Watch My Step-By-Step Tutorial HERE

How To Layer Vinyl On Cricut Explore – OR – Cricut Maker!

Materials:

・Cricut Cutting Machine (I recommend a Cricut Explore Air 2 or a Cricut Maker)

・Vinyl (I personally love Oracal 651 vinyl or Cricut Permanent Vinyl)

・A Weeding Tool

・A Scraping Tool or a Credit Card

Step 1

Upload Your Image

From the Cricut Design Space Canvas page you will find the “Upload” option located on the left-hand side of the page in the “Design Panel”.   

Click on “upload” to browse for your image.

Then click “browse” to actually look for your image.  Once you have your image selected you can open it. 

At this point it should appear under the “recently uploaded images.”  Find it there and click on it, then click on “insert image.”  This will open your image up so you can start working. 

Step 2

Consolidate the number of colors in your image (if necessary)

  In order to SAVE YOU TIME & MONEY….this step is absolutely essential.  The image we are using of the llama has 10 different colors in it to start.  So we want to narrow this down and consolidate the amount of materials we are using by grouping similar colors together using the “Color Sync” panel.

At the top right of the Cricut Design Space Canvas page you will see two options.  

-Layers

-Color Sync

 Select the Color Sync Panel.  

The Color Sync Panel allows you to consolidate the number of colors in your image, therefore reducing the layers of vinyl that you will need to stack / layer later.

You will now see all the individual colors in the image have been grouped together. 

For example we see that the color used in the original image to outline the llama is actually a little bit of a lighter shade of black, compared to the darker color used for the eyes of the llama.  These two colors are similar enough that they can be grouped into just one color.  Drag and drop the box with the eyes into the box that contains the outline of the fur, or visa versa…it doesn’t matter. 

The color of the fur is similar to the white in the pupil of the eye so these can be combined into just using white by following the same process.  

I was able to go from 10 colors starting out to 6…which may not seem like much of a success, but otherwise I would have needed 4 additional shades of vinyl….

Step 3

Create a Registration Mark

–“A registration mark (in this sense) is a shape that can be placed next to, but not in contact with, your image on each layer of vinyl that you cut.  The purpose of this image is to have a consistent mark which can be aligned quickly and easily to assist in keeping all of the finer pieces of your actual image in their exact place. 

Otherwise, without having this mark, it becomes very difficult to keep everything exactly aligned as you begin to assemble your image.

We will be making a cross for the registration mark. So, on the left-hand side of the page, click on “shapes” and select the “square”.

Surrounding the square image, you will see a padlock on the bottom left hand corner.  Click the padlock to unlock the image.  Now you can alter the shape of the square, making it a rectangle, by clicking on the borders and dragging them to create the rectangle.    Then after creating your rectangle, click the padlock again to lock the image.  

Right-click the rectangle and select duplicate.

Rotate the second rectangle and place it (A.K.A. layer it) over the first rectangle you created, in order to make the shape of a cross.  

Click and drag over the cross you made, making sure both the rectangles are selected.  

Then go to the bottom right hand side of the screen and click on weld to fuse the images together. 

Now you have created your registration mark……. YAY!….

So now drag and drop your registration mark to sit under your llama image, but without touching it.  Technically you could put your registration mark anywhere you wanted, but keeping it under your image  is the easiest way of doing it in my experience.  

Make sure the mark is not actually touching the llama. 

Click and drag over the mark and the llama to select both.  Then go to the top right-hand corner of the screen and click “group.” 

Step 4

“Layer” Your Image by Color

Now as you recall, there are 6 different colors that I was able to narrow this image down to.  Each color will require its own “layer.”   

The ultimate goal is that all of these layers will be able to “stack” together to create the finished image.

So to get started, you need to duplicate the llama image until you have 6 llamas total.  

Click and drag over the registration mark and the llama to select it.  Right-click and select duplicate.

Repeat this until you have 6 llamas total.

Each of the 6 llamas needs to have only one color contained within it by the time you are finished with this step.

To start doing this, select the first llama all the way to the left–(you can start on whichever llama you want, in any particular order, so long as you end up with one color per llama.  Working left-to-right is just easier for me personally).

You will see after selecting the llama that it becomes highlighted in the layers panel to the right of the screen.  For the first llama I want to isolate the white color, which means getting rid of any color that is not white. Do this by clicking on the “eye” icon seen next to all the different colors contained within the first llama image that should not be white.

For the record….I only believe in white segregation when it comes to vinyl LOL.

Now select the second llama image.  In the layers panel, you will again see all 6 colors contained within the second llama image.  In the second llama image I want to remove everything that is not black. So click the “eye” icon seen next to all of the colors that are not black in the second llama image.

Continue this process for the remaining llama images, until you wind up with 6 images that each have only one color in them.

So in the third llama image, remove everything but the pink.

In the fourth llama image, remove everything but the tan around its mouth.

In the fifth llama image, remove everything but the purple.

In the sixth llama image, remove everything but the green.

At this point, you should have 6 llamas on the screen, but each llama should contain only one color each.  When assembled together, these 6 colors from each llama image should stack together to create one, way-cool llama.

In order to assemble your image, without making your llama look like it had a stroke, you need to attach the registration mark on each of the 6 llamas.

This means that the registration mark on the first llama image that contains only white, will cut out the registration mark on the same white piece of vinyl.  So select the first image by click over top of it.  When you do this, it should show that the white llama and the registration mark (still black at this point)  are both selected.  Go to the bottom right hand corner of the screen and click attach.  The registration mark will now turn white.  

On the second llama image that contains only black, click it, and you should see the registration mark and the llama are both selected.  Click attach.  

Continue this process for the remaining 4 llama images.

Step 5

Send the Design to Your Cricut Cutting Machine to be Cut

Load each individual color that you are using, onto its own cricut mat.  Load these mats into your Cricut, cutting out each individual layer of color. 

Go through and weed out each color layer of  vinyl.

Step 6

Layer Your Vinyl Decals

Using a piece of transfer tape, start with your largest piece of vinyl for the stack.  With this image, it is the black layer. 

Apply the transfer tape.  

With your black vinyl on the transfer tape, you are now ready to add your next layer of vinyl.

Apply the white layer next.  You should see the black registration mark on the transfer tape.  Align this black cross with the white cross seen on the white layer of vinyl.  

Attach the white layer to your transfer tape.  

At this point, you should have both the black and white layers on your transfer tape.

Continue this process with all of the remaining colors, working from the largest to smallest pieces of vinyl.  

After you apply all 6 layers to your transfer tape, you are ready to show your llama off to the world.

I decided to apply my llama to a Rae Dunn canister a soccer mom tried to fight me for at TJ Maxx, but you can use whatever you like….LOL.

Happy Crafting! I can’t wait to see what you guys create, and I would absolutely LOVE it if you sent me pictures and commented on the video tutorial of this.

Until next time…..Stay Crafty!!