11 Cricut Mistakes You’re Probably Making

Hello everyone, I hope you all are having a wonderful day. Welcome back to the YouTube channel My name is Rachel Langston and I'm a craft producer for makersgonnalearn.com Your ultimate die-cutting community. If you don't know who we are or what we do Click the very first link in the description below to learn how you can become a member with us today We offer amazing benefits and endless inspiration education and motivation for you guys to learn your die-cutting machine In today's video. I'm super excited to share with you 11 cricket mistakes you're probably making today We're gonna break down some little things and some not so little things that you do not need to be doing With your cricket that you might be doing little mistakes that lots of people make that we are here to prevent you guys from making Anymore, so sit back relax and enjoy this video and don't forget to leave me a comment in the comment section below And tell me which one of these it blew your mind the most without further ado. Let's go ahead and jump into them Number one, you're probably using the wrong mat Lots of things can happen when you use the wrong mat a lot of fails can happen in a lot of different ways There are four different types of cricket mats and we do have a video all about what the colors are What do they mean which material you should use them with and I will link that down below but as a you know, quick bullet point rundown the blue lock grip mat is the least stickiest that should be used with Things like vellum and super thin super light cardstocks next up is the standard grip mat Which is green that is the green mat that should be used with your vinyls your HTVs your thicker cardstocks and such Do you have next up the purple mat, which is the strong grip mat? That is the very very very sticky mat that you Mostly just need to use with glitter iron-on And then chipboard and basswood and balsa wood and things like that for the cricket maker And the last one is the fabric grip mat and it is what it sounds the fabric grip mat is the pink mat that is used for fabric felt bonded fabric All kinds of stuff for the cricket makers rotary blade or the cricket Explorer air to to be able to cut that cricket paper thin felt Paper thin felt and leather which it does so with the fine point blade So those are all the mats that is a rundown if you want a little bit more detailed of a description Click that link down below I will post that in the comment section But using the wrong mat the wrong mat is very common a lot of people do it and it's it's a no-no You don't need to be using the strong grip mat when you use cardstock. You'll curl your paper. You'll ruin your mats You'll ruin your material you'll ruin your project Just get educated and make sure you know which mat you need to be using with what material you use Us here in the studio. We mostly use our Green standard grip mat and the strong grip mat. Those are the two mats We use the most for our daily crafting if that helps you all So yeah, make sure you're using the correct mat because a lot of people don't The next mistake you guys might be making is throwing away your mats. We do not want you guys to throw away your mats There is life left in those mats. And what we mean by that is clean them We have several ways to clean them. But the favorite is baby wipes I would demonstrate it but it's so easy literally get a baby wipe and wipe off your mat You will be amazed after a few minutes of dry time and how sticky your mat is again and all the life left in it So we'd never want you guys to throw away your mats unless you snap it or it's just too far gone But definitely before you throw them away Try and clean them because it can be super handy and save you guys money in the long run Tanner actually has an incredible video about not one not two But three different methods in cleaning cricket mats and you guys can watch it and decide what you like best He uses baby wipes dawn dishwashing detergent and LA's totally awesome cleaner Which you can get at the Dollar Tree so definitely click that link in the description below and see how Tanner cleans all of the mats in the studio and You guys can decide for yourself which one you'd like the best but never ever ever throw away your mats So you guys cannot see this but I can maybe if I tilt it a certain way Do you see that there is a the word hello cut out of vinyl for us? So that has been cut with the cricket for us and I do want to go over a few mistakes that you guys might be Making working with vinyl. So the first one is not burnishing your vinyl before you wait That is another mistake that a lot of people make and what I mean by that is we have here a burnishing tool And we love this is from a 1 4 3 vinyl. It's a little kind of rubber squeegee and it works amazing So what I mean by burnish is you must push on Your vinyl once it's cut and what this does is it? re-adheres and just strengthen strengthens the adhesion of Your vinyl onto the backing of that vinyl because once you peel this up to weed it You want your letters to stay down and if you they are burnished and you have just pushed them down They have a better likelihood of doing that The next mistake that you guys make is not trimming the excess vinyl from your design Before you weed it. So if we look here again, you can see that our design is Just taking up barely any space at all So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go in here with a true control knife after it's been cut and cut Along the edge of this design that way I can peel up the excess Just like so and have all of this extra and not have weeded any of that because that is good vinyl So now we only have this to work with now number three The third mistake you might be making in regards just to vinyl is not weeding on the mat in this particular instance You might want to peel this up and start weeding. We say do not do that You have burnished this now use the mat to your advantage So if you are worried about getting any sticky off of your mat flip it over that way Your arm can be resting here on the table and you can take your vinyl and peel it up like this It peels up much much easier than if you were to use anything other than this mat If you were to take this off of the mat and weed it like this You would have to use a whole entire hand just to be able to hold this down Meanwhile, if you use the mat, if you place it up here on the mat, it is like another hand for you It's like a you just don't even have to worry with it It's a whole nother hand and it helps the process so much Always always always weed on the mat. We can't say it enough. We love weeding on the mat It is always worth it every single time The next mistake you guys not be making is not cleaning your vinyl project blanks with rubbing alcohol We get this question all the time is I'm trying to add vinyl on something like a mug Or let's say a glass or a glass square ornament or something and it won't apply Well, what is the problem? The problem is when you have something like a ceramic mug as you buy it and through the days that it sits Or through you using it or not using it, whatever, you will accumulate oil from your fingers, dirt, dust, debris, all kinds of things on this That you might not be able to see with the naked eye So to combat that, we always always always have a little pump bottle of rubbing alcohol Rubbing alcohol is a little bit low now. It's a little bit hard to find. Thank you Corona But we love to use this pump bottle and get a couple pumps on our paper towel here And hold our mug and wipe this down with rubbing alcohol If it's something like a mug, we suggest sticking your hands inside the mug That way after you clean it, you can allow it to dry and not get any more oil from your fingertips on it Until you're ready to transfer that vinyl over Now the significance of doing this is it removes all that dust, oil and dirt that could be accumulated And allows a good slick surface that's super clean to add vinyl to And guys, let me tell you, 9 out of 10 times you will have a way more successful project than if you do not do this step Always have some rubbing alcohol on hand to clean any type of project like this Any smooth surface, I clean it The next mistake you're probably making is a big one guys This can mean the difference between a successful project and a project fail Because a huge thing that we get asked is how do you properly size cut files to projects to blanks like this So the mistake that you guys are probably making is not representing your project dimensions in design space Whether with a shape or a basic shape or something like that So for instance, you could do this with a frame, with a t-shirt, whatever you want to do For instance, today we have a 9 inch paper mache wood round So this, let's just say we're going to paint it and put a decal on it So what you want to do is take a 9 inch circle from basic shapes in design space And size it to 9 inches, the exact dimensions of your circle here And then that is how you size your cut file in design space It's foolproof, you get to basically see your project in design space How it's going to fit on here on the circle and have so much more success To demonstrate that in design space, here we are on a canvas And we have a cute cut file that says here comes the bride Let's say we're going to be making a sign for a wedding coming up What you're going to want to do is go over to shapes, get a circle And go up and size that circle to 9 inches Because you know that the circle we were using in our hands physically is also 9 inches And now that you do that, you can go just as far as to change the color to a brown like it is And now guys, you can size your project easily on your circle And if this ever happens that your SVG slips underneath your project, that's fine You can go right up here to arrange and click send to front And it will send that straight here to the front And now you can size this up and size it perfectly to your circle And not have to worry about anything in design space, anything kind of messing up Because sometimes guys, things can get misconstrued when you're physically measuring something And then you don't have it in design space, you just can't see it It's much, much easier than if this was gone Us saying, okay well our circle is 9 inches, our circle is 9 inches Well that's 7 and a half inches, so we could easily make this 8 inches wide And it would probably still look good on that circle So yeah, that's fine When in reality, it might be just a little bit too big for how you want your circle to look So if you have a circle here in design space that is 9 inches It's so much easier to do this I promise you guys, you will absolutely not regret it Because now you can see, oh gosh, that's a little bit too big for us Or you guys might forget what size your circle is as you're trying to size it and things like that And we don't want that to happen, that can be catastrophic You can waste time, money, material, and we don't want any of that So guys, make sure that you are always trying to represent your blank size in design space as accurately as possible The next mistake you're probably making is not saving your project in design space as you go So for instance, if I wanted to clear this out I have this here I know I want that cut file, it's a really cute cut file We're going to work with this today What do we want it on? We want it on a round that is 9 inches So I'm going to go up here and get a 9 inch round Click 9 inches At this point is when I would stop and click save Save as We'll rename this to bride sign Rename it Save it Once it says project saved, you can just sit back and know that to this point your project is saved Now you can go in here and change the color You like that You're going to bring this in Do that little trick we said and go to a line and move to the front Size this up Looks good We're going to make this HTV white for our sign That looks really nice Now we're going to make sure it's all centered up together We're going to align it That looks really good And you know what, maybe we'll add another quote on the back Well stop At this point, now that you've made a couple of steps You're going to come right back up here to this button Click save And click save Once you click save again It will say project saved That is an updated save So that means to now this point your project is saved Guys, I can't tell you how many times I have been basically slaving in design space Trying to make a really complicated quote with three or four different fonts And it's going really well and it's looking really cute And there's basic shapes involved and lots of slicing and welding And something happens I don't even know what guys Some kind of glitch And I lose everything I was devastated Guys, it's happened more than once So I always, always, always make sure that I stop and save my project as I go Just to make sure that I do not waste all of that time that I spent on my projects Now if it's something as simple as sizing one cut file and then cutting it I don't think that that really matters Unless you feel like you're going to use that later with the sizing that you made But something like this where you're going to create some layers And you have the dimensions of your blank And you want to add something to the back and things like that Make sure that you are saving as you go That will be very beneficial for you guys The next big thing that you guys are not doing And I know you're not because I can see them I can see your projects I can see all of the projects that you make where you make this mistake You guys are not kerning your cursive fonts This is a big, big, big no-no You need to be kerning every cursive font that you work with Here is an example I will go over here to text And I will select Let's do Balin This is a good cursive font for makers going to learn We'll say Hello there Now here you can see This is not kerned Some people guys will go and click make it and use it like this That is a big problem We want to educate you guys on why you need to kern bad Here is what we are going to do First thing, we are going to ungroup all of these We are going to go up here And click ungroup Now I want to get closer in here so I can really see what I am doing I am going to come in Closer Just like this What I am going to do is slowly but surely I am going to drag and select all of those letters but my H And guys this is important using the arrow keys on your computer On your laptop, whatever Use the arrow keys on your keyboard And we are going to move it over And once you have it there if you want to tweak it a little bit You can tweak it just a little And now you can grab the other three letters The L-L-O And do the exact same thing Beautiful, click off of it Now select your L-O Do the same thing Beautiful, click off And your O Arrow keys in Perfect That is a kerned word That looks gorgeous So again just to refresh Just to make sure you guys understand And this is a really great example of a font where you might think Keyword think That you don't have to kern And you do Because watch this I am going to bring this H in there And oh no The top of my H Or excuse me the top of my T Overrides with the top of my H So I probably shouldn't kern that Incorrect Kern it Always kern it It doesn't look awkward It's fine Don't worry about it You will have much more people staring at your unkerned T and your H Than they will at that little blip there It looks totally fine I mean seriously Don't, don't think that Looks fine Looks super cute Now we are going to go in here with our E So cute So now you have hello there And it's kerned And now guys the important thing to do Let me demonstrate on this hello The important thing to do here is they are still separate Ok So what you also have to do Apart of kerning your cursive letters Is to always weld them So the purpose of that is because If you leave this how it is now First of all they are going to cut completely jumbled up So let me go ahead and click back and show you See look at this We got H, L, L, E, O It's just it's a mess So now you click cancel Well even if we go over here guys And we select them all And we click attach It's only going to attach the letters where they are So it will cut just like you see it here However it will actually have little cut marks Right in here where that H meets that E And a cut mark where that E meets that L And we don't want that We want this to cut as one cohesive beautiful word So to do that you're going to come down here With all of those selected And click weld Now that you weld That will be fixed for you So you don't have to worry about that at all So that's going to be beautiful We'll change that color to a grey And now we'll go ahead and click make it And the next mistake that you're probably making That I do want to correct Is actually one more click from us So we're going to just continue through these motions And I'm going to show you what I'm talking about Now with this let's say we're cutting this out of vinyl Okay we're cutting out of vinyl That's great Maybe your blade isn't cutting as it should And you want to replace your blade Well let me tell you Before you replace your blade You need to start using more pressure If you start using more pressure You can extend your blade's life for several weeks By just switching your pressure settings So I do have a video all about changing your pressure settings That I will link down below But here is a simple run down If your blade is dull and not cutting well Before you change your blade Switch your setting to more And you'll do that every single time You make a project after you select the material So I just selected premium vinyl And now you can see this drop down menu here That says pressure You'll click that drop down menu And click more Go ahead and click more pressure And there is a hack for you guys That you probably are not doing To save money And get several more weeks out of your dull Cricut blade It just tells the Cricut to cut a little bit deeper Which really makes a difference when that blade is dull I only have one more to show you today And it is about the actual Cricut housing in the blade here So I'm going to switch you to a different camera angle Where you can see this properly And we'll discuss it The last and final mistake you guys are probably making Which is costing you time, money, frustration and material Is having the blade housing too high out from the clamp It is so easy to do A lot of people make this mistake It is not really talked about or taught to correct So this little fella right here If you can see the top lip on this blade housing here You see that there is quite a bit of a gap Between the clamp and the lip of the housing Well that needs to be corrected So if you go in here and you open clamp B And you slide that blade all the way down And close clamp B back You completely change the game That right there, that little bitty trick Could make the difference between project success and project failure You would never think about it guys But if your blade is higher Then your blade cannot cut as deep as it is meant to And you will ruin materials And think that maybe your blade needs to be changed So you keep replacing your blades Which is wasting money And awful things like that Maybe you're creating an order for somebody Who is actually purchasing something And you can't complete it Because for some reason your fine point blade Will not cut correctly Well that is why guys Make sure that your fine point blade Is always pushed completely down in your housing So what did you guys think? I hope that you all enjoyed Learning all about these 11 Cricut mistakes You're probably making And how to avoid them And how to make them right I absolutely love putting videos like this together for you guys Don't forget to click the very first link In the description below To see how you guys can become a member of Makers Gonna Learn And get endless inspiration like this Every single day Thank you guys so much for watching Don't forget to leave us a like And a comment down below Subscribe if you haven't already And I will see you all in the next video Bye!