I used foam core for stability in my last larger than mat project blog post, but tried corrugated yard sale signs this time–they’re both great options! I’ll show you how to cut them safely with a craft knife and self-healing mat. Adhesive spray works well to attach the plastic layers to the DIY cut out characters. I’ll also show you how to make a new stand design to keep your DIY cut out characters upright! In addition to the fine-point blade, you'll need a single scoring wheel or scoring stylus to add the included crease alignment lines to the template. I'm using the stylus. Compatible with your home inkjet printer to print then cut full-color designs up to 61 cm x 71 cm (24 in x 28 in) Character cutouts are a hit at birthday parties, showers, and business openings, but they have to be pretty big to make a splash. Much bigger than a cutting mat!

Since the grid squares are in 1/2" increments, I can easily start at the bottom left, and round up to the nearest inch or half-inch in both the X and Y fields at the top. A: You can use the steps from my tutorial to trace your DIY cut out characters on to cardboard, too!Once that’s finished, I will group and hide that layer. Then I’m going to unhide the layer with all the other pieces, we hid earlier and “ungroup” that. Then I will repeat the same steps to slice the larger pieces of my santa hat and the iceberg. There are five pieces in all. To demonstrate this, we’ve created a giant penguin you can make or simply practice with. Upload the SVG penguin file to Cricut Design Space and add it to your Canvas. I love seeing what you make with my designs and how you use them! Please share a photo of your DIY cut out characters in our Facebook group or tag me on social media with #jennifermaker. Next, duplicate the shape until you have enough of these correctly-sized squares to roughly cover your image. If you’ve sized your penguin just like I have, he will fit on one sheet of corrugated plastic. Otherwise, repeat with additional pieces of plastic sheets as necessary, then use Scotch Tape to tape the plastic sheet pieces together.

Right now, the teal body layer of my penguin is sitting at about X: 5.5 and Y: 9. Your X and Y numbers might not match exactly to mine, because your teal layer might be in a different position on the canvas. That’s ok. You just want to make sure you line up the left bottom corner of the bounding box of that layer at the inch or half-inch mark. That’s how we can make sure the alignment of the squares is just right! Use the fields at the top to put yours in the same spot if you'd like. I chose poplar for the shelving pieces because I really love the grain in poplar. It’s a bit more expensive, but I didn’t need much of it, so it wasn’t a big deal. For the legs, I just used regular pine since I knew I’d be painting them. Once the cut is finished, remove the pieces from the mats as normal and make sure they're all oriented correctly before taping them together..You do not need to burnish the seams. It should look like mine.Using a ruler aligned with the top and bottom score line marks on the left side, draw a vertical line, stopping at the point of the V shape, then continuing down to the bottom. Repeat on the other side. To avoid overlaps or gaps during assembly, we need to exactly align the squares. One way to do this is with the X and Y Position fields and your Canvas grid. X indicates the spot on the Canvas horizontally while Y is the vertical spot. Alight the two pieces and join them using a strip of Scotch Magic Tape™. Make sure there is approximately an inch of additional tape extending beyond the seam on both sides.