BEST KEPT ACRYLIC SECRET? Get in your car now… You gotta make this

Oh, guys. No freaking way. Oh my gosh. Look at this. Look. Oh, y'all. Check it out. We just All right, my friends. We're on a road trip and I am going to figure out if there's any acrylic alternatives out there that are going to be more cost effective and better to use than acrylic to make some really fun projects. So, I decided to head over to Walmart and we're going to scavenge around and see what materials we can find. I have a few ideas up my sleeve. Um, so stay tuned and be ready to see what we can do with some really fun, awesome alternatives to acrylic that will work in your Cricut. That is my criteria for today's video. Are you guys ready? If you're new here, my name is Tanner Bell. I love to teach crafting and using D cutting machines, selling your crafts, and so much more. Hit the subscribe button if you're new around here and go ahead and leave me a comment. Let me know what you think this video will turn out to be. See you soon. How awesome will it be if we can find some really cheap acrylic alternatives because you know how expensive acrylic is. It's crazy. All right, they've rearranged my Walmart. So, I literally am a little lost, but we're going to find maybe some areas like this um and figure out where my first item is. Let's see here. I think it's over here. Okay, I have an idea that some of these thinner like little binders could actually work really really well. But like these super thick ones would not be it. But I'm looking for like the you know those thinner ones. Where would they be? H. Let me see. All right. This right here I think could be a really really good idea. Um it feels like acrylic but obviously it's not. But I love I think this is workable. Okay, I'm go pick up one of these. I want to find some other ones, too. Okay, you all may actually think I'm crazy because I am about to spend $3 on this notebook, but I love the way the five star feels. So, keep you posted. All right, my friends. So, I have found this really cool file holder. I have a poly standard that I think could be the money. And I'm also buying a notebook because I am just not sure. Like I love the white. Like this feels really good like close to acrylic but also not. Um I think we can make some magic happen. So let's see what happens. [Music] All right, y'all. It's time to regroup after we went into Walmart. You know, it's always an adventure filming in a store, but I kind of want to go over like some of the options that I saw. And my goal is to do a little testing and just kind of report back which one you should try. The first one, guys, this one was $3, so it was a little bit of an investment, but it's also a notebook, so I'll use it in different ways um after taking off the lid um or the cover. And this is just it feels really smooth, so I really like that. So, this could be a good contender. Um next up, I also love the way this one feels. And this is poly. So, if you're like, "Okay, I want to go along with you." This is the one I really think might work. It's um they call it poly. And again, this was super affordable. So, I get two pretty, you know, technically you get two sheets of it, so it's a pretty long sheet. So, this could be a really good um acrylic alternative. And then I got this one. I don't know if this one would cut that well because it's really thick um and just seems like it may not, you know, work well. But maybe it could work the best. I think it is the thickest and most durable. Um, and technically you get one and then you get two and you also get like these pieces. So like you can cut this apart and use it in many different ways. So all right, let's head to the craft room. All right, my friends, we're in the craft room and I want to remind you guys, do you have your ticket to CraftCon? It is happening July 19th and 20th. So I'll put the link down below. Grab your ticket. Only $7. You can go VIP for another $27. Be sure to be there. It's going to be the best craft festival ever. Can't wait to see you there. But now, I forgot to tell y'all what project I had in mind to be making. Guys, I've been reading so much. I've recently been forcing myself to get into fiction. So, I am currently reading World War II uh like fiction books, and it's it's it's fun, but it's much different than what I normally read, which would be business or self-help. So, if you have book recommendations, drop them down below. Um, what I want to do is make some jumbo paper clip with these alternatives. So, what I want to do, I had a design um, made into a cut file for all of my Maker School members. You can get all of these files linked down below, but we're going to design some really, really awesome jumbo bookmarks. Are you guys ready? So, let's head over to Cricet Design Space and let's get started designing this project. So, starting off, you can download the unique file from Makers going to learn. I have this one. Um, they're kind of two. So, you can just go ahead and um ungroup them. So, if you want to add, you know, just something in the bubble here, you can do that or you can start with your own. I'm going to design one of each just so you guys can kind of see what we're thinking when it comes to that. All right. So, what we're gonna do is we're going to start with the larger one first. I'm just gonna scale this up. I want it to be probably, you know, let's see here. I want it to be jumbo, but not too jumbo. So, probably like 3x6, I think, would be really good for this one. Maybe a little larger. This is about 3x 7. Seems a little seems big. But one of the things that I want to make this larger for is because I think it'll cut better the larger that it is. All right, does that make sense? So, we've got this here. Um, I am going to try and cut this out on white. I have one white one that we've been testing with. So, I think we'll do the soccer ball. So, then from Makaker's going to learn, we have the soccer ball. So, we'll just bring this over and we'll size it appropriately. So, if this works, if it cuts out, this is how one of them will look. And this will be great for your kids, um, you know, summer reading and things like that. Beautiful. So, super fun, super easy. Um, that is if this works. I have some tricks up my sleeve, so stick with me. It's going to be really fun. And then I'm just going to scale this one up as well. Probably, let's see here. Looks a little big. Beautiful. So, this one um is going to allow you to design however you want. So, if you look over here, I kind of designed some of these just to give you an inspiration of what you could do. Um we're doing the soccer ball one. You saw how easy that was. But some of the other options would be to, you know, put your monogram on there. Um add just another file for Makers going to learn and do an offset and things like that. Um I think I would just go do kind of like this L right here. I love how it has an offset and then we are able to unite them together that offset so it just looks really custom and really unique. I highly highly recommend that. So let's head back over here. So what we're going to need now is we're going to need a Makers Learn font. So I'm going to head over to the Makers going to learn website and we're actually working with the font today Saturday night. So you can just search for that real fast. We'll link it down below. And here it is the font. You can always use our preview area by modifying this and do um you know anything you want to test it out just to see it. I love this font as a monogram and it's thick and it's perfect for today's project. So, we're just going to quickly download that. Every single Makers Learn font um they download to your device. You open that zip file and then what you're able to do is doubleclick on that font. And what you'll do now is simply install it. This is super fun. And at this step in every design project, if you're downloading a new font, we like to go over back to Cricut and we want to save our project. So, we're just going to click save and click save. And then once we have it saved, always make sure to save, we are going to simply go to view and you can click reload or force reload. Did you guys know it does the same thing? Fun little hack. What's that's doing right there is it's refreshing Cricut Design Space to be like, "Hey, I installed that Saturday night font and now we'll be able to use it." So super super fun. It says it's missing, but it's not. So, we'll click text and then we'll go from font. We're going to go to system. So, when you're a Maker Learn member, unlike Cricut Access, if you ever leave the membership, you still have access to all the files and fonts you've downloaded while you're there. We're one of the very few memberships where you actually get something when you leave. Most memberships you just get access and when you leave you lose it. You actually have something to show for your many years of membership, which we love to support. um as we get that you know you all come and go as crafters and we want to meet you where you're at. So we're go see we have the Saturday night font and I'm just gonna size this up because I like to craft you know in this way. So this is just the typical text box and what we're going to do is we're going to grab an L. So this is super fun and then go zoom in here. I like having inspiration for you to kind of see where I'm coming from, but sometimes I find it a little overwhelming. So, once you have this here, we're go change it to blue. And what we'll do now is we'll add an offset. As you can see, we have an offset here. Can make it a little smaller. Maybe make it a little bigger. Little little bigger. Beautiful. So, right about two or 292. And we'll click apply. And what we're going to do is we will take both of these and move it over here. And we're going to size this down. And what we're going to do is just move this on down. And one thing to note is sometimes you'll want to move your uh text around. So, we're going to rotate it just a little bit to make it more um like straight across. So, I'm just going to rotate down a little bit. And look at how great the font comes together when we do that. So, now we'll let them touch just like so. And now it looks so good. So, what we'll do at this step is we will um select the back layer and select this layer right here. And all we'll want to do is click unite. Unite combines two or more objects together into one new object. Each new object appears as a new edible layer. Tada. And you're like, Tanner, where did my letter go? Where did it go? Well, have no fear. If we just select and click send to back. Boom. There is our awesome L and it's good to go. So, we'll have this and this be able to be cut out on our mystery material, which I'm so excited to play around with. I have some really good settings that I think could be gangbuster for us with this acrylic alternative. I have some great hacks to try. So, it's going to be really fun. So, are you guys ready to see if we can cut out any of these materials? Let's do it. All we're going to do now is press make it and we're going to work on the mat. So, the first one we're going to try is we're going to try cutting the five star white material. Um, this is, you know, a really good alternative and it's going to be really fun. I also have the white in uh one of the other poly ones I found. So, we had one of these um from a little past video. So, I may do white on this if this doesn't cut well, but I think it's worth trying and seeing if we can cut it. It's pretty thick, so I'm super super excited to see. Um, and then what I want you to do is I want you to take it and I want you to move it over. So, I'm going to move it over 2 in and down about an inch. That way, I just find that my cuts are so much better when they're not in the top left corner for thicker material like this. All right. So, now what we'll do is press continue and we're go connect to our machine. All right, my friends. Now is the time to work on our settings. And again, the white is a little thicker, so this may take some troubleshooting, but again, you're along for the ride with me. It's going to be really fun together. We are going to work with a setting called acetate. And with acetate, what we're going to do is we're going to make sure, of course, with thicker material to do more pressure. and we may send it through to cut multiple times. Have no fear. So, let's browse all material. Let's find that acetate. And after we select acetate, we'll press done and we'll add more pressure. And now, let's talk about preparing our material for the Cricut mat. Okay, y'all. I have to be totally transparent. I have not tested this at all. This is just from some of our research. What we're going to do is grab this first. So thick I can't even rip it off. So I'm going to have to get scissors. Um but I want to talk you through how we prep this to go on. So we're going to grab our scissors here. And I'm just going to cut this off. These are some really heavy duty scissors. And what we're going to do is we're going to prepare it to go on the mat. Now this side has you know some stuff on it. But what we're going to do is we're going to work on this side. So I'm going to position it just like this on the mat. So top left corner. And I'm using of course the thicker mat. All right y'all. Like do not this is not the time where we're like let's save some money or let's not use a thick thick mat. You want to use a super thick mat. So I'm going to burnish this down. And then guys we've got to secure it. All right. We've got to secure this. So, come here. Come here with me. Super fun. I want to make sure that we secure it well. So, we're going to tape it down with our amazing painters tape. Um, and guys, this is I'm very excited to see if this works cuz if it works, I mean, this one was a little bit more expensive, but it feels really good. Um, I think you will be very impressed and I'm really excited to see what happens. So, I'm going to tape this down. Super cool. I go half this and have some support over here. Are you guys ready to see how it cuts? I'm so excited. I'm a little nervous. Okay, make sure it's positioned well. This mat, this is a Nicipa mat, but it's sturdy. All right, so we're ready to load it in and start this process. Are you guys ready to do this with me? Come here. Okay, I love this little camera. He follows me around. Okay, let's load it in. Guys, I've been using this machine a lot. Um, and I'm go check the I'm go check and make sure that this fine point blade is like good to go. Like, this would be a good time to put in like a premium blade. Let's just take a look at it and see if there's some debris on there. Do you guys see that? Do you guys see the debris? Oh my gosh. This is really the aluminum foil hack would come into play here. Um, I'm obviously just making sure it's good to go, but okay. Are you ready? Let's put it in. I have no idea what's about to happen. No idea whatsoever. Okay, come over. Come over. Are you guys ready? Are you ready? Here we go. Let's see what happens. Guys, I'm freaking out. It's cutting and it's cutting so well. I don't know if you all can tell. Did it just cut the first cut? I absolutely cannot believe that I think this cut through. Um, I may run it through a second time because it's not like popping off the mat. Oh, I mean guys, I really think it's okay. It's It may not be cut through now, but I'm going to run it through again and see what happens. So, this will be our second time through acetate. More pressure. Let's see what happens. I think one of the cool things is this is a really good file that is large and should be able to cut through really well. [Music] Okay, I want it to like pop out so we know it's like cut through [Laughter] guys. No freaking way. Okay. Well, so at this point, this is this would mess up if I cut it through again. So, I'm going to unload this and just we're just going to take it a Oh my Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, guys. We did it. Got it to work first try. This is like definitely like acetate, but I think that's the secret in having material that we can just run it through multiple times to make sure it cuts through. It feels so good. This is definitely a jumbo bookmark. I could have made it a little smaller. Let's make some more. All right, my friends. So, we absolutely know what works now. So, I'm going to pull this back off the mat. And then what I'm going to do is just get the mat ready. I'm going to make a black one now. And I'm going to follow my same exact process for this material. This material I feel like could cut through the first try um pretty well just because it's a little thinner. Like the five star again kind of like a splurge because um it was a full notebook, not just a binder. These binders are so affordable and they're about to go on sale for back to school, too. So keep that in mind. Um I'm going to actually try to reuse some of this tape. So, I'm just going to put this on here. We're going to do the same play that we just did. Again, if you want to cut the most out of here, I did think about that after I positioned it. I would still give about a/ an inch. The way that I saw it cut, I actually trust the Cricut now to keep it a little closer to the edge. Um, but yeah, you could cut out multiple of these like really, really quick and really simple. Um, I may make this one a little smaller. I feel like I could. So, I may go in here. I'm going to change the size real fast. All right. So, I made the black one a little smaller. I'm going to do on the mat. And we're just go select on the mat here. I'm only going to cut out the um this the soccer ball will be cut out on its own. So, we'll cut that later. And then again, I'm just going to move it over a little bit. And you'll see this is a pretty big like on the mat it looks small but I promise you it'll look a lot bigger once we cut it out. So we're going to connect to our machine again. I'm already taping it down and then we'll be ready to cut. Are you guys ready to see the second part? I'm so excited. Um again, if you're loving this video, be sure to have your ticket to CraftCon because we are crafting like nobody's business. And y'all know when you pay um for any of our products or events and festivals, you get the amazing experience. So, highly recommend going VIP. Six craft classes, 2 days, surprise guest, hundreds of dollars in giveaways. It's crazy. So, material setting again. Acetate. More pressure. This acetate setting is giving me so much life, y'all. So good. Okay, mat ready to go. Same same play as last time. So, we're go keep our fingers crossed even though it's a little bit different material. So, we're going to load that in. And here we go. Here we go. All right. I'm excited. Oh, this size might be the money size. Like, this is good. So, it's cutting through twice, which I really like, which is probably how we were able to cut through, guys. I think it I swear I literally think it cut through the first time. Uh, no. So, the same thing as last time, we're going to run it through one more time. Just press the play button again. It's so important not to um unload your mat too soon. So, just press play again. It'll do the same thing twice. Okay. It I It doesn't It doesn't seem to be popping up like the other one. I may run it through a third time. Let's see. Let's run it through a third time right here. [Music] And again, it's just double- checking the blade. Our blade has been so faithful to us. Let's see it come together again. All right. So, I've grabbed a weeding tool. The other one just looked like it popped off so much better. Um, I'm just trying to see if it's cut through or not. Oh, okay. I think I think we can work with this. So, let's go ahead and see. Oh my gosh, look at this. Look. Oh, guys. Like butter. butter. All right, we've got both of these right here. So, what we're going to do next is we're going to set up the mat to cut the soccer ball and then cut the L that we already designed in Design Space. All right, so we have the L in the left side and then the soccer ball on the right. So, we just moved it from mat 2 over to mat 3. We'll press continue. We're just going to use premium vinyl and I'm going to set it up on the mat. All right. So, we're loading the black on the right and the blue on the left just like we have it set up on the mat. And this is a fun little hack sometimes to cut, you know, two colors, one mat. Super super easy. We're going to load that in there. All right. So, we're going to press go and cut it with the vinyl. All right, my friends. So, let's unload the mat. And all we're going to do is we're just going to weed this out. So, let's weed it out really fast. Guys, I can I just say at the start of this video, I was like, you know, if this is a craft fail, like I'm okay with it. Um, so I'm really shocked that it worked on the first setting. Um, I just want to encourage you guys like if anything with this video to try cutting things you would never try to cut. So, leave me a comment right now and tell me like what would you cut after watching this video that you would never think to cut? Like, are you going to go out and buy some of this new acrylic alternatives? Um, I've been loving that conversation we've been having lately about alternatives with your acrylic. Believe it or not, I think I'm liking using um these better than acrylic in a lot of ways. Like it cuts so much better. So simpler and really fun. All right, so to finish this project, it is so simple. We're just going to grab some Caesar transfer tape. And really, you don't even need transfer tape if I'm being like quite honest, but you can use it because it'll make the process super simple. and we're just going to pick it up and put it over on each of our bookmarks. I definitely recommend the smaller one. Be sure to think about what book you're going to use it on. I made the uh the soccer one a little large, so don't make that mistake, but kids will love it. And yeah, all you're going to do is just apply it down right here. Oh my gosh, who are we? Imagine the monograms you could do for your kids. Oh my gosh. Beautiful. And then last but not least, our our amazing L. Let's pick it up, too. Super easily. I mean, guys, doing this backwards. It's so easy. You could do it backwards. Oh my gosh. Beautiful. Probably should moved it down a little bit, but hey, I'm doing it backwards. Boom, y'all. Check it out. We just made amazing acrylic alternative bookmarks. Jumbo paperclipip bookmarks that you are going to absolutely adore. If you got inspired with today's video, you definitely need to try out makerslearn.com where we'll give you 20 download credits for 5 cents each. Seriously, $1, 20 download credits to makers. You could download Saturday Night um which is an amazing font. You could download all of these paperclip files. They're so fun. And what could you do with it? Imagine adding a succulent, another flower, another shape, another uh sporting event. Anything like that you could add to it or do a fun monogram. I've had so much fun taking you guys to Walmart with me. Leave me a comment. Let me know what I should try doing next and where we should go shopping next. That was so much fun. Uh, be sure to hit the subscribe button if you want new craft videos every single week. We have so many coming at you. And don't forget to join us at CraftCon July 19th and 20th. See you guys. Bye.