| Turn on your computer! If you've successfully | | | | shapes or letters from different cartridges in the |
| installed your Cricut Design Studio software you | | | | same design but you'll be able to cut only with the |
| should see the little green Cricut Bug looking at | | | | cartridges you own (not cool!... I know). The shape |
| you with big eyes right from your desktop. | | | | properties box lets you manipulate the selected |
| When you load the software, you'll be presented | | | | shapes or letters with more precision. You can |
| with a large window with components that may | | | | give them X and Y coordinates (just like back in |
| look strange (or not so strange) at first glance. | | | | school), you can give them precise width and |
| Here's a short description of the main items in the | | | | height, you can rotate them, you can nudge |
| Cricut Design Studio software to help the beginner | | | | them, weld them or kern them. |
| (you!) get started without pulling your hair to | | | | What is nudging? Clicking on the nudging buttons |
| baldness because the software's manual is a little | | | | moves the shape you select by very small |
| too thin: | | | | increments. Use it when you need to make small |
| | | | adjustments. |
| 1. The first thing you'll notice is the virtual mat | | | | What's welding? Welding enables you to have |
| which looks just like your physical cricut mat. | | | | shapes "glued" together when you cut them with |
| That's your virtual design space and where most | | | | the cricut. Just make shapes or letters overlap on |
| of the action is going to take place. Start by | | | | your design, when you turn the weld function on |
| clicking on any shape in the keypad overlay (the | | | | those overlapping letters will be glued together |
| big box just on top of the mat) and play around | | | | when you cut them. |
| with the image. You'll see big circles around the | | | | What's kerning? Kerning let's you specify the |
| shape, those are called "selection handles" and | | | | space between words. Use it to have a specified |
| they let you manipulate and distort the image in | | | | number (negative or positive) between words |
| every direction. | | | | without having to nudge them over and over |
| 2. The second thing you'll notice is, as talked about | | | | again. |
| in the previous point, the keypad overlay. This is | | | | Things to remember: |
| your virtual keypad that changes according to the | | | | - You can design with all the cartridges that exist |
| cartridges you've selected. Every time you click | | | | on planet earth (don't know for other planets) but |
| on one the shapes or letters available it will appear | | | | you can only cut with the ones you've purchased. |
| on your virtual mat so you play with it and design | | | | - You can use other people.cut files if your not in |
| what you want. | | | | a very creative mood. just head over to the |
| 3. Third are the 2 boxes just besides the keypad | | | | cricut message board or do a quick search on |
| overlay: the cartridge library on the left and the | | | | Google for "cricut design studio cut files". |
| shape properties box on the right.The cartridge | | | | - Make sure to update your software when |
| library is just what the name suggests, it's kind of | | | | necessary to get new cartridges loaded in your |
| an index of all the cartridges available. You can | | | | cartridge library and to get bug fixes. |
| design with any of the cartridges and even use | | | | |