Parsia-Clone

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Printing and Cutting Stickers with Cricut

Github Link

I wanted to create and print stickers with a Cricut machine. This is what I learned from YouTube tutorials and I suggest you do the same if you are stuck. This space is dominated by suburban moms so it is very wholesome. At some point I was calling everyone bestie.

Rough steps:

  1. Calibrate the Cricut machine with your printer.
  2. Design the stickers in Cricut design.
  3. Export them as PDF and print stickers with a printer on sticker paper. I used a laser printer.
  4. Optionally, put vinyl sheets on top of the stickers before cutting.
  5. Cut the stickers with the Cricut machine.
  6. ???
  7. Profit.

TODO: Add pictures of the stickers here.

Calibration PDF

This needs to be done once unless you use a shared machine and people use different printers.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/cricut/comments/u9sgwy/print_then_cut_issues_this_is_why_the_calibration/i5tgpq8/

  1. Download the PDF.
  2. Print multiple copies on the printer you want to print stuff on.
    1. Print at 100% scale.
    2. Print using black ink only.
  3. Use it to calibrate the Cricut to the printer.
    1. https://help.cricut.com/hc/en-us/articles/360009424974-Calibrating-your-machine-for-Print-Then-Cut#windowsmac
    2. Select "I have a calibration sheet" and calibrate as usual.
    3. Also highlight it with marker if using glossy paper.

Design Die-Cut Stickers

The stickers must be designed in their proprietary software, but you do not need to pay for the clipart and fonts. You can always import your own pictures.

The trick is to create a border (offset) around the sticker (actually two on top of each other) so the Cricut will cut once around the sticker and twice on the border. Now you have a lip around the sticker to remove the top part for easier peeling. Watch the video to see what I mean.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKTb6mEviHU

After putting the paper on the mat use something like a roller to push it to the mat so it's attached firmly. If the mat has lost stickiness, clean it with rubbing alcohol (do not overdo it) and it will regain it.

The setting that worked for me with Koala sticker paper.

  1. For glossy paper I had to highlight the black angle markers.
  2. I did two offsets.
  3. Set the paper to White sticker sheet glossy waterproof.

If the cut around offsets is not enough you can change the paper size to something thicker so the machine will apply more force. I did not have to do it.

Smoothing Shapes

If the shape is not smooth, e.g., if it was a picture and it has jagged edges, the cutting takes a while. This happened to me.

Let's say you have a round image with jagged edges. In my case, the background color of the image was black and there was a 0.5 inch edge around the image that was black. It took 15 minutes to cut 6 circles because the edges were jagged so it was doing square cuts instead of one big round cut.

Let's say the diameter of the original image is 2 inches. Create a new circle shape with a diameter of 2.1 inches with the same color as the image's background (black). Create a new circle with a diameter of 1.9 inches and change the color to the sheet's background color (white). Now select these two shapes and center them. Then select slice. This will give you three options. Choose the one that gives you a ring and delete the other two. Make sure you're using the ring that has nothing in the middle.

Put the ring on top of the image and center them both. Then flatten. Now the ring overwrites the jagged edges of the image and you have a smooth edge.

Saving Paper

Cricut design software is bad at utilizing space. Create a 6.7 x 9.2 inch square with a grey background, arrange your shapes on it to maximize space. Then select everything and attach. Change the background to white/transparent and now the shapes appear as you designed them on the final sheet.

Save the Design as PDF

Save as PDF on Windows to print on another printer.

  1. Send to Print.
  2. Remove add bleed.
  3. Select Use System Dialog if needed.
  4. Select the PDF printer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttq_fHHH-M0

Cutting

Cutting is easy. Just follow the tutorials.

Glossy Hacks

For glossy paper, we need to use glossy hacks because the sensor cannot read the registration marks (the angles around the page).

https://www.reddit.com/r/cricut/wiki/glossyhacks

  1. Put Scotch Matte tape on it.
  2. Use highlighter around it. Have at the office.
    1. This mostly worked for me, but it also resulted in some smudge.
  3. Overwrite it with a black permanent marker. Have at the office.
  4. Use in a dark room (doesn't work in the MSFT Redmond garage).