Doctor Who Savings Jar

 

• Black Glitter Vinyl
• Gold Glitter Vinyl
• Transfer Tape
• A Cricut
• Weeding Tools
• A Mason Jar
• A Cricut Bright Pad

Uploading your own images

First hit the big Upload Images button on the left hand menu in Cricut Design Space. The next image will pop up. Hit the Upload Image button on the left.

 

After you hit upload image, the browse screen will come up. Hit browse and find the image you want on your computer. This will let you upload any (.jpg, .gif, .png, .bmp, .svg or .dxf). I always search for images that I want to use in future projects and then save them to my computer so I can upload them. Some of the easiest shapes to trace are ones are silhouettes of something (such as a witch hat) or a line drawing.

After you select the image on your computer, you will be asked to select the image type. There are three different kinds of image types.

Simple Image– a image with high contrast colors with a monotone background.
Moderately Complex Image– a image with simple detail and colors with good contrast between subject and background
Complex Image– images with fine detail, blended colors or low contrast

This world map is considered a simple image because it has clean lines and a black shape on a white background.

 

After you select your image type, it is time to clean up the image. There are a few different tools to help you get the image you want.

Crop– This tool will let you crop out any unwanted portions.
Select & Erase- This took is like a little magic wand that will select entire sections. For instance if you click on somewhere in the ocean, it will delete the entire ocean leaving a transparent background.
Erase– This is like the erasing tool in paint or other programs where you will physically need to draw over every part you want gone.

In most images, you want to erase the background and make it transparent so the Cricut knows what lines to cut. It is really easy to use the Select & Erase tool with this World Map image.  Select the background and most of the gray will disappear. Then make sure to select some of the lakes and seas to finish the adding the cut lines.

Next name you image and select what kind of image you want Design Space to save it as. Do you want to be able to print the image or do you want to cut all of the details. We want to be able to cut it all out, so we select Save as a Cut Image. This is also a good place to make sure you image looks the way you want it to cut. The Cricut is going to cut everywhere is there is white, so double check in this stage to make sure you have white lines or boxes every where there should be one.

After you save your image, Design Space will take you back to the first Insert Image screen, but this time the image you uploaded will be in the library ready for you to insert it. Insert it into your project and now you can move it, resize it and add any text that you may want for your project.

Cutting out of different colors of material

When you have the World Map and the Allons-y looking like you want them, make the words a different color in the program from the map. This will let the machine know that you are going to cut them out of two different colors of vinyl.

Hit the Make It button in the top right corner of the screen.  Set the dial on your machine to vinyl + for glitter vinyl, load your Cricut mat with the first color you are cutting and hit the flashing go button.

Weeding Vinyl

When you have cut your vinyl, you will need to pull off the extra vinyl. This is called weeding. I love to place my vinyl on top of my Cricut Bright Pad so I can easily see the cut lines and what needs to be weeded. Use a hook tool to slide underneath one of the cut lines and then pull up. It should be very easy to pull the rest of the vinyl off of the backing, leaving just your design.

Transfer Tape

Clean the front of your jar with rubbing alcohol and then let it dry completely. Apply a piece of transfer tape over the top of your map design and rub the design with a credit card or scrapper, until the design comes up onto the tape cleanly when you pull up on the tape.

Place the design, with the transfer tape on the front of your mason jar and then use a credit card or scrapper adhere the design to the jar, rubbing the design until the design stays on the jar when you slowly pull up the transfer tape. Repeat this process for the words.

Cricut BrightPad

The new BrightPad is one of the three new products that Cricut is releasing in 2017. It is a sleek, large light desk that is lightweight and takes up very little room. It looks a lot like an iPad in it’s shape. It makes elements of crafting such as tracing and weeding much much easier. It illuminates lines for tracing and your cut lines for weeding fine details.

The light in the  Cricut BrightPad™ in Mint is an adjustable LED light, so you can decide how bright you need it for your project. There are 5 brightness settings so you can find the perfect one for your project. It is scratch resistant and has a 9 in. x 11.5 in. lit area, so you can have an entire sheet of paper illuminated at once. It comes with a 6-ft. USB power cord with wall power adapter, so you don’t have to sit right next to an outlet and it has a nonslip base, which is perfect for weeding small details.

The BrightPad is one of my absolute favorite crafting items and I use it EVERY single time I use my Cricut. It makes weeding items especially glitter a snap!

The Cricut BrightPad truly made this savings jar way easier. Glitter vinyl can be a pain to weed but this made it easy! I absolutely love how this project turned out and just how easy it was!

This savings jar sits on my nightstand for all of my loose change and I love that it is both practical AND Doctor Who! A win all around!