Tutorials

Cricut Design Space has made life easier for people who want to keep the cutting process simple.  Unfortunately in doing so, you may find your score lines jump off your project and land on a mat by themselves.  There is an easy fix for it.  

1. After your file is opened in Cricut Design Space, make sure you have only the elements you want grouped together on your mat.
2. Click on Select All
3. In the Layers Palette click "Attach"
   

Older versions of Cricut Design Space did not always open up .svg files true to size.  You no longer have to worry about sizing issues in Cricut Design Space.  If you do want to resize an image, upload it to your mat and drag the image smaller  or bigger by clicking on double arrow icon in the lower- right hand corner.

Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL) can open the following file types:

• .svg
• .scut 
• .ai
• .pdf
• .png
• .eps
• .wpc

SCAL vs. 2 was the last version of SCAL capable of cutting files with the Cricut Expression.  If you have SCAL 3 or higher, you can prepare your files and take advantage of newer features and then still send your file to SCAL 2, to be cut with your Cricut Expression.  

To do this, simply go through the steps you normally would to prepare and alter your files for cutting in SCAL 3 or higher.  When you are finished do the following:

1. Open Sure Cuts a Lot 2
2. Go to File > Send To > Sure Cuts a Lot 2
3. Your design is transferred and should be ready to cut.

The Conical Warp Tool in MTC is a great tool for anyone who wants to make cute cupcake, mug, or cup wrappers.  Besides making wrappers, the conical warp tool is perfect to help warp imagery or words so they can be curved around a round object perfectly.

To use the Conical Warp Tool to make a cupcake wrapper follow these directions:

1. Start by importing .svg or image file that have enough width to wrap a cupcake.
2. Select image
3. Click on the Conical Warp Tool in the bottom menu (looks like an arch)
4. If your imagery or file is very tall, chances are you will want to click "Trim Bottom Overhang".  The other default settings in the Conical Warp Tool are designed to fit a cupcake wrapper.  Keep as is.

One of the lesser known features available in MTC is the ability to change colors and textures of imagery.  This comes in handy when you need imagery to match a specific project you are doing.  The following video explains the process:

Most people who use MTC and cutting files are very aware of how wonderful vector files are.  They are completely re-sizeable without any loss of quality.  Sometimes, however a crafter, especially one who blogs needs a raster file.  A raster file is not re-sizeable.  They are typically the files you see on the web.  They are .jpg, .png, and .gif formats  for the most part.  As a crafter, you may have created something that you do not want people to easily copy and reproduce.  MTC has the perfect solution.

To create a raster image from MTC do the following:

1. Once you have created a file the way you want it to look in MTC, select all layers
   
2. Right mouse click and choose Export> Selection to Raster File
   
3. A dialog window opens that allows you to choose file type (.jpg doesn't support transparency and while .png does support transparency you can choose to have a background behind your image if you prefer in your dialog box)
   
4. Dialog box allows you to choose drop shadow and other elements (for example you can add a watermark to help brand your image
   

The preferred file format in MTC is .svg.  Importing and using .svg files in MTC couldn't be easier.  MTC is fully integrated with your LD Library.  You can access your LD Library and all the LD inventory in three ways:

• The art icon button in the top menu
  
• Under the File menu, choose Import>From Lettering Delights
  
• Under the View menu, click on Lettering Delights
  

Make The Cut software is fully integrated into LD.  You have access to LD's entire library of images as well as being able to access your own purchases easily.  

To access products in MTC, simply do one of the following:

• click on the art icon in the top menu
• go to File>Import>From LetteringDelights
• go to View>LetteringDelights
  

A thin Font is a single-line font. A person can put a pen, crayon, or a number of tools right into the "claw" of a cutting machine rather than a blade and use the machine to "draw" instead of "cut". When you do that with a regular font (.ttf or .otf) the machine traces the outline of the font so rather than having a single line, you get a double line.

When you use a font (.ttf or .otf file) on your computer, it will typically look something like this example (unless it is an outlined version of a font):