How to Make Stickers with a Cricut in 4 Steps

Have you been looking for some creative way to brighten up your day? What about adding up a splash of colors and fun factors to your ideas?

Well, you got us right! We’re talking about creating some cool stickers out of your regular images, and you can guess what fun it could be!

If you’re wondering how to make fantastic stickers using a Cricut Machine, here are four easy steps for you:

1. Create an account on the Cricut Design Space application
2. Design your awesome sticker choosing among the great templates provided
3. Upload the image on your custom project, and resize it accordingly (width and height)
4. Print the image with the Cricut Machine and let it cut out each of your stickers with ease!

If you’d never thought this could be possible, well, hang on here, and we will show you exactly how it is achievable without you having to invest much of your time and effort! And believe us, your journey through this article is going to be unique and more beyond your expectations. We will give you step by step easy to follow instructions until you find yourself becoming a pro in the art of sticker making by the end of this article. 

If this idea entices you, as much as it did to us, keep on reading and learning the skill as each step unfolds to bring you closer to a fantastic creation! 

So, may we dive in?!

What is a Cricut Machine?

If you are an ardent crafter, always wanting to explore your creativity, then you would have yearned for a perfect die-cutting machine that can help you cut perfect and uniform shapes. Haven’t you?

Cricut Maker Machine is the electronic die cutting machine that helps you craft sprees precisely the way you want! It can cut through several different materials (as many as 300 different materials) like paper, cardboard, aluminum foil, wax paper, and even thin wood, leather, and even fabric!

How Does a Cricut Machine Work?

This fantastic machine connects wirelessly with the computer. We can download our chosen designs or even create them on our computer and send them to Cricut for cutting using its inbuilt ‘Print and Cut’ feature. You have to begin with Cricut Design Space that is in-built software with Cricut that allows us to create our designs or import designs for the machine to cut.

Once we are ready with the designs on the Design Space, we can print them on an inkjet printer and then send them to Cricut wirelessly, where it takes care of the cutting process after that. We have to load the material we want to print and cut and finally press the button!

While using its small movable blades, the Cricut Machine cuts around each design on the sheet of paper (or any other material that you may prefer, out of the many options provided by it). 

Cricut Machine and its immaculately curated software Design Space are very user-friendly and relatively easy to use. You don’t even need to be great at graphic designing since it provides you with a library of images and designs that you can use in your Design Space. You get some of the pictures free of cost, while you can purchase the others at a minimal price. Additionally, the Cricut Machine comes with a complete online manual along with other Cricut resources that help you at every step of the designing and sticker-making process!

Is the Cricut Design Space Free?

Cricket Design Space is the proprietary software of cricket that provides you with images, numerous fonts, and material options to choose from. We can use many fonts and ideas available by default as free, but we can also subscribe to the Cricut Access Library for more unique options. The library provides more than 100,000 images and 400 + fonts at a subscription of $10 per month. 

It doesn’t stop here, as someone with a flair in graphic designing can use vector software programs like Adobe illustrator or Vectornator and create customized designs. Design space can be operated with a computer, tablet, or smartphone and can be used to send information to the Cricut Maker via USB or Bluetooth. Further, we can cut the designs using the ‘Print and Cut’ feature of the Cricut Maker Machine.

The ‘Print and Cut’ Feature

‘Print and Cut’ is the power feature of the Cricut Machine, where we can perfectly cut around the designs we have created. We need to print our images after completing them over the Design Space and then print them on our inkjet printer. With a single command using this feature, we can immaculately cut around the created images. 

Interesting, isn’t it? 

So let’s begin with a step-by-step method and make our stickers right away. What you will need in the process is:

• Cricut Design Space 
• Inkjet Printer 
• Sticker Paper
• Sticker Sheet Image File
• Cricut Maker Machine 

How to Make Stickers with the Cricut Machine

For writing this guide, we actually downloaded the application and made each of the steps mentioned! In the end, we even managed to print the stickers below!

We will share all the steps we have made, guiding you through this fantastic creative process. Have fun!

Step 1

Well, the first thing you need to do when you open your Cricut Design Space application is to sign in to your account.

When you sign in, what you see first on your screen is a page like this:

Step 2

Let’s begin by clicking on the ‘New Project’ option to start a new blank project. 

Now, this is what you will see on your screen:

You may notice some toolbar given on this page. Look throughout this page to understand it a bit. You will see all elements you may require to start your new project at the left-hand toolbar. 

Now, go right down the toolbar, and you will find options like ‘Templates,’ ‘Projects,’ ‘Images,’ ‘Text,’ ‘Shapes,’ and ‘Upload.’

Let’s see what each option means: 

• Templates

You can pick any project you would want to create from here. This option helps you basically in determining the spacing and sizing of your project.

• Projects

Cricut offers many ‘Make It Now’ Projects and allows you to choose as per your requirement and taste. You would find some amazing ones out there that you can use.

• Images

You may want to add images to your project, and this tab provides you with several images (more than 150,000 images) you can comfortably choose from. The different options available are occasions, themes, trending, people & places, and shapes. You may be in search of your specific images through the ‘search bar‘ option provided.

• Text

You may even plan to add some text to your projects. In that case, the text tab helps you to write anything that you may want to.

• Shapes

When you want to add some shapes to your project, this tab helps you with just that. You may select from the various shapes available and make your project look better. 

• Upload

This feature especially enables you to create your personalized kind of project. You may upload your images or even text of your choice to create your customized project. Now, there are two ways to get your stickers designed. One is through the templates provided by the application, and the other is from the printable images uploaded from your saved file (Note: if you want to make great designs with ease, we truly recommend you Placeit – we have written an outstanding review that you should read!)

Here, we will see how we can print our stickers from the printable image saved in the document file:

Step 3

• Open ‘New Project‘ 
• Once we are on the working canvas, click on the upload button at the bottom of the left toolbar:

• Click on ‘Upload Image’ button. A new screen appears where you can drag and drop the image/ file or browse it within your PC. (supported extensions are .png, .jpg, .gif, .did, .heic, or .bmp)
• Now, here we drag and drop our selected image. 

• After you upload the image (drag & drop or browse), you land at the screen that looks like this:

• Now you can see three options given to you: ‘Simple,’ ‘Moderately Complex,’ and ‘Complex.’ Let’s see what each means here: 
  1. Simple. Simple deals with high contrast colors and transparent or monochrome backgrounds.
  2. Moderately Complex. It takes care of simple details and colors that contrast the subject and the background. 
  3. Complex. It deals with fine details and blended colors and images with low contrast between the subject and the background. (Note: These are images that are slightly different to work with.)

• We went for the complex option so that we can incorporate all the details into the print. Now click on the ‘Continue‘ button:

• As shown above, once images get loaded on the canvas, click on the ‘Zoom Out’ option at the top right to adjust the image into the work area. 
• Now hover onto the top left area of the screen and click on the ‘Select and Erase‘ option. A plus (+) sign appears in place of the cursor. Click on the background of your image, and here you can see a chequered space appear. It will allow you to do away with the background, which you would not want to print, and the machine will also get to know what part to cut out and which to leave.
• The following screen appears:

Click on the ‘Continue’ button at the bottom right.

• You jump to the following screen: 

• You can rename your image at the option provided on the right panel of the screen.
• From the two ‘Upload Type’ options provided here, select the ‘Print then Cut image’ option. This option allows us to print the stickers before you cut them with the Cricut Sticker Making Machine.
• When you click on the ‘Upload‘ button, the following screen pops up:

• Now you select the image from the ‘Recent Uploads‘ and click on the ‘Insert Images’ button at the bottom right of the screen. It will bring our uploaded image to the blank canvas. 
• The following screen appears: 

• Set the size of the image with width as ’17’, and the height gets auto-adjusted. You can now even ‘duplicate’ your image to save on the space and ‘Group’ them together. 
• Now click on the ‘Save Project’ option and name your project accordingly and save:

• After saving your project, click on the ‘Make It’ option button at the top right corner of the screen. 
• Now the following screen appears, and all you have to do is, hit the ‘Continue’ button. Here, you can set up the printer options accordingly and send it out to print over your printer:

Step 4

Having taken the printout, let’s now move to the Cricut Maker Machine (we are using Cricut Explore Air here).

Follow the instructions below to know how to cut your stickers perfectly:

• Set the dial of the Cricut machine to ‘Custom.’ Custom menu lets you select from the variety of materials that you would want to ‘print and cut’ your stickers on.
• We will now take the Cricut mat and place the printed paper on it so that it exactly looked in the Cricut Design Space. 
• Now press the paper down firmly on the mat, making sure it lies flat on the mat.
• Next, place the mat perfectly on the machine, such that it lies straight into it, without curling.
• Now, when the ‘C‘ button flashes, press it on and enjoy the machine cut out each of your stickers so beautifully!
• When the machine finishes off with the entire cutting, you will notice the arrow button flashing. Press the button and declare the process finished!
• Now, the final step is to release the mat from the sticker sheet patiently. 

Pro-tip: Bend the mat and not the sheet while separating them. It ensures that the sticker will not curl up and get spoilt.

Conclusion

So now, here you are with your beautiful stickers to admire and feel proud of! And yes, don’t forget to pat your back since now you a pro at making stickers on your own!

We believe this article proves to be a valuable guide for you to learn precisely how to use the Cricut Machine and its exceptional software Design Space (readily available for Windows, MAC, and Smart Phones) to create unique stickers!

So get started with your adventures with this impeccably gratifying gadget and enjoy the beautiful experience!!