I made this really simple but useful board for the kitchen recently and it has been so handy as a spot to dump the thoughts and tasks I need to remember but keep forgetting. I know myself when you are starting out the whole idea of Cricut can seem dauting so I have put together this step by step Cricut tutorial that should hopefully guide you through some terms and functions. I love creating video content but sometimes it’s nice to read a tutorial so that you can go between it and Design Space and figure things out at your own speed.

I got the blank, clear acrylic A4 sheet from Crafty Cuts Ireland. I used my Cricut Explore 3 and Smart Vinyl to create the design.

The first thing to do is to create a shape the size of your sign so that it is easy to measure out the text and boxes that you will cut in vinyl. Unlock the square shape and type in your dimensions under the size part at the top of the canvas; W is 21 and H is 29.7.

Add your text next, you can obviously play around with wording, you may want a To Do list etc. I used the font Christian Heedley that I got from dafont.com. I made my two words the same width but you can play around with the dimensions as you see fit.

Choose the shape ‘square with rounded corners’ and unlock it to change the shape so that it fits around your text. Then duplicate the shape and fit it below around the second word. The dimensions of my rectangle were W = 19.791 and H = 12.171.

Now you want to use the Offset function to create that thin line so that you have two distinct areas for writing in. Offset by -0.15 (this means the offset goes inwards rather than outwards).

On the right hand side of your screen where all the individual elements on your canvas are laid out, first pressing the ‘ctrl’ on your keyboard then select the grey and the black version of the square with rounded shape elements. This should bring up the two shapes, the original and the offset.

When you have the two shapes and click Slice. You will be left with three slice results. Delete the two block shapes (seen here as the second and third slice result) and you will be left with the thin outline. Repeat for the other shape or you can delete the other shape around the second word and just copy an paste the sliced line and reposition it.

You will be left with the basic shape around your text.

Next you want to slice out the line crossing through your text. Choose a square from the Shapes section on the left, unlock it and position it over your text so that it covers the word from one side to the other. Then you want to chose the thin line and the rectangle covering the text (use ctrl and select the two elements from the right hand side). Align them so that they are centered horizontally, then click Slice (from the bottom right hand corner) while the two elements are still selected.

You want to delete the large rectangle and the two short lines of the slice result, you can easily see from the right hand side what you need to get rid of and what you need to keep. Then you can repeat that process or again, delete the bottom shape and copy and paste the shape with the piece taken out for the text. Select everything on your canvas and center horizontally.

The last thing I always do before I go to cut joined writing in vinyl is to weld the text. Some fonts can cut between the letters even when they are joined which can be fine but if you make a mess of lifting it onto the transfer tape it can be a pain. It is easy to just weld the text and then you know it will all cut as one nice fluid piece. Sometimes if you weld text Design Space blocks out the middle of letters especially small bits like the inside of an ‘e’. If this happens just undo the weld, enlarge the text way up, weld it then and it should alleviate the issue. Then you can reduce the text down to whatever size you want.

If you are happy with how your sign looks and you are cutting it in all the same vinyl I attached mine so that it would cut it as I see it on my canvas. I wouldn’t always do this as it can be a waste of vinyl but you can cut out the middle of the square with a scissors before you weed and save those bits as scraps for another project.

Then hit Make It and go through the steps to choose your vinyl in the material settings. You don’t need to mirror as this is going straight onto the surface as it looks. Use transfer tape to lift the design off the backing once you have weeded it. I like to lay my acrylic sheet onto one of the cutting mats as the lines on the mat act as a second guide along with the trasnfer tape to make sure you get your design on nice and straight. And don’t forget to take the cover of both the front and back of your acrylic sheet!

And enjoy your handy new creation – I use a dry erasable marker on mine!