Cricut pro's

Tricia · 12-27-2006, 01:31 PM

Ok I got a cricut for Christmas, but they don't have books on tips and techniques.

If I am cutting out a 6X12 and I want the paper not the letters that are cut out. what is a good way to get the paper off the cutting mat w/o destoring, wrinkling or tearing my paper.

And can you jsut add your 2 cents worth on what you have done and all the good stuff :

Thanks,

Lisa · 12-27-2006, 03:43 PM

I think Amy is the only one that has a Cricut...hopefully she will chime in....I have the Xyron PCS but I know it comes with a little peeling tool to help peel the stuff off the mat. Did you get a tool kit with the Cricut???

DKGirl · 12-27-2006, 03:52 PM

I got one in September. My DH surprised me with one and I love it. I use it a lot for projects.

Here's the website with awesome ideas.

http://www.cricut.com/

Under the community is a message board where people post ideas and you can ask questions. Sign up for their weekly email newsletter that comes out. It's called the Cricut Chirp.

I had problems with my mat when it was new. It's so darn sticky and I would end up tearing my paper as it was stuck on there. I finally took a towel and rubbed it on the mat to take some of the sticky out of it.

I made and posted a pic of my altered compositon notebook and cut the letters out with it. I'll post a pic later as I'm making name picture frames for my niece and nephew. I think they've turned out pretty cute.

Let me know if you have any other questions or concerns. Whenever it comes time to get a new font cartridge, try checking Wal-Mart 1st. as mine just started carrying them and they're $52.00 each. Michaels will not let you use their 40%/50% coupons on any Cricut item. JoAnn will let you but it seems they always have the cartridges on sale for around $57-$59. You can use the coupon to get replacement mats and blades. I'm still on my 1st. blade so I've been pleased with that. I got the green case for it and I love that!! It's straped in there and protected as I can't leave it out all the time as I scrapbook on the kitchen table. I can stuff all my stuff and cartridges in there and it's all in one spot.

Here's these for you too.

DKGirl · 12-27-2006, 03:54 PM

I got a little guy pulling on my leg here so I'll look through some of my things and I'll post them for you later tonight.

Tricia · 12-28-2006, 09:19 AM

THanks Amy, I was wondering about that cutting mat. I got really lucky yesterday. Belinda had the 50% off coupon to Michaels and Paper slabs were on sale and the cartridges were on sale for $59.99. So I got the New Arrivals and the Jasmine, DH got me the Doodlecharms. I also got a couple more cutting mats.

Dh had gotten me the accessory tools w/ the cricut and also the tote bag everything goes in. I have some really great idea. I was looking for the website Amy, thanks, I looked at provocrafts, I didn't like it. So I will go check out Cricut.

THanks,. When you use the shadow, is that to basically layer w/ so you have your picture then with a shadow behind?? Does that make sense?? Also in the books for the fonts. some of the borders show the shape on the side. Or not perfectly even they are diagonal. How do you do that?

Thanks AMY!! I am in love w/ it and I haven't really used it yet.

Tricia · 12-28-2006, 03:21 PM

Amy, I was working w/ the Jasmin font today. I did Merry Christmas, but the letters are all over the place instead of on a straight line. Is that when I am suppose to use the "Real Dial" Selection. I had a Capital M. and a Capital C. and the other letters were lined up on the top.

I really need to play on computer paper when I have some time, more than an hour for nap. Thanks for your help

DKGirl · 12-31-2006, 08:54 PM

Sorry Tricia it's taken me a bit to respond back. It's been a crazy past few days (previous post).

The shadow is to double layer the letters. Like if you want to do an A and then if you do shadow it will cut in out perfect so it can fit behind the letter.

If you type in your word to cut and do the "Real Dial Size", this should give you the word in a straight line.

Here's some information I had saved about the settings:

TIPS TREASURE CHEST - Will the Cricut cut out a font smaller than 1”?

This is a good question and concern. We had to balance the size choices between what the machine could literally cut at with the majority of images, considering heavily the more detailed images that, going too small, just chew up the paper. So 1" is where the bottom dial setting ended up. However, there are a couple of ways that images can get smaller.
The default is proportional sizing, meaning that the 1" setting is for the tallest character of a font. For instance, a lower case "a" set at 1" dial size will actually come out at about ½" because it needs to proportionately go with a larger letter, say an upper case "A". The upper case will come out at about 1". You can turn this off and literally cut the exact dial size for every character by pressing the Real Dial Size button.

Many of the Creative Features enclose a letter or shape inside a larger shape that comes out VERY small. For instance the "Sign" feature on George. With this selected, the inner cut of the letter or shape itself comes out MUCH smaller than 1". There is a feature that affects the cut like this on nearly every cartridge. So we had to keep that in mind when we looked at the overall range of the size dial and smallest possibility combined.

http://www.cricut.com/movies/
At this site they also have movies to help you learn your machine.

Have you made anything yet?? I'll post my name picture frames either today or tomorrow.

DKGirl · 01-01-2007, 01:04 AM

Here's the things I made this week with my Cricut: