Cricut Design Space Intricate Cut Setting (2024)

FAQs

Cricut Design Space Intricate Cut Setting? ›

On the Explore machines, you'll find the intricate cut setting under “Custom Materials.” Turn your Smart Set Dial to “Custom” and select “Cardstock (for intricate cuts)” on the Project Preview screen. You can find more information on using custom settings here.

Your Cricut mat needs to be pretty sticky in order to get clean cuts. So if your cuts aren't clean, the first thing you should do is change your mat. I usually switch to a new or newer mat and it solves my problem right away.

Cricut machines blades need to be changed at different intervals based on the materials you use with your machine. In general, when the cuts are not crisp, then it is time to change your blade.

On the Maker, you can simply search for “intricate” and select “Cardstock (for intricate cuts)”. If you want to add it to your favorites, just click the star. Cardstock for intricate cuts differs from the regular cardstock settings in two ways: 1) It uses less pressure and 2) It cuts twice.

Open the Manage Custom Materials page through the Design Space menu and increase the pressure for your material setting by 2-4, then perform a test cut. You may need to increase the pressure settings 2-3 times by increments of 2-4 to see a change in the cut result.

If your Cricut blade is going cutting too deep or not cutting how it should, your blade may need replacing, you may have chosen the incorrect vinyl type or you may be using the wrong blade altogether.

Featuring designs from Anna Griffin®, Cricut® Washi Sheets are sized at a full 12" x 12" so you can cut what you want using any Cricut® machine and the extensive Cricut® Image Library. These translucent sheets have stylish, usable patterns perfect for layering and creating semi-opaque decorative accents.

Set the machine to Custom material, then choose the Washi tape or Washi sheet setting when prompted. This setting will slow the machine down and help to cut those really intricate pieces.

Solution: You are cutting too deep. Try lightening up your pressure of your cut. If you cut too deep, the blade cuts a very thin layer of the backing paper along with your vinyl. So, when you go to weed your vinyl, its easier for the paper to rip off with the vinyl than for the vinyl to detach from the backing.

You can easily sharpen all of your Cricut Blades with aluminum foil. This includes: Fine-Point Blades: Fine Point Blades are made from 45-degree German Carbide steel. They're wear-resistant still need to be sharpened regularly.

What is the lifespan of a Cricut blade? ›

When asked, “How long do Cricut blades last?”, we think for a guideline you could start with, that at a minimum, you should change your blade every two months with average use of your Cricut machine. If you're cutting with it quite often, you might need to move that up to every six weeks.

Manual Calibration

To get optimal cut performance, sizing, and alignment, you should perform the Rotary blade calibration every time you change your Rotary blade. Note: Rotary Blade calibration is available only for Cricut Maker machines and must be completed using a Windows/Mac computer.

What is kerning? Kerning refers to the spacing between letters or characters in printed text. In Design Space, we've optimized kerning for system fonts and many Cricut fonts so the spacing between letters or characters is automatically more natural.

Cricut Maker Knife Blade: Cuts materials like wood, leather, chipboard, and more up to 3/32in thick with ease and precision.

The Premium Fine-Point Blade (formerly known as the German Carbide Premium Blade) can be used with the Maker, Explore, Explore One, Explore Air, and Explore Air 2 machines.

You can adjust the cut pressure your Cricut cuts with from about 120 to over 300. You can also change the blade used to cut a material or the number of times it will cut. To get the Handout ” Changing the Pressures on Your Cricut” which includes a list of pressures of typical materials.

I even made my own cut settings with the lightest pressure available (70) and used the "less" pressure setting upon cutting, and it still cut all the way through.

Fine Point Blades

Premium Fine-Point blades are designed to make the most intricate cuts imaginable in a variety of thin to medium-weight materials. Formerly known as the Premium German Carbide Blade-- this is the same blade and housing that is used with the Explore family of machines.

In general, 3-6 months is the average useful life of a Premium Fine Point blade in a Cricut Maker machine.

Designing the vinyl:

Files for the vinyl cutter must be vector files. Adobe Illustrator is useful for this.

What is reverse weeding? ›

Reverse weeding is a weeding process using a transfer tape.. The vinyl is transferred to the transfer tape to weed out the unwanted parts of the design. As opposed to using a weeding tool and taking out the unwanted parts of the vinyl piece by piece.

Washi tapes are decorative tapes that are made out of rice paper. These tapes are available in colorful and unique designs. They are a good option for crafting and are widely used in craft projects, paper crafts, and other arts. Washi tapes are a common scrapbooking embellishment.

Conceptually, they are the same. Originally sold as Japanese masking tape, the tape eventually adopted the name "washi tape" as its recognised international designation. The most well-known brand of washi tape is simply named mt, which stands for "masking tape." It is also known as masking tape in Japan (マスキングテープ).

What Is So Special About Washi Tape? Washi tape isn't just like your average craft adhesives. It is a decorative tape that you can tear, reposition, remove, stick, color, and even write on. It is an all-around crafting tape that works on almost any surface - paper, plastic, glass, wood, metal, etc.

SVG images are the most common type of cut file to use with Cricut Design Space. SVG stands for “scalable vector graphic”. That means you can make the SVG image as large or small as you want, without it looking pixelated or blurry.

The top choice for permanent adhesive vinyl is the Oracal 651 Craft Vinyl Roll. This product is designed to stick to most flat surfaces, including wood, metal, glass, and walls. It's incredibly thin, measuring just 0.6 mm thick, making it very easy to weed and transfer.

Now when you're customizing crafts using a permanent vinyl, you may ask yourself: Do you mirror permanent vinyl? Let's cut to the chase and not confuse ourselves: No, you do not mirror permanent vinyl on the design space. You never mirror adhesive vinyl.

Generally, when the cuts are no longer clean and crisp or the cuts no longer go all the way through like they once did – then I know my Cricut blade is dull and it is time to change the blade.

In general, a Cricut cutting mat should last for 40-50 uses before it starts to wear out. What is this? You read that right; the cutting mats do not last forever. They will start to wear out and lose their stickiness over time.

Which Cricut machines are obsolete? ›

Current Types of Cricut Machines

Legacy machines that aren't being sold anymore include Cricut Gypsy, Cricut Cake, Cricut Personal, Cricut Mini, Cricut Expression 2, and Cricut Expression. These machines (along with Cricut cartridges) are no longer supported by Cricut. Have cartridges from an old machine?

Tip: We recommend cleaning after two to four Knife Blade cuts, especially when cutting materials that leave high amounts of debris. Life of mats will vary based on materials cut, and how often mats are cleaned.

After a while a used blade will get dull, especially when cutting thicker materials. You will notice with intricate cuts in things like paper and cardstock that it can start to pull and tear on the Cricut mat when the blade becomes dull.

Deep-Point Blade

The Deep Point blade is recommended for cutting magnet, chipboard, stamp material, thick cardstock, stiffened felt, foam sheets, cardboard, fabric, and other thicker materials.

The Deep-Point blade is ideal for intricate cuts in thicker, medium-weight materials. The Knife blade is ideal for cuts of moderate detail in the thickest, heavy-weight materials. In addition, the Knife blade is only compatible with the Cricut Maker machines.

svg file. This vector format is the most frequently used file type by the Cricut User. Whether you have a Cricut Maker, Cricut Explore Air, or another cutting machine, this file type is my favorite to use within the Cricut Design Space Software.

Paring Knives

The paring knife is a small, short-bladed knife, used for intricate cutting, peeling, mincing and dicing.

Blade Types

If finer cuts are what you have set out to achieve, a crosscut blade is the better option. The resulting cut is much smoother, but because the teeth have less space for chip removal and because there are more teeth to cut through the wood, the feed rate is much slower.

The fine point blade was designed to make intricate cuts on a variety of thin to medium-weight materials such as cardstock, vinyl, iron-on and more. The blade has a 45-degree point and can handle most of your normal cutting needs.

The best Cricut blade for most projects is the Deep Point blade; this can be used to cut magnet material, chipboard, cardstock, stiffened felt, cardboard, paper, and light fabrics. It's the best all-round blade for Cricut.

Why is my Cricut not cutting all the way through vinyl? ›

Open the Manage Custom Materials page through the Design Space menu and increase the pressure for your material setting by 2-4, then perform a test cut. You may need to increase the pressure settings 2-3 times by increments of 2-4 to see a change in the cut result.

You'll want to make sure your picture is high quality, 300 dpi or better, to make sure you get a clear print.

It's high resolution makes it perfect for printing. So if we use the Print and Cut feature in Cricut Design Space, an JPG file is perfect. But if you want to cut each layer of your image in color vinyl or paper, steer clear of JPG files.

How thick can my material be with Cricut Maker machines? 3/32 of an inch, or 2.4mm. Click here for more info on cutting thicker materials.

Duplicate and Align to center, then attach the designs for a deeper engraving. This is a little trick that essentially has your Cricut making multiple passes over the same image. I usually duplicate two or three times and have been really pleased with the results.