Step 1: Creating the Design
1: In order to be able to start our Design, we are going to access our Design Space application and in there we are going to click on the + New Project Green button located on the top Right corner of our screen.
2: After we clicked in there, we are going to be able to access our Blank Canvas, in where we are going to start creating our Design:
3: We are going to start by using the text functionality located on the left vertical menu:
After you click on it, you should see something like:
4: We are going to write in there the following text: “ I CAME”, after you write it, you should have:
5: Now, following the same process, you are going to write the following text:
- I SAW
- I HAD ANXIETY
- SO I LEFT
💡Tip: We are writing each line of the phrase individually because it’s easier to align and resize.
So you should have:
6: Once that you have all your phrases, we are going to change the font, so we are going to select the first line of our phrase, and we are going to locate the Font functionality, located on the top bar menu and we are going to click on it.
Once you are in there, you are going to click on filters and choose Free
And you are going to search for the font: “Favorite Fonts Collection – Condensed”
After you click on the font, you are going to see that the first line of the phrase has the new font applied.
7: Now, you are going to proceed with the other 3 lines of the phrase doing the same steps. After you changed all the fonts, you should have something similar to:
💡Tip: When you access to the fonts, if you click on the last tab “Recent” you are going to notice that on the font list, the first option is the last font that you choose, so in our case, instead of searching for the font, we are going to click in there, and the new font is going to be applied
8: Now you are going to measure the your physical mug in order to know which dimensions needs to have our phrase, in our case:
H: 4.5” and W: 4”
9: In out canvas, we are going to add a square by using the shapes functionality:
10: We are going to resize the square with the measurements related to our physical coffee mug
💡Tip: You can add the measurements that you like, OR you can resize any of the elements by clicking on it, and then overlapping the mouse in one of the little squares showing on the corners and click and move the mouse in order to decrease or increase the size of your element.
If you want the W and H not to be tight together, click on the lock that is showing, so you can add the different dimensions separately.
11: Once we have our rectangle resized, we are going to change the color of our rectangle, just to see how the design is looking while we are creating it.In our case we are going to choose an white color by clicking on the gray square that is showing under the operations functionality on the top menu bar:
12: Now, we are going to move our design over our white square/rectangle, by clicking on each of the lines (you can do it one at the time or all together) and while continuing clicking drag and drop over the square the text.
💡Tip: If you are seeing that some of the text is showing behind your shape, you can go locate the arrange functionality on the top menu bar and in there click on bring to front.
If you choose the shape instead of the text, you can apply the same process but choose the “Send to back” option.
13: After you move the text you are going to select all the lines regarding to your phrase, and we are going to Align them by choosing “Center Horizontally”
14: After you align all the text, we are going to attach them altogether.
💡Tip: If you prefer to place your text one line at the time over your physical mug, there is no need to attach the text, the attach is allowing us to keep the center that we aligned and to cut all the text in the same way that is being displayed over the canvas.
As an option, you can resize the phrase by clicking on one of the corners and dragging the mouse until the desired measurement/size.
15: Our design is ready, before cutting it, we need to make sure that we hide the rectangle that we created as a base for resizing our phrase. We are going to click on the shape, and in the layers section, you are going to click on the “eye” icon that is showing next to the shape. After you click on it, the rectangle is going to be hidden and is not going to be cut.
Step 2: Cutting The Text
1: After you are happy with the design, we are ready to save it, in order to do this, Click on Save button on the Right Top side of the screen and provide a name to your design and click on Save button.
2: Before start printing and cutting our design, we need to make sure that we are going to cut with the right cricut machine, in order to do this, we are going to click on Maker in the top Right Menu, next to Make Green button and in there, we are going to chose our machine, in our case we are using a Cricut Maker
3: We are going to turn on our cricut machine by clicking on the power button:
4: We are ready to start printing and cutting, so you are going to click on the MAKE green button.
5: Before proceeding with the print and cut, we are going to present to you all the functionalities/configurations that you can see on that screen:
💡Tip: Since we are not using different configurations than the default ones, there is no need to change anything on this page.
6: We are going to click on Continue and in the following screen, we are going to click on Browse All Material:
Once in there, we are going to search by the word: Vinyl
💡Tip: If you click on the favorite icon next to the cricut small icon, you can easily access the material without searching for it every time, so you just click on this icon:
7: In our case is just vinyl, so we are going to chose Pressure Default the following configurations:
8: Now that our configurations are ready, we are going to proceed to add our vinyl in our physical mat.
9: After our Mat is ready, we are going to make sure that we add the mat under the rollers, and we are going to click on the upload button:
💡Tip: Remember that this instructions are for Cricut Maker, if you have another Cricut Machine, the instructions could be slightly different.
10: Once the Mat was uploaded, we are going to click on the Cut button and the machine is going to start cutting and you are going to be able to see the progress of the cut on your device screen.
11: After the cut is done, the upload/download mat button is going to start blinking, meaning the cut is ready, so you are able to download the mat from your machine and proceed to add the next mat following the same process.
Also, you are going to notice a check next to your mat on your device screen, so with this you can differentiate which mat/design was already cut and which ones not yet.
Step 3: Weeding
1: After the cut is ready, we are going to use our fingers very gently to remove the vinyl from the mat. In our case, we were using a new blade, so our blade also cut the back part of the vinyl, so when we remove the vinyl from the mat, we had the following:
If this happens to you, DO NOT PANIC!!!!, you are going to weed over the cricut mat by using the weeding tool until you are ready to place your transfer tape.
2: When the design was all weeded, you should have something like:
3: You are going to cut a piece of transfer tape that should be the at least the same size as your design:
4: you are going to peel the transfer tape and you are going to place it over the design:
5: You are going to use your scraper to make sure that the transfer tape is holding the whole design and you are going to peel the transfer tape that contains the design from the mat:
💡Tip: If you notice that a part of your design is not peeling off to the transfer tape, you can use your scraper or your fingers and rub that section again so it adheres to the transfer tape.
Step 4: Transferring the Design to the Mug
1: You are going to clean the area of the mug where you are going to place your design with the cleaning cloth and the alcohol and let it dry for a couple of seconds.
💡Tip: You can use a kitchen towel to help you stabilize the coffee mug.
2: Once the mug is cleaned, we are ready to start transferring the design. You are going to place the transfer tape over the mug without pressing over the mug. So you can make sure that the design is looking good before transferring the design over the mug.
3: Once you are happy with the location of the design over the mug, you are going to use your scraper and fingers in order to start adhering the design over the mat.
4: After a couple of minutes rubbing the transfer tape over the mug, you can grab one of the corners and start peeling the transfer tape very gently making sure that the design was transferred to the mug.
💡Tip: Something that we found useful is to cut the transfer tape from the design that was already transferred.
5: While you are peeling the transfer tape, if you notice that your design is not adhered to the mug, you can use your finger or the scraper tool and rub over that part of the design again and try to peel it gently one more time:
6: Once you peel all your transferred tape, your mug is ready!!!!! Once again… you did an amazing job! Congratulations!
