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Cricut® font cartridge tips & tricks
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Old Fashioned Fonts
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Over the past six or seven years, my youngest daughter has asked for the same thing
for Christmas – an antique-styled typewriter. Although she still hasn’t received
it, she now has access to something that will fill the void – Printing Press, the new cartridge by Kerri Bradford.
With an eclectic collection of letters from various alphabets, you can now create
the look of some of the old-fashioned fonts with your Cricut. What makes this font
set so exciting is that while the fonts are styles of the past, the overall look
of them together is widely used today. It’s obvious that even the Creative Features
are designed to perfectly complement the individual letters. (My favorite is the
Clip Feature.)
Trying all the features, keys, and foundations will increase the versatility of
Printing Press. One thing I tried was cutting out a word
with all capital letters. Then, I used the Real Dial Size key and cut the word out
again. Here is how it came out:
I love the height differences in the first example but the letter-on-domino appearance
of the second example will be great to play with, too. Also, adhering the words
on either a much darker or much lighter background makes the details on the letters
pop out.
While my daughter might not yet be able to experience the clickety clack of the
typewriter keys, she will hear the Cricut-y chirp of a cut well done. Printing Press is a winner!
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Variety of Lettering and Features
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One of the things my school-age daughters use the Cricut for is in making posters for their classes. Opposites Attract is their cartridge of choice almost every time, thanks to the variety of lettering and features contained therein.
The main font is a beautiful, flowing script. When Creative Feature 1 (Opposite) is keyed, a bold block lettering is available. Creative Feature 3 (Upright) gives you script lettering that is cut straight up and down and without the long ‘tails’ found in the original. The script and block lettering were created by Cecelia Harris to perfectly complement each other, so you can use them on the same project, even superimposed.
My favorite school project had mixed lettering from the Opposite and Trapezoid Features. The result was eye catching and appealing (and earned an “A”). With six Creative Features all together, there are many different combinations for you to enjoy. While it might take you some time, my recommendation is to discover them all! It’ll be worth the effort and you’ll learn so much about your own style.
You’ll find yourself gravitating to this cartridge when looking for that designer look for your projects, especially when it’s a big one (such as a poster).
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Scenery!!!
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Oh, happy day! With the release of David Walker Studios’
ZooBalloo, we now have a new collection of animals, plus mountains, clouds,
snow, waves, AND another font set.
The Creative Features and Foundation Keys add even more variety and versatility
to what you can do.
The six Features are: Lower/Layer, Silhouette, Card, Box, Shadow, and Lower/Layer
Shadow.
- Lower/Layer – Enables the lower case alphabet, cuts the actual words for numbers
(such as ‘one’ or ‘two’), and when used with the Shift key, cuts out the detail
layer for the shapes
- Silhouette – Cuts the outline of the letters and characters as if it were a line
drawing
- Card – Cuts a rectangle card blank with the shapes and letters on the card front
- Box – Allows you to cut the shapes and letters inside a square frame
- Shadow – Cuts the shadow for all uppercase letters, numbers, and animals
- Lower/Layer Shadow – Cuts the shadow for everything the Lower/Layer Feature (see
above) can cut
The inclusion of scenery and embellishments in
ZooBalloo allows the opportunity to complete a project without the need for
any other background or detail. There are elements such as a vine, grass, trees,
and a branch that will complement any layout you might use the animals for. Check
out pages 82 – 131 of the handbook for a complete list of the designs available.
The wonderful combination of shapes and letters on this cartridge make
ZooBalloo a must-have for your Cricut library. You’ll be so glad you have it!
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Words & Phrases
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100%, and, from:, Limited Edition, Look Here, No. (as in the abbreviation for Number), Original, the, To:, and Top Secret.
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Words & Phrases
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AND, FROM, JOY, LOVE, MANY, MUCH, THANKS, THE, TO, and YOU.
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Font Fans Rejoice
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Font fans: Cecelia Harris has done it again! She has put together one of the best
font cartridges I’ve ever used, and the way I see it, it’s actually three sets in
one. Opposites Attract has a beautiful, flowing cursive font;
a bold, block lettering set; and, when using one of the Creative Features, a complete
alphabet of upright script.
After playing with the different keys and features, I’ve realized that this is a
cartridge that will have lettering applications in a variety of artistic realms.
From full-size letters on a poster to small cards and tags, you can cut complementary
styles for your projects.
Really, the only way you’ll truly be able to appreciate Opposites Attract will be to use it, but if you don’t have
it yet, go to your nearest craft store that carries Cricut™ products and ask them
to demo it for you. Take a look at the handbook that comes with it to see what can
be done with the Creative Features. You’ll notice how the tails on the cursive font
are long and dramatic while there aren’t tails to speak of when using the Upright
Feature.
One of the most unique features of this cartridge is the Trapezoid key. You can
choose to cut either the script or the block letters inside a trapezoid shape. It
is a funky, fresh look that looks best combined with the words included in the set.
They are: YOU, JOY, MUCH, LOVE, MANY, THANKS, AND, THE, TO, and FROM. I love this
option!
The artist, Cecelia Harris from Wordsworth, has
also given us Beyond Birthdays, George and Basic Shapes, and Jasmine.
If you already have purchased Opposites Attract, please post your comments in that section
of the Cartridge Explorations forum on the Cricut™ message
board. You can read comments and post your own input on any of the other current
releases.
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Words & Phrases
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Congrats, Happy Birthday, it’s a Party, Oh Baby, Thanks, and Welcome.
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Let's start digging!
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One of the first things I do when I get a new cartridge is pull the handbook out
of the binder and open up to the project shown inside. This gives me an idea of
what the artist had in mind for their product.
In ZooBalloo, the friendly purple hippo immediately made me
smile and I was hooked. Even after following the links to see the pictures on the
Cricut™ website, I was not prepared for the charm and detail in this new cartridge.
It really is two cartridges in one, having both a font and shape set.
You will fall in love with the animals created by David Walker Studios
(he also did Paper Pups). They are a different style than Animal Kingdom, a previously released cartridge. While there’s
a few of the same animals in both, ZooBalloo contains some lesser known animals (such as the
much-wondered-about narwhal) as well as ones we loved in our youth (the unicorn
and elephant).
Also included in this set is an expanded set of words. Now we can cut out the number
4, the word “four”, and even the word “number”. Take a look at the new words available
and you’ll be saying and cutting “hurray” right along with the rest of us.
While there is much to be explored in this new cartridge in the future, there’s
one other thing to be mentioned this first time around. I believe that one of the
biggest attractions of ZooBalloo will be the scenery elements of snow, mountains,
clouds, and waves. The practical and creative applications of these are going to
be so much fun!
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Paper Saver Mode
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With all the swooshes and extended lines of Jasmine, you may want to cut it with Paper Saver Mode on. If not, you may type in a 4" "Ty" or the like and get an error message claiming "Character(s) won't fit...". At first thought this doesn't seem right. But with further investigation it's actually correct (see picture).
The top of the capital "T" all the way to the bottom of the lower-case "y" is well beyond the 6" maximum width the Cricut can cut. If you don't need the "negative" space of the cut, simply select Paper Saver Mode and try again. The result will be the "y" moving up, to fit well within the 6" width.
Another mode you may want to be aware of, especially with Jasmine, is Real Dial Size. If you need an exact sized cut, you'll need to turn this on. Otherwise, you'll engage proportionate sizing to the set's Key Height Character. And once again, Jasmine has a lot of swooshes and curves that may affect this.
Just keep these two modes particularly in mind with this set.
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Possibilities
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When exploring the possibilities of the various font cartridges, it really pays off to see the benefits of the Creative Feature keys. This is why you shouldn’t rule out any cartridge; you’ll always be able to find practical and/or artistic uses for them! Tear Drop is no exception when it comes to this principle.
While the font set itself is so cute and reminiscent of an early 70’s look (retro is so hot right now!), take a moment to look at both the Tall and the Dropless Creative keys. Basically, these features give you two additional font sets. The Tall feature has the same Tear Drop appearance, but the letters have about half the width of the main set. The Dropless feature has the same stretched look without the drops at the ends of the letters. I’m just hypothesizing here, but it’s as if the artist, Heather Lancaster, wanted to make sure we could have the feminine, the masculine, and the ‘wow-that’s-awesome’ font sets all in one cartridge!
One more thing to get the juices flowing: With school starting soon for many of us, it’s fun to have personalized spiral or composition notebooks. On pages 20 and 21 of the Tear Drop handbook, there is a great idea for using this cartridge. With minor color changes or a little tweaking of the layout, you can create some very fun, compliment-invoking, conversation-starting notebooks or journals.
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More Than a Font
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When looking at a font cartridge, instead of just seeing letters, words, and a few shapes, try to see other uses for the actual shape of the letters. All Mixed Up by Cynthea Sandoval is a great example of this principle and opens up a whole new world of ideas for us. The letters are rounded and fresh, which makes for some really creative layouts.
As you ponder each letter, both uppercase and lowercase, what does the shape of the letters look like to you?
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When you see the quotation marks, is that all you see? Or do you also picture jelly beans, sandals (with a hand-drawn flourish for the straps), or maybe even a set of lungs for a health class project? |
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The capital letter H can be more than just an H. It could also be a high jump or a football goal post. |
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The capital letter Q can be a speedometer, or a booted steering wheel, or even a ‘banned’ symbol if you flip it horizontally (such as on a no-smoking sign). |
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Even the capital X could be a manger in a Nativity scene, or part of a campfire (use the fire in Christmas Cheer!). |
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How about using the Creative Feature “Circle” in combination with the flower? You would have a ready-made sand dollar! |
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There are more—many more—for us to find. When you go outside the box and use font shapes in ways other than as letters, share your ingenuity with us!
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Italics
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When choosing a font set for your project, it really pays off creatively to look at each of the Cricut™ cartridges and their individual Creative Features. The style of a headline can affect the mood of the project as much as what is actually being said. Jasmine, a beautiful brushstroke font, lends an elegance to everything on which it’s used.
The artist, Cecelia Harris, has included some connected words in this set that will complement specifically themed projects. Using the scripted ‘I love you’, ‘my friend’, or ‘with sympathy’ adds an air of old-world sincerity to a personally designed card.
One of the special aspects of Jasmine is it is currently the only font set that has Italic capability. While it already has a calligraphic appearance prior to adding the feature, Jasmine takes on an expertly hand-drawn look when italicized.
Years ago, a friend gave me a matted and framed scripture to put on my wall. She had done the calligraphy herself and the letters were perfectly formed to create a thing of beauty I will always treasure. It was done in the same classic lettering style as Jasmine is, and consequently won’t ever go out of style.
What have you made with this cartridge? Please show off your talents on the Cricut™ Message Board. If you haven’t purchased it yet, go see what others have done with it; you’ll be intrigued and inspired!
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Monograms and More
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Here’s another cartridge from the duo at rob and bob studio, and what a fun, eclectic one it is! With monograms being all the rage in paper crafting, you can use this one for many different lettering looks. What a personal way to dress up cards and gifts; we all love seeing our names or initials on stuff.
If you look at the project on pages 20-21 of the Mini Monograms handbook, there is a gift card enclosure. Imagine how impressed the recipient will be when you give them a gift card that is presented in a way meant especially for them!
Did you know that there are three different A’s, E’s, I’s, O’s, and U’s in the font set before you use any of the Creative Features? Have you noticed there isn’t a number 9? Just turn the 6 over and off you go.
Combining one of the Creative Features with one of the Foundation or Companion shapes increases the possibilities even more. Have you thought about using the Foundation shapes with shapes or letters from the other cartridges? Whether you’re hunting for something new to do on a layout, a card, a binder, or even a banner, see what happens when you ‘cross-cartridge’ your ideas.
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Ideas for Any Holiday
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After spending the last month making Christmas-related placecards and tags, I thought I’d share with you some of the fun and timely treasures I’ve found. Feel free to change these projects to fit any holiday or theme.
Tag-making: With Tags, Bags, Boxes and More, I cut out six different tag shapes, all of them at 5.5”. Then, with Printing Press (and a coordinating paper), I used the Clip Creative Feature to cut six of the word “to:”. I attached each of the ‘to:’ paper clips to the tags, which left room for me to handwrite the name of the recipient. Flipping the tag over, the Cricutted paper clip leaves the perfect little frame to write “from:” and my name. Adding star brads, ribbon, and some gel pen squiggles finished off the tags.
Placecards: Using Tags, Bags, Boxes and More, I cut twenty 5.5” square boxes out of acetate (I used clear transparency sheets). Then, with Printing Press, I cut the monogram (of the gift recipient), using the Character Shadow Creative Feature. I used gold and silver posterboard for the monogram since it has a rich, metallic look. Finally, after gluing the letter to the front of each box and filling it with Almond Roca, I tied a gold and silver ribbon around the box, with the bow at the top of the box. It’s the perfect placecard for our holiday dinner table; small enough to fit nicely on the charger plate and big enough to hold a yummy treat!
Last idea: As a little gift to the neighborhood kids who carol at our home and using Tags, Bags, Boxes and More, I cut out a bunch of the ‘crayon’ boxes at 5.5” (I used Christmas print cardstock). I glued the sides and bottom of the boxes closed but left the top open. I filled each box with a regular-sized Hershey’s bar. The kids’ Cricutted names were glued on the front of the boxes and were finished off with a miniature bow. If you want a really neat look though, you could tuck in 5 or 6 candy sticks of different flavors (the candy cane type without the hook on top) in place of the chocolate bar.
What creative ideas have you come up with? Have you adapted an idea you’ve read about in the Chirp? Please post them in the Cartridge Explorations Section at the Cricut Message Board.
Happy Holidays,
Lori Baer
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Cartridge Overview
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All of the cartridges have two Creative Features in common. They are Shadow and Blackout. The function of these two keys are exactly the same in all circumstances: Shadow perfectly mats the original graphic and Blackout gives you a general shadow of the original but with no interior cuts (such as the two holes in a capital letter B).
Discovering the rest of the individual cartridges Creative Features is like embarking on a scavenger hunt where you shriek "ah ha" every time you try out a new one. Doesn't it make you excited to find out what new ones the Cricut team will come up with next?
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Samples
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This week, I decided to share with you a trick I use to find the perfect font set for a specific project. Much has been said on the message board about how to keep track of what you have in your library from keeping the handbooks at your fingertips to printing 8.5 x 11" copies of the individual handbooks. Here's what works for me. Instead of printing the entire graphic set from the online font handbooks, I chose four different letters (E, G, T, W). From the online handbooks, I printed out only those pages. Then, on those pages, I wrote what set it was from. I inserted the pages into sheet protectors and organized them by putting all "E" pages together, all "G"s, and so forth. Since I have all the font cartridges (except for the much-hoped-for, rare Doodletype!), I did this for all the sets. 
If you choose to try this method of Cricut library organization, decide for yourself what letters of which you want samples. I chose "E" because it is an oft-used letter and for it's single-line height when lower cased. The "G" was picked for its 2-line height (below the main line) and because the lower case letter comes in many different appearances. The "T" was used for its 2-line, (above the main line) look and its frequent use. Finally, the "W" was used to identify clearly which font sets have rounded, sharp, classic, or funky features.
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Don't Forget About
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Okay, it’s the cartridge we all have, but have we really taken a look at what’s in it? The letters are the perfect all-around font, but it’s the shapes that are intriguing. At first glance, it appears that the shapes are repetitive. It’s the second look that shows what’s really there!
On page 15 of the George handbook is a graphic of the key overlay. Looking at the grey shapes, you’ll notice there are 2 squares (R and T keys), two rectangles (Y and U keys), two skinny rectangles (I and O keys), and two triangles (A and S keys). The difference between each of the two shapes is the same for each set. The first shape has squared corners and the second shape has rounded corners. It’s just that easy!
The designer of this cartridge is Cecelia Harris, and it seems she has thought of everything necessary to complete George and Basic Shapes and to save us time while using it. The rounded corners on oft-used geometric shapes as well as the traditional squared ones are just a couple of the great ideas found in George.
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Shaping Up
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Now that we have a plethora of shape cartridges to sort through, it's time to find a way to organize them. It takes precious crafting time to flip through each handbook, looking for the perfect piece to finish a project when we can have that information right at our fingertips, in a single binder, box, or maybe even a cd.
I love simple organization ideas, and for me, that starts with big, black binders. With each shape set, I looked through the handbook to find a single page that shows the Creative Features for that cartridge in full use, such as page 102 (elephant) in Animal Kingdom. Online, under the products tab at Cricut.com, I found the corresponding page from that handbook and printed it out. This gave me a brief overview of the artistic style and content from the cartridge, as well as an example of the Creative Features. On the bottom of the page, I wrote the title and artist name as a reference for that page. In my binder is at least one printed page (8½ x 11") for each shape set.
The next step in my quest for simplification included cutting out samples of specific shapes, using Linda Scott's Cheat Sheet by Alpha. She and others have posted about this list often on the MB and I find it a valuable organizational tool. Using the list, I chose items that I would be using a lot, such as bookplates, butterflies, cards, hearts, and "I love you". Setting the size at 3", I cut samples of each one, some with shadows or other Features. On a single page, I glued all of the bookplates, referencing the cartridges used, the Feature, and the size (3"). Then, I inserted it into a page protector and added it to my binder. Repeating these steps for the other items previously cut, I ended up with over 20 pages of frequently used shapes. When I have a couple of free hours, I'll add pages that show shapes that I think are particularly awesome, such as the 'hydrangea' in Walk in My Garden to this section in my binder.
There have been several posts on the Cricut Message Board about alphabetizing precut shapes, keeping a running list of all the Cricut shapes, and even cutting out ALL the shapes a cartridge has available, gluing them onto paper and filing them away. Find what works for you, then adapt and streamline as your library grows with each new cartridge. Feel free to share your ideas and pictures with us - we'd love to see what you do for craft spri | | |