Cricut Design Space : How to Design and Cut Your Own Images

Cricut Design Space will let you upload and cut your own images. It makes customizing any craft easy. I’m showing you exactly how to design and create anything you want.How to upload and cut custom images in Cricut Design Space with your Cricut Explore to make custom Cricut Crafts

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. I do get compensated if you make a purchase at no extra cost to you so I can to bring you more great recipes and tips. 

I purchased this black and white makeup bag and wanted to make it a little more fun. I decided to make my own graphic for it that says Wake Up and Make Up! I have a full video tutorial at the bottom of this post to walk you through it all step by step

Let me show you how to upload and cut custom images in Cricut Design Space. 

First Measure the item you want to apply your design to. How to upload and cut custom images in Cricut Design Space with your Cricut Explore to make custom Cricut Crafts

I found a font I wanted to use. I chose a free font from Dafont called Beauty and the Beast. You can download it here. I used my favorite photo editing and creation software called PicMonkey to create my design. PicMonkey will allow you to use any font installed on your computer as well as any they have in their library. When you pull up PicMonkey on your computer choose Design –> Custom Size. When selecting a size, you will put the number in pixels. One inch equals 300 pixels. My make up bag was about 8 x 5 inches, so I put in 2400 x 1500. This allowed me to size the words so that they would fit onto my bag and I could visualize it. If you want to download my makeup bag graphic you can do it here just right click and select save image.

Once I sized my design, I cropped it using the drag and drop cropping tool to get rid of the unnecessary space. Save your design to your computer. Next, sign into Cricut Design Space and create a new project. Click on upload image and upload your image. This image is just black and white, so I chose a simple image to remove all of the white backgrounds and make it transparent. See the video at the bottom of this post to see just how that works.How to upload and cut custom images in Cricut Design Space with your Cricut Explore to make custom Cricut Crafts

Once my design was ready, I double checked the size on the screen and hit go to cut it. I placed my glitter vinyl on to the Cricut Light Grip Mat. I use the light grip mat for most of my projects it is my favorite. Make sure to cut your vinyl to just a little larger than the design you are cutting so you don’t waste any and can save the rest for another project.How to upload and cut custom images in Cricut Design Space with your Cricut Explore to make custom Cricut Crafts

Once that was loaded into my Cricut Explore Air machine I hit the flashing go button, and it cut out my design.How to upload and cut custom images in Cricut Design Space with your Cricut Explore to make custom Cricut Crafts

Peel the vinyl off of the mat. Then peel the excess vinyl away from the letters or design you cut. I usually just peel up a corner and start peeling back. How to upload and cut custom images in Cricut Design Space with your Cricut Explore to make custom Cricut Crafts

To get all the small pieces out from inside the letters I use the weeding tool from the Cricut Tools Basic Set. This is one tool I could not do without when working with vinyl. It just hooks those little pieces and pulls them out without messing up your design. How to upload and cut custom images in Cricut Design Space with your Cricut Explore to make custom Cricut Crafts

Next, I applied my transfer tape so that I can peel off the backing and apply it to my makeup bag. I found that the regular transfer tape I use does not work with this particular type of glitter vinyl. Cricut Glitter Vinyl only works with Strong Grip Transfer Tape, luckily they include 1 12×12 StrongGrip Transfer Tape sheet with it when you purchase it. Scrape the transfer tape onto the letters with XL Cricut Scraper so that the vinyl sticks to the transfer tape. 

How to upload and cut custom images in Cricut Design Space with your Cricut Explore to make custom Cricut Crafts
Strong Grip transfer tape not pictured

Finally, apply the design to your project and scrape again with the scraper to adhere it to the makeup bag. 

How to upload and cut custom images in Cricut Design Space with your Cricut Explore to make custom Cricut Crafts
Strong Grip transfer tape not pictured

 

Once you get the hang of Cricut Design Space making something custom and fun like this makeup bag will take less than 15 minutes. 

I just love how it turned out!How to upload and cut custom images in Cricut Design Space with your Cricut Explore to make custom Cricut Crafts

If you want to know more about what a Cricut machine can do check out How Creating with Cricut Explore Air 2 Will Save you Money and see how I made this DIY Easter Wreath with Paper Easter Banner.

Here’s the video tutorial for Cricut Design Space How to Upload and Cut Your Own Images

 

How to upload and cut custom images in Cricut Design Space with your Cricut Explore to make custom Cricut Crafts
Click to check out my fave Cricut supplies below!

 

 

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.