Cricut Cutting Tips

Here are some Cricut Cutting Tips that I've written up to help you get the most out of you machine.

Tip #1 - Your Mat

Your mat needs to be sticky, but not too sticky. Try to find a happy medium between too sticky and not sticky enough. It’s always a good idea to keep a supply of mats and rotate them. For thick cardstock, it’s better to have a stickier mat. For thinner paper, a less sticky mat is better.

For really thin paper or vellum, it’s not a bad idea to use a really un-sticky mat and tape it down using painter’s tape. Then just move your blade to where the paper is on the mat, so you don’t cut through the tape. (Remember to press the Set Paper Size button when doing this).

When you do get a new mat, there are a few ways you can “prep” them before using them. Some people put their hands all over them and make them not quite so sticky. Others take a clean white tee-shirt and press it on to the mat, then lift it off to get some lint from the shirt onto the mat. I haven’t tried the tee-shirt trick yet, but I did try putting my hands all over a brand new mat one time. I found that particular mat became not sticky enough very quickly. Sometimes I just deal with it being too sticky for awhile and use the really sticky ones for heavy cardstock until they are not so sticky anymore.

Taking good care of your mats will help them last longer. I clean mine with baby wipes once in awhile to get the extra lint off. I have also been known to refurbish a mat or two. You can refurbish your mat and make it sticky again using Zig 2 way glue (with the wide applicator) or a spray-on adhesive. Make sure you let it dry before putting paper on it or else the paper will be stuck there permanently.

After awhile the edges of the mat get curled up from being loaded into the machine so often. Don’t put up with a bad mat. They are not that expensive and it’s always good to have a nice fresh mat. JoAnns will allow you to use a coupon on mats and other Cricut accessories (just not the machines or cartridges). You can sign up for the email list and have the coupons sent directly to your inbox.


Tip # 2 Your Blade and blade housing

Your blade goes into the blade housing and then the blade housing goes into the machine. The arrow on the blade housing needs to always be facing you if you’re standing directly in front of your machine. If the arrow is not facing straight out from your machine, you will not get a good cut. I can’t stress this enough!

Blades are pretty cheap and easy to come by (Use your JoAnns Coupon). When paper that you’ve cut previously with no problem starts ripping or tearing, it’s time to change your blade! Also, I changed mine once and continued to have bad cuts. I thought I had put it in wrong, or done something else wrong. I didn’t. It was just a bad blade. I put another new on in and it worked great! Obviously, these are VERY SHARP. Even when they are not cutting through the paper very well, they will still cut your skin. Be very careful with them. I use a tweezer to take them in and out of the blade housing.

Tip #3 – Settings and Cutting
When you are cutting, try to think of it like trimming your own bangs. You wouldn’t just walk in your bathroom and chop them off. You would trim a little and check it and then trim more if you had to. Your Cricut can work the same way.

You’ve got three settings on your machine that you can change that determine how your machine cuts. Your blade depth (the dial on the blade housing), your speed (the dial on the top left of the front of you machine) and your Pressure (the dial on the bottom left of the front of your machine). Your blade depth determines how deep your blade goes into the paper. Your speed determines how fast the machine cuts. Your pressure determines how hard the machine presses into the paper.

The general rule is, of course, the thicker the paper, the higher the settings should be on your blade depth and your pressure. Thick cardstock will require a blade depth of about 5 or 6 and a pressure of High or Max. For regular paper, the blade depth could be 4 or 5 and the pressure about Medium or High. For thin paper or vellum, try a blade depth of about 2 or 3 and a pressure of Low or Medium.

These are just suggestions. Play around and try to find what works for your machine and your paper. Once you find a setting that really works, write it down. If you’ve purchased a whole block of paper, write the settings on the front or back cover. In general paper of the same thickness and manufactured by the same company will cut the same.

Again like trimming your bangs, you take a little off, then check it, then take more if you have to. Cut with your Cricut the same way. Back your settings down, then cut, and then cut it again if you have to (read further to see how to do this!).

As far as the speed goes, that needs to be adjusted more for your particular cuts. If you are cutting a basic shape like a square or a circle, you can set your speed to as fast as you like. If you are cutting a more intricate shape, like a flower, slow it down a little. For really intricate cuts like the flourish-y guitar on the Hannah Montana cartridge, take it really slow!

I have found that some cardstocks are really thick. One in particular that comes to mind is the Glitter Stack from DCWV. This requires a multi-cut of at least 2 every time I cut with it. If you are using an Expression or a Cricut Create or a Gypsy or Design Studio with your Personal Cutter, you can use your multi-cut function. If you are using your personal cutter without a Gypsy or Design Studio, and don’t have a multi-cut function, you can still multi-cut. See Tip #4, next.

Tip #4 – Cutting through Every Single Time

How many times have you cut your phrase or image, unloaded your mat, and then realized that it wasn’t cut all the way through on your paper? Here’s a trick to make sure that NEVER happens again!

After cutting, instead of hitting “Unload Paper”, hit “Load Paper”. This will bring your cutting blade to the top right corner of your mat. At this point, you can carefully lift a small corner of your paper and see if your image has been cut all the way through. If not, simply hit “Repeat Last” and press “Cut”. This is assuming you placed your paper at the top right hand corner of your mat. If your paper was placed elsewhere on your mat, you will need to move your cutting blade to the exact location it was when it was cut the first time. Then hit Set Paper Size, then Repeat Last, then Cut. I always try to make sure I use a basic size when using my set paper size button. I try to use 6x6 or 6x3 or something easy to remember in case I have to do this. If it’s an odd size, it’s a good idea to write it down just in case you need to use this trick.

Doing this every single time will save you so much paper and so much frustration. If you press Unload Paper, don’t bother putting it back in and trying this. You will never get it lined up right. Just press Load Paper after every cut and you can get a perfect cut almost every time!

Tip # 5 - Basic Care

To keep dust from getting inside your machine, I always keep mine closed and I always keep a cartridge in it and a keypad overlay on it. It prevents dust from getting into the area where the cartridges go.

I don’t know if this matters or not, but I always turn it off before removing or installing a cartridge. I don’t think you have to, it’s just a habit I’ve gotten into and it’s just what I do.

The other thing I do is, I keep it plugged in and set up and ready to go all the time. I happen to have a spare bedroom with no spare bed, so I use that for my scrapbook/crafting room. If you have a space and you can keep it plugged in and ready to go whenever you’re ready, you will use it a lot more often.

Tip # 6 – Your Cartridges

Never judge a book – or a Cricut Cartridge - by its cover. In order to see all the images on a cartridge, it’s best to view the entire handbook. You can go to www.cricut.com and search for the cartridge you want and then view the handbook online. There are so many images available on most cartridges that they can’t possibly show them all on the back cover of the cartridge box.

I also went online and found pdf files of the handbooks and printed out the ones that I own. Then I put them in sheet protectors in a 3-ring binder. These pdf files print out 6 pages to an 8.5x11 sheet of paper, so it’s about 9 pages per cartridge. It’s a great way to see at a quick glance which fonts and images are available to me.

Your Handbooks

It’s a good idea to re-number the pages of you handbook to correspond with the keyboard overlay. Starting with the page showing the first cut, put the number 1, then 2 and so forth. This way, when you are looking in your handbook and you see something you want to cut you can just count the keys and find exactly what you’re looking for.

(This works well for the over-40 crowd, when our eyes start to go! ;-)



Tips at a Glance

Tip #1 – Use the right mat for the right paper

Tip # 2 – Arrow faces out and use a sharp blade. Use a coupon to buy replacement parts from JoAnns

Tip #3 – Use the right settings for the right paper and cuts. Slow down for intricate cuts.

Tip #4 – Don’t hit unload paper until you are sure it has cut all the way through. Hit Load paper and check it first.

Tip # 5 – Always keep a cartridge in, even if you’re cutting with a Gypsy or Design Studio

Tip # 6 – Make a binder of your handbooks. And number the cuts to correspond with the keyboard overlay, so you can find them easier.

Welcome to my Blog

I've just decided to share this blog to be able to share my Cricut crafts.

I hope you enjoy it.

Meg