How To Design Cricut Images
Christopher
Once you have your image / graphic / word designed and saved to your computer you are ready to upload the image to Cricut Design Space! Read here to learn how to upload your own images into Design Space.
First things first, if you want to draw with your Cricut then you need some pens or markers to draw with. Luckily for you, Cricut has tons of them - of all different colors, kinds, and thicknesses. The pens are all labeled by their thickness, which is helpful to know when you're making a project. Sometimes you'll want a fine tip and other times you may want a thicker marker, it just depends on your needs. I often use 0.4 Fine Point pens, which seem to be a popular one. When you first get your Cricut, there will be a black pen included and it's a 0.4 pen. I have also used 1.0 pens, which are thicker than the 0.4 ones. Basically, the higher the number, the thicker the pen.
Another thing I love about using Cricut pens is that I know for sure they will work with my machine. You can experiment and try other pens/markers if you want but using a Cricut pen is the safer bet. There's nothing worse than purchasing something and then it doesn't work! I actually use Cricut pens at work too when I am writing down notes. All that to say, I'm a big fan. We sell a lot of Cricut pens and markers, you can check out our collection by clicking here.
The only machines that have the drawing feature are the Cricut Explore machines and the Cricut Maker. The Cricut Explore machines cover: Cricut Explore, Explore One, Cricut Explore Air, and Cricut Explore Air 2. However, if you have the Cricut Explore One, you'll need to purchase an adapter in order to draw. I'll include a photo below. All of the other machines have a double tool holder, which allows you to draw and cut (or cut and score) in one-step. I'll include a picture of the double tool holder below. The Explore One has a single tool holder, so it cuts and writes in two steps. Not a huge deal if you have the Explore One, you'll just need an adapter to draw! We don't sell it on our website, but you can buy it directly from Cricut here. Here's what it looks like:
Now that you've got the basics down, I'll show you how to use the drawing feature. For starters, you can have your Cricut draw pretty much everything. In order to draw, you simply have to change the linetype in Design Space from "Cut" to "Draw". You can draw either images you found from Cricut or those you have uploaded yourself. Let's take a look at this Dog Mama design - I found it in Cricut Access. When you insert an image or text onto the canvas in Design Space, it will automatically choose to cut it. Like I mentioned above, all we have to do is change the linetype and it will allow us to draw instead of cut:
In the photo below, you can see that I have clicked on the design (notice the blue box around it) and then I clicked on "Linetype". You can find that in the top left-hand corner. Currently, the linetype is set to cut. In order to draw, all we have to do is select draw. This is also where you would chance your linetype if you wanted to score, engrave (Maker only), deboss (Maker only) etc. Take note of how the design looks now...notice how it's all filled in.
Now I selected "draw" from the linetype drop down. As you can see, the image has changed so that only the outline of the design is present. This is exactly what your Cricut will draw. Unfortunately, at this time, your Cricut will not color in the design for you. It will just draw the outline and then you'll have to manually fill it in, if that's the look you're going for.
This also applies to text too - it will only draw the outline. I personally don't find it to be a huge deal to fill the letters in myself, but I would love if Cricut would release this one day as a feature. As you can see in the picture below, I changed the linetype again from "cut" to "draw" and this is the outcome:
Cricut has specific images that they've design that were created specifically for drawing! If you search through Cricut Access, you'll find those there. I found a cartridge full of hand drawn flowers that I love. And since they were designed for the drawing feature, you won't need to fill in any lines/letters! It will draw as is. Check out this project I made below using one of the flowers in the cartridge -- the ID is #M9C1867E and the cartridge is called "Drawn Plants".
There are also fonts from Cricut that are specific to drawing, which means that they will drawing in one line and you won't have to fill them in. To find those fonts, click on "Fonts" and then filter your search, like below:
Here's an example of what one of the writing fonts looks like - note that there are no outlines that you would need to fill in. Don't forget to still choose "Draw" for your linetype, otherwise it will cut it.
In early 2024, I began to see a large increase in the number of people coming to my Cricut Layer Guide. I can only assume that it is due to the recent Cricut update and the new Convert to Layers feature in Design Space. This feature was first launched on the Cricut app, but later rolled out the to computer version of Design Space. I have a video below that shows using the Cricut Convert to Layers feature on my on both the computer and on my iPad.
This new Cricut Convert To Layers feature is only available to people who pay for Cricut Access, which is the paid membership that gives you access to a large number of the images, fonts and projects in Design Space. As you can see from watching the video above, I feel that the results from this new feature are not as good as some other ways that you can create layered images in Cricut Design Space.
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We will talk about what layers are, and towards the end of the article I will direct you to other pages I have that will show you how you can create layers in Cricut Design Space if you are using the right type of image.
There are basically two main ways to create a layered image. One is to start with a coloring book style image, and then use duplicate and contour to create the layers. I go into this process in depth HERE. The second way is to use a clip art style image that already has colors in it. The trick with this method to create layered images is to make sure there are crisp clearly defined colors. I walk you through that process HERE.
This is a common misconception with people just starting to learn to use the Cricut. Images are typically PNG or JPG files. These files are flat, and do not have layers in them, no matter how many colors are in them. If you upload something to Design Space and the software asks you if you want to remove portions or make adjustments to the image, that is the best way to know you are using an image and not a SVG file.
SVG files, when created the right way, have their own layer for each color. That is because a SVG file contains data that tells it what color each section of the design will be. That is why when you upload a TRUE SVG file, the Cricut layer information is already defined. The Cricut will know what color to make each section. I have more information about SVG files HERE.
For this tutorial, I am going use my Cricut and a multi color image that I found online. This process works best when you use a crisp clear clip art style image and not something that looks more realistic or like a photograph. Let me show you what I mean with the images below.
The image on the left will work well for the Cricut Layer Process I am going to show you here, because each color is clearly defined. There is a hard, crisp line where the colors change. There is no shading in the image. If this image were a puzzle, we would easily be able to break it apart and define where each color starts.
The image on the right would NOT work well and you would not be able to create a layered image in Cricut Design Space. This image has too much shading in it so it will be hard to create separate layers in Cricut Design Space. There are a lot of shadows and shading in this image. This image would be better used for a Print then Cut or Sublimation project.
So, when you are looking online I suggest you start with a coloring book style image or even clip art. If you can see a definite color, you will have an easier time making that into a Cricut layer. To make this work, you will have to create a layer for each color in the image.
If I use this image from the Images button in Cricut Design Space, the three colors will already be set up on their own Cricut layer. That is the beauty of using the images already found in Cricut Design Space.
The first time I upload this image, I am going to only remove the background. Then I will save that as the black Cricut layer. Upload the same image, and remove the background, all of the yellow and black parts. This will be your red Cricut layer. Upload the same image a third time and remove the background, all of the red and the black parts. This will be your yellow Cricut layer.
Now add all three of those layers you just created to Cricut Design Space. All of them will come into Cricut Design Space black, but look at each piece and just change the color to be the correct color for that layer.
Since you know you want your image to have three colors or layers then you want to look at the layers panel in Cricut Design Space and make sure that all of the parts for each color is on one line in the right side Cricut layer panel.
Now you just stack those layers that you created! If you want to see this entire process, just with a different image, you can check THIS tutorial on how to upload images with more than one color to Cricut Design Space.
For a beginner Cricut owner, I feel that the best place to find your images to use is in Cricut Design Space. All of the images in Cricut Design Space are already broken into layers by color for you. Design Space has filters that you can use, so when you click on Images go to the Layers section and select Multi. I have this shown in the image below. Now you will only see the Cricut multi color or multl layered images that are in Design Space.
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