Tuesday, October 25, 2011

{Using My Cricut}

 Cricut and Make the Cut project

Well I have used the Cricut that I stole borrowed from my mom for many things as basic cut outs for projects for Mothers day, and just random items. But I have only used it with the cartridges and not my Make the Cut software purchased and downloaded online. I have played with it quite a bit but never connected the 2 things together. I don't know why. Doesn't make sense, but it intimidated me.

Well I convinced my friend Tonia to host a craft night so I could bring my stuff and learn from her.

Well I had to update my drivers, connect the machine, and got this free download of Cricut's Design Studio- which is what held the driver.
And you also get Lettering Delights, some free download SVG files. Well something was going on and my drivers were not installing, then the laptop would not recognize the Cricut when it was plugged in, so I called it a night, but learned a few tips once I got it connected. I was able to create something basic and when I got the 2 systems to "talk" to each other, I could just hit "CUT". So I left at least with a basic understanding of what I needed and wanted to do.

~So once I got home I finally was able to figure out the drivers and get it to work. Now I didn't take pictures of my first try because I wasn't sure how it was going to work, but here is my 2nd project.


I wanted to share this with my sister because I made a birthday shirt for my niece and I wanted her to pick out which she liked better, SO I texted this pic to her. These were all FREE numbers within the software. FYI we went with the one on the bottom left.

So Then I just deleted the extras, and rotated and sized it to fit my mat, (make sure on the side you choose the right mat size)



Then I used some spray adhesive to attach my fabric to my mat to cover the area it shows on my virtual mat.
Add the mat to the machine and click load(on the machine), then CUT (on the laptop) I also adjusted the scrolling buttons on the left side near the mat. I wanted it to cut maximum pressure, and slow, not fast.


I had to adjust the lighting so you could see how it was cut out on the fabric. This is it still stuck to the mat, but you can see the outline very well. I pulled it up carefully, and I had to trim it a bit, but it gave me a perfect outline/stencil area.
 
Here it is removed from the fabric after cutting. The white one behind it was from my iron on adhesive, I just cut out another so they would match up perfect and I ironed both on at the same time, then just did a zig-zag stitch around the edges to secure it.



So this was the project I started with:
Pictures were taken to show my sister the plan. Here is the shirt and fabric. The ribbon didn't end up being used. I had big plans to make a hairbow too lol.

 This is what the shirt looked like after the 2 layers were cut out with the Cricut and then ironed onto the shirt.
 Then I took it upstairs and zigzagged it down to hold it a bit more. And made a tutu to go along with it.

I am very happy with how it turned out, and how easy it was. Goes to show sometimes we are just afraid to try things when there is no reason to fear it at all!
The green fabric above is for my son's birthday shirt. And now that I know how to use the Cricut with the software, I have big plans for his birthday party.

I actually have several posts partially written because some projects are done- yes I am trying to be proactive, but I don't want to share all of them until closer to the party or maybe after! :-)


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