Materials” tab. When you are getting ready to cut your project, under the “Set Material” tab, your “Favorites” material will be displayed on the screen, as shown in the picture below.
You can store the most frequently used cut materials on the “Cricut Maker.” Unlike the “Cricut Explore” series which has dial settings for a variety of commonly used cut materials, the “Cricut Maker” requires you to use a “Custom Materials” menu within the “Design Space” application that can be accessed using the button on the machine bearing “Cricut” logo, since there is no dial to choose the material you want to cut.
Choose to repeat the cut of the same mat or skip a mat from being cut altogether. By following the instructions on the “Design Space” and feeding the right color and size of the material to the machine, you will be able to get your design perfectly cut. You can change the order in which the mats are cut, repeat the cut of your desired mat, and even skip cutting a mat if needed. You can do this easily by simply clicking on and selecting the mat you would like to cut.
You can edit the cut settings of your materials. You might notice that even when you have selected the default settings to cut the desired material, the material may not cut as desired. To help with this, “Design Space” allows you to adjust the cut settings for all the materials such as the depth of the cut, the cutting blade, and the number of the passes to be made by the “Cricut” device. Since this may not be as intuitive to most beginners, here’s a step-by-step walkthrough of this process:
- When using the “Cricut Maker,” select “Materials” on the cut screen, andif using the “Cricut Explore” series, set the dial to “Custom.”
- Click on “Browse All Materials” from the top of the menu.
- From the bottom of the screen, select “Material Settings.”
- The pop-up window for the “Custom Materials” will be displayed, asshown in the picture below, where you can make the required adjustments.
Adjust the pressure with which the material can be cut. You may want just to adjust the pressure with which the cut is made to obtain a clean and neat cut of the material, without needing to go through the process described above to adjust the cut setting of the material. On the cut screen, once you have selected the cut material, a drop-down option with the “Default” setting will be displayed.
Simply click on the drop-down button and adjust the pressure to “More” or “Less.”
“Cricut Access Membership” – At a monthly fee of around $8 or an annual membership fee, you will be able to use a wider variety of fonts and imaged for free. You will be able to use more than 30K images, over 370 fonts freely, and thousands of projects, saving a lot of money in the long run, depending on your usage.