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Cricut Tips & Hacks!

We recently started posting some Cricut Tips & Hacks on our TikTok account & we wanted to make a blog post with all these tips! We will be adding more as we learn them!

CLICK HERE to check out our TikTok account full of Cricut tips, project inspiration, & other craft resources!
Make sure you follow us to stay up to date on all our videos!

This post contains some affiliate links for your shopping convenience. This simply means when you shop using our links, we make a commission & at no additional cost to you! As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. This helps us keep making great content for you all! Thank you for supporting our crafting community! See our privacy policy for more information.

You can click the links in each tip to take you to purchase each item included in these tips!

1. When pulling vinyl off your mat, turn it over & BEND & pull up on the mat (the mat is made a little flexible so you can do this!) while removing TO PREVENT PAPER CURLING!
BEND THE MAT, NOT THE VINYL!

2. TO CUT MULTIPLE COLORS OF VINYL ON THE SAME MAT
On the “Make It” screen, click the THREE DOTS (they appear when you select an image), & select “Move Image” and manually move every image onto the same mat & lay each color using the number guides.
You can also do this by making the entire image the same color. Then all parts of your project will appear on one mat & you can manually move them to arrange them how you’d like & just place the vinyl as described above.

3. Store your vinyl scrap pieces in a 3 ring binder with clear sheet protectors to separate each different color. (These items can also be found at Dollar Tree!!)

4. When dealing with stubborn vinyl that won’t come off your transfer tape, turn it over so the transfer tape is facing DOWN. Then almost fold/roll away, almost creasing the backing of the vinyl, SLOWLY away from the transfer tape.
Sometimes you have to PUSH DOWN (reburnish) another time on the transfer tape for the stubborn pieces BEFORE doing this to ensure your vinyl is adhered to the transfer tape good!

5. You can reuse the same piece of transfer tape over and over again!

6. Use parchment paper for easy layering! Put the parchment paper on the back of your vinyl (on the sticky part. Don’t worry it comes right off really easy!) covering about 90% of the design, leaving just a little of the design exposed on the top. Line up your vinyl (the exposed NOT covered by parchment paper) & once your satisfied with placement, slowly pull away the parchment paper, while slowly sticking your vinyl to the first layer.

7. Store your vinyl UPRIGHT for longer shelf life, or keep it in a roll tightly wrapped.

8. Use Slap Bracelets or rubber bands to keep your vinyl rolls rolled up tight.

9. Use Glad Press N Seal in place of transfer tape when transferring vinyl onto cardstock!

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Dollar Tree Cricut & Craft Must Haves, Dupes, & Blank Items

Dollar Tree is one of our favorite places to shop! I know we all hate that they have raised their price from $1 each item to now $1.25 an item, BUT good news is that they were able to bring in SO many new products because of this!

DT has quickly become a crafters paradise with everything ranging from their own version of popular Cricut tools (weeding tool, spatula, etc) to materials (cardstock, vinyl, leather, etc) and they have SO many options of blank items ready for you to personalize (from glassware to shirts & everything in between!).

If you can’t find a specific item in store, you may be able to order it online! Some of their products online require you to order in bulk (anywhere from 10 to 25 pieces minimum) but not everything is like that, so check out their website by clicking our affiliate link HERE!

We have gathered a list of our favorite Dollar Tree tools & separated them by categories!

Don’t see your favorite item on the list? Send us an email at maci@markyourworth.com so we can add it to the list! We will add more items as we find them!

MUST HAVES

TOOLS

  • Piercing tool (Works great in place of the weeding tool)
  • Roller Cutter (Make cutting your vinyl quick & easy!)
  • Scissors
  • Hot Glue Gun & Hot Glue Sticks
  • Embossing Tool (Perfect for making rolled flowers!)
  • Sewing Needle Sets
  • Craft Clamps (perfect for holding your rolls together while your cutting vinyl off a roll)
  • Finger Protectors (perfect for when using hot glue gun to avoid burning your fingerprints off!)
  • Cutting Mat
  • Ruler/Tape Measure
  • Glue & residue eraser (great for getting stubborn stickers off items)
  • Wood Carving Tool Set
  • Binder Clips (perfect for storing your mats on the wall)
  • Paintbrushes
  • Slap Bracelets (perfect for keeping your vinyl rolls together and rolled tight

MATERIALS

  • Vinyl (Cutting tip: cut on BLUE MAT on “Washi sheet” setting on explore/maker machines, or “laser copy paper” on joy machine; use big bold letters & bigger shapes, avoid small lines & tiny letters)
  • Cardstock
  • Faux Leather
  • Foam Sheets
  • Felt Sheets
  • Fabric
  • Iron-On Patches
  • Glitter
  • Gemstones/Diamonds
  • Paint
  • Glue (many different types)
  • Yarn & Thread

STORAGE/OTHER

  • Storage Containers (many different shapes & sizes)
  • Baskets
  • Pencil & Brush organizer
  • Tool boxes (perfect for holding craft tools)
  • Nail Polish Remover Bottle (perfect for putting rubbing alcohol)
  • Rubbing Alcohol (to fill your bottle)
  • Cotton Rounds (for cleaning your projects before applying vinyl)
  • Shower caddy (perfect for holding vinyl rolls!)
  • Baby Snack Containers (perfect for your weeding scraps & works great getting the pieces off your weeding tool!)
  • Squeeze bottles
  • Holiday Items

DUPES

  • Burnish/Scraper tool
  • Weeding tool
  • Spatula Tool
  • Clear Shelf Liner (used in place of transfer tape)

BLANK ITEMS (ready for personalization!)

  • Glassware (cups, bowls, plates, casserole dishes)
  • Cups, Mugs,
  • Blank Shirts
  • Blank Hats
  • Blank Kitchen Items (Pizza pans, squirt bottles, napkin holders, plastic chopping mats, etc)
  • Oven Mitts & Holders
  • Wood items
  • Blank Canvases
  • Blank Metal Items (signs, round circles, etc)
  • Backpacks, Purses, & Bags
  • Pencil Holders/ School Supply items (notebooks, pencil cases, etc)
  • Picture Frames
  • Shadow Boxes (Most of these will have a design already on the front, just take some rubbing alcohol on a cotton round & gently wipe it away!)
  • Blank Wreaths
  • Jars
  • Nightlights
  • Blank Customizable Wreaths
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Accessing special characters (swashes) to use in Design Space

Do you ever see those special characters in a particular font & wonder how to actually get them into Design Space? We are talking about those swirly accents, hearts, & lines. Like the “i” character shown in the image below:

Well, this is your ultimate resource for accessing those special characters (also known as swashes) on your computer/device! Here we will post TWO DIFFERENT ways to access those characters! We will add more resources here as we find them!

To get AMAZING fonts like the one we used in this tutorial, visit our affiliate font shops:
CREATIVE FABRICA
SOFONTSY
CRELLA MARKETPLACE

#1. USING CHARACTER MAP

1. Download CHARACTER MAP (it’s free!) on your computer/device.
You can CLICK HERE to go directly to it, or search for it in your computer’s app store.

This is how it will look when you search for it in the windows store on your computer & you can see the apps icon:

2. Once it’s downloaded on your computer, open up character map. (It may appear across the bottom of your screen on your tool bar)

Make sure that all the particular fonts that you want to access all the characters for are properly downloaded & unzipped on your computer/device!

3. Find the font that you want to access the characters (from the left sidebar where all the fonts on your computer are located) & click on it.

4. Simply scroll through all the characters available for the font you’d like & click on the exact character you want to use in Design Space.

Now the character you selected should be shown big on the right sidebar!

5. Below the big picture of the character you selected, click “Copy” as circled in the image below:

6. Open up Design Space & select “New Project” or open up an already existing project.

7. Click “Text” from the right sidebar & backspace the word TEXT and replace it with your desired text (leaving out the special character you copied in character map).

8. Change the font of your text to the same font as you copied a character from in character map. You can find your downloaded fonts under “All” or “System” Fonts as circled in the image below:

9. Now your text should be your desired font, right click & click “Paste” (or press “Ctrl” + V) & the character you copied in character map should appear! As shown in the image below:

Now you can “ungroup ” your text and individually move the letters however you want, like closer together or further apart!

TIP: Some fonts in Design Space have some of their special characters come up when certain keys are pressed. So try it out and see if you can get any special characters without having to even use this method every time!
Some examples of common keys used are:
_ [ ] & ( ) -+

#2. USING FONTCLOUD

No downloading required, but you must make a Creative Fabrica Account! CLICK HERE TO MAKE A FREE CREATIVE FABRICA ACOUNT TO GET ACCESS TO THOUSANDS OF IMAGES & FONTS & FONTCLOUD!

CLICK HERE TO JOIN FONTCLOUD FOR FREE!

FontCloud is a FREE online font manager tool!

1. Go to CreativeFabrica.com & across the top toolbar, hover your mouse over “TOOLS” & click on the first option on the list, FONTCLOUD.

2. Click “Open FontCloud”

3. Download any fonts you have by selecting the BLUE “Browse” button (it’s the last option on the left sidebar)

4. Find the font you want to use on your computer/device & select it.

5. Your font should now be listed in the left sidebar.

You can type out your text where it says “Preview fonts with your own text…” to see how it would look with all your fonts, so you can find the one that looks the best!!

6. Click on the font that you want to access all characters for.

7. Scroll through the characters of your font to find the exact special character that you want & when you click on that character it automatically copies that character.

8. Open up Design Space & select “New Project” or open up an already existing project.

9. Click “Text” from the right sidebar & backspace the word TEXT and replace it with your desired text (leaving out the special character you copied in FontCloud).

10. Change the font of your text to the same font as you copied a character from in FontCloud.

9. Now your text should be your desired font, right click & click “Paste” (or press “Ctrl” + V) & the character you copied in FontCloud should appear!

We hope this helps!! We will be adding more resources as we find them!
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, send us an e-mail at markyourworth@gmail.com.

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Using Canva to make your own SVG’S to use in Design Space!

Have you ever wanted to MAKE YOUR OWN SVG’S to be able to use in Design Space or to convert any picture you save to an SVG with just a few simple clicks?? Well, we have the perfect tool for you!!

Canva is an AMAZING editing tool & your one stop shop for digital images! Their pro version has THOUSANDS of pre-made images, fonts, & templates ready for you to use in your next design/project! You can make everything from logo’s, flyers, business cards, t-shirt’s, & so much more! You can edit photos & videos, easily remove the background of your pics, & so much more with their PRO version!!!

CANVA IS FREE TO JOIN! CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT!

PLEASE NOTE: To follow along with this tutorial & to make our own SVG’s, you must have the PRO (paid) version of Canva!
BUT if you want to try it out to see if it’ a good fit for you or your business, you can try their PRO version for FREE for 30 days! (Valid for new customers only & you must cancel your pro plan before the 30 days is up to avoid any fees!)

Note: They do offer a free account as well, but in order to get access to thousands of their premium images, templates, their content planner & brand kit, background remover for photos, among other great features, you must have the PRO version. (It’s SO worth it for any designer, crafter, or small business owner!!)

This post contains affiliate links, which means we may be compensated (at no extra cost to you!) when purchases are made through our links. Thak you for supporting our crafting community! See our privacy policy for more info.

To try out CANVA PRO for free for 30 days CLICK HERE or click the ad below!

TO MAKE YOUR OWN SVG USING CANVA:

1. Open Canva & click the purple “Create A Design” button in the top right corner of their site. Choose your template size (or manually enter in your own size).
TIP: Unless you are going to use the entire design in design space, the size of your template doesn’t matter, because you can easily remove the background & only your image will save!
(SVG’S are high quality images that will remain clear when made bigger or smaller so for an SVG sizing doesn’t usually matter)

2. Make your design! Have fun, be creative, & explore all their tools to make your design as amazing as possible!

3. Once you are satisfied with your design/image, click the WHITE “Share” button in the top right corner and scroll down & click “Download”.

4. Scroll through the image formats options & select SVG. Make sure “transparent background” has a check next to it, unless you want your entire image to be used!
Your screen should like the screen shown below:

5. Click the PURPLE “Download” button.

6. After you see the image was successfully downloaded to your computer, open up Design Space & click “New Project” (or open an existing project where you want the image to be used.

7. Click “Upload” (the last option across the left sidebar) as circled in the pic below:

8. Find the image you just downloaded and select it.

9. If your image looks the way you want it to, name it, and click the GREEN “Upload” button as circled in the pic below:

10. Now your image should be the first image listed under your “Upload Images” screen.

11. Select your image (there will be a green box around your image if it’s properly selected shown by the arrow below) and click the GREEN “Add to Canvas” button as circled in the image below:

Now you image should be successfully uploaded into your canvas like shown in the example below:

12. Now if you were to just go straight to the “Make It” screen from here, your image may end up looking a mess on the mat like the image shown below:

If this happens, simply go BACK to your canvas, select everything you want to be grouped together (either the whole image or done in sections) & click “ATTACH” from the edit options on the right sidebar as circled in the pic below:

13. Now your image should look how you want it to cut on the mat & it’s ready for tou to start cutting & creating!!!

This is how your “prepare” screen should look like (but with your image instead):

TO SAVE ANY PIC AS AN SVG USING CANVA:

If you want to SAVE any image as an SVG, simply upload it to your design in CANVA & follow the same process to SAVE it as an SVG (or other popular picture formats!)

Any questions, comments, or concerns, send us an e-mail at markyourworth@gmail.com.

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New to Cricut? Beginner tips, tricks, hacks and must-haves!

Starting out with a Cricut machine can be intimidating! But we are here to help!! We have gathered a list of all our best tips, tricks, hacks, and must-haves for beginners and experts alike! Feel free to submit your own tips & tricks to our e-mail (Markyourworth@gmail.com) for them to possibly be added! Or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to message us!!

Note: This post contains some of our affiliate links. This simply means when you make a purchase through our links, we make a commission (at no extra cost to you). As an Amazon associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Visit our privacy policy for more info.

Beginners Guide to Starting Out with a Cricut Machine!

  • Don’t pay in store prices for vinyl, you can get it way cheaper online!
  • Go to Expressions Vinyl for all your adhesive vinyl needs! (Cheap, great quality, super-fast shipping, great customer service, a great rewards program, & so many beautiful patterns & colors options to choose from!) Click here to shop EV.
  • Get all HTV (iron on vinyl) from HTVRont! Great prices, amazing color selection, bundles, free images & fonts for members (free to join). Click here to shop HTVRONT.
  • Get off-brand mats from Amazon (Xinart & ECraft are good brands, just pay attention to ratings and read reviews)
  • You want to get a few STANDARD GRIP (GREEN), LIGHTGRIP MATS (BLUE), possibly a STRONG GRIP MAT (PURPLE) (& a FABRIGRIP (PINK) mat if your planning on cutting fabric materials.)
  • Do an amazon search for off-brand pens if Cricut’s aren’t on sale (see above about reading reviews)
  • Invest in some cardstock paper (Michaels, Joanne’s, Hobby Lobby, Walmart, Target, & Amazon all have good quality paper for pretty cheap)
  • Cricut offers free classes on their website! Click here to check Cricut’s page to see all their FREE classes available!!
  • Download the FREE design space app and play around with it. Click each button and see what every button does. Insert a simple shape (free without an Access subscription) and just click each button and test them out! Click the ad below to get an access subscription!
  • If your on a budget, Dollar Tree has a ton of good Cricut (hack) items! They have spatulas, scrapers, & the weeding tool (all 3 for less than $4!) which are the basic tools that come in the Cricut starter kit that’s around $7-8!
  • Dollar tree also sells these “snack containers in the baby aisle that are perfect for your weeding scraps. & In the nail polish aisle, they have this silicone bottle (that’s meant for nail polish remover) & its perfect to out alcohol in to use cotton rounds to clean off your projects before applying vinyl!
  • Dollar tree also sells shower racks that hold about 5 rolls of vinyl per rack (put a few together with zip ties and you can make a longer rack that holds much more rolls!)
    Hang your mats on the wall for easy and quick storage using the black binder clips (also found at DT!)
  • CLICK HERE TO SHOP DOLLAR TREE ONLINE!
  • Use a binder with clear sheet protectors to store your vinyl scraps & separate by color for easy organization
  • Walmart has an iron (steamfast 727) for under $14 that’s small & works great for iron on (big designs have to be done in sections)
  • EXTRA TIP: parchment paper works perfect as a barrier between your iron & the vinyl AVOID using an ironing board underneath, instead use a hard surface with a towel underneath your garment to be ironed on! (You can buy this at Dollar Tree!)
  • Five Below has a LED light pad for $8 that helps so much with weeding small lines! (Amazon has some for anywhere from $20-30)
Click HERE to Shop All LED lightpad’s on Amazon
  • You can get blank items perfect for personalization from places like AMAZON, Dollar Tree, & Walmart for cheap!
  • Keychains are super easy & fun to make & they make perfect gifts!
Click Here To Shop Acrylic Keychains on Amazon

We hope this list helped!! We will be adding more as we find them! Happy Crafting!

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Where to get FREE SVG’S & Fonts

One of the most commonly asked questions we see in all of the Cricut Facebook groups that we are in is asking for “picture dumps” (or picture collections of images that they plan to use in design space) And although we have been able to manually “clean up” a good handful of the images that we have found on FB & google, it won’t work for many of those images.

When you download an SVG file directly from a website, it’ll also come already separated by layers of color, so after you inzip the file, it’s ready for you to cut with your Cricut!

(We will be posting a step by step tutorial on how to download these svgs, “unzip” them on your computer, and upload them into Design Space very soon, so keep an eye on the blog posts!)

If you go to the sites listed below & search for what you are looking for, chances are good you will find any image or font for free that your crafting heart desires!

Don’t forget if you are a Cricut access member, they have thousands of images and fonts included with your subscription!

Not an access member? Click here to join!

So what exactly is an SVG?

SVG=Scalable Vector Graphics is an image format for two-dimensional graphics. SVG images are defined in a vector graphics format and stored in XML text files and the file name will end in .svg.

SVG’s are one of the main file format that is accepted to use within Design Space (the design program that you use with your Cricut machines). This is because SVG’s are high quality images & they maintain their high quality even when made bigger or smaller. (JPEG, PNG & other file formats will become pixelated once you change the sizing or adjust the image)

All these links below are for websites or blogs that offer free SVG’s for your Cricut or other cutting machine! There’s also tons of great resources on some of those sites like project ideas, tutorials, DIY stuff, & more!

Please note that some of these websites require you to make a (FREE) account in order to get access to their files, some will send you a “password” to get access to their free images, and some will send the freebies right to your inbox!

Also note that most of these sites do offer paid SVG images & fonts as well, but we are only including sites on this list that also offer free stuff as well! (We have personally checked each of these sites listed to confirm that each one of them have “freebies”!)

PLEASE READ: Make sure you pay attention to the licensing agreement on each product/site. Keep in mind that many of the free images found on these sites come with only a personal use license, but you can purchase a commercial license for almost every image. Just read each websites “privacy policy” for specifics!

Most common types of licenses:

Commercial use-you can use the design on a product and sell it for a profit/make money on it. Please note each companies policy when it comes to licensing because some of them offer limited amount of items made with their commercial license.

Limited commercial use-you can make a specified amount of this design to sell it. You can find specifics in the fine print when it tells you the licensing agreement.

Personal use-you can use the design ONLY for personal use. Meaning you can make items using the image or font for yourself, or for gifts to friends & family. You cannot legally make money on this design without purchasing the “commercial license” or getting specific permission from the artist/designer/website. Note: Most “personal use” designs come with the option to purchase the “commercial” license to be able to legally sell the design!

OUR AFFILIATE COMPANIES:

Creative Fabrica
SoFontsy
Crella Marketplace
Canva

These are affiliate links, for more info see our privacy policy.

FREE SVG & FONTS LIST

https://1001fonts.com
https://100directions.com/
https://143vinyl.com
https://3Dcuts.com
https://3dsvg.com/
https://agirlandagluegun.com
https://apexembdesigns.com/
https://artsyfartsymama.com/
https://brooklynberrydesigns.com
https://burtonavenue.com
https://caluyadesign.com/
https://caramiller.com
https://chameleoncuttables.com
https://chicfetti.com
https://corinneblackstone.com
https://craftbundles.com/
https://crafthousesvg.com
https://craftingalovelylife.com
https://craftingintherain.com
https://Craftingspreesvg.com
https://crafty-crafter.club
https://creativemarket.com/
https://creative-vector-studio.com
https://cuttabledesigns.com
https://cuttingforbusiness.com/
https://Dafont.com
https://Designbundles.net
https://designsbymissmandee.com
https://designsbywinther.com/
https://digitalgemsdesigns.com
https://everydaypartymag.com/
https://freesvg.org
https://freesvgs.com
https://freesvgdesigns.com
https://fontbundles.net
https://fontsquirrel.com
https://getsilvered.com
https://ginaccreates.com
https://hellocreativefamily.com/
https://hellosvg.com
https://ishouldbemoppingthefloor.com/
https://jamieandjenn.com
https://jennifermaker.com
https://karacreates.com/
https://kaylamakes.com
https://kellyleighcreates.com
https://kimberdawnco.com
https://leapoffaithcrafting.com
https://lemonthistle.com
https://lizoncall.com
https://lovesvg.com
https://love-the-day.com
https://madincrafts.com
https://maggierosedesignco.com
https://mightydeals.com/free_stuff
https://misskatecuttables.com
https://mydesignsinthechaos.com
https://perfectstylishcuts.com/category/freebies/
https://peekaspockets.com
https://persialou.com
https://pineapplepaperco.com
https://polkadotchair.com
https://polkadottedbluejay.com
https://poofycheeks.com
https://practicallyfunctional.com
https://premiumsvg.com
https://prettylifegirls.com
https://printablecrush.com
https://printablecuttablecreatables.com
https://rufflesandrainboots.com
https://scarlettrosedesigns.com
https://seelindsay.com
https://shopcraftables.com/
https://simplycraftysvgs.com
https://SVGandme.com
https://svgcuts.com
https://svgcuttingfiles.com
https://svgdesigns.com/
https://svgfilesfree.com
https://svgnanny.com
https://svgtify.com/
https://sweetredpoppy.com
https://thatswhatchesaid.net
https://thecountrychiccottage.net
https://thecraftchop.com/
https://thecraftpatchblog.com
https://thegirlcreative.com
https://thehungryjpeg.com
https://thekingstonhome.com
https://thenavagepatch.com
https://triedandtrueblog.com
https://tryit-likeit.com
https://welcomeowlcottage.com/
https://www.happinessishomemade.net/