As we said before, Cricuts are magical! You can create lots of different projects with vinyl and other materials. You can make decals, stickers, engraved leather or wood and even cut thick materials like balsa wood.
But what about creating Cricut designs using several colors of vinyl instead of just one? This is possible! And they will be the cutest decals you have ever made. Read below to see how to cut multiple colors on Cricut vinyl projects!
There are three ways to make multiple-colored vinyl projects:
- Use the Cricut Design Space app on your phone to automatically design the project to be cut in only one mat;
- Design the project on your desktop Design space app manually and cut it in only one mat;
- Prepare several individual cuts manually
How to make multi color vinyl decal with Cricut?
For any of the methods mentioned above, there are two things you need to do before starting: choose a multi-colored design and get the vinyl in the colors you want to use.
You can use this technique either for regular vinyl or you can use heat transfer vinyl multiple colors.
Once you have decided upon the design, you need to choose which of the methods you are going to use.
The first one is the most practical one, as it is an automatic way to arrange the different cuts on a single mat. Cut a piece of each color you need and spread them on the cutting mat.
How to cut multiple colors on Cricut using the Design Space app on your phone? Select the design you want to create.
Then, you will have to set all the pieces on the design to be the same color. By doing this, the machine will consider that you want to do it all in a single cutting process.
After that, tap on the “Make it!” button, and later on the “Snap Mat” icon, which will open your camera.
Point at the cutting mat that has all the pieces of vinyl on top and align it with the square on the screen following the instructions. The app will automatically take a photo. Tap on “use” and now you will see the different pieces that compose your design appear on top of the photo.
Drag each piece onto the color you want it to be. You can arrange them as you wish, and even fit several pieces into each color, if necessary. Insert the cutting mat into the machine and tap “continue” to start the cutting process.
How to cut multiple colors on Cricut using the desktop app?
Of course, you can also do this process with the Design Space app on your computer, instead of your phone. However, this will take a little longer and will require some calculations from you as it won’t arrange the pieces automatically.
Again, grab your vinyl colors and place them on the cutting mat. Enter the app on your PC and select the same color for each of the pieces you are going to cut. Once again, this will tell the software that you will perform only one cutting process, instead of one per piece.
Once you have done this, the time comes to arrange the pieces according to the colors you want them to be. You need to be very aware of the gridlines on both your digital mat on the app and the real cutting mat.
These will help you identify where you are standing. Drag each piece to the area where the color you want it be is, according to the grid lines. This might take a few attempts the first times you make it, but it will get easier with time. Finally, cut!
How to transfer the vinyl from the cutting mat to the final surface?
There are two ways you can transfer the vinyl pieces from the cutting mat. Each of them has their own difficulties. First, you need to pull up all the excess vinyl from the mat.
After that, you can pick up all the pieces with a single piece of transfer tape. This will allow you to arrange all the pieces together before actually sticking the vinyl on the final surface. Nevertheless, you need to be careful to make everything well aligned in just one shot.
The second option is picking up each piece of vinyl with an individual piece of transfer tape. This will make the picking up process easier, as you don’t need to keep everything aligned, but you will need to do it later when finally sticking the vinyl on the definitive surface. Besides, this method won’t allow you to see the whole arranged piece before that moment. It’s totally up to you!
How to cut multiple colors on Cricut with only one cut?
The most rudimentary way to do this kind of project, and the easiest one, is actually performing a single cut for each piece. This process is easier because it doesn’t need any alignment or deducting where the Cricut will perform each cut, but it takes a little bit more time, of course.
In this case, you don’t need to make the original design all in one color in the Design space software, as you want to make several cuts, not just one.
Once you have entered the design, you will see which is the first cut the machine will make, so place the color of vinyl you want to use on the top left area of the cutting mat.
Perform the cut, peel off the excess vinyl and pick up the piece with some transfer tape. Now use the following color for the next piece and repeat until you have finished the whole design. Finally, you will have to be careful with alignment only when sticking the decal on the final surface.
We hope this tutorial on how to cut multiple colors on Cricut was useful for you and has given you different tools and techniques to do so!
If you don’t have a heat press and are wondering “Can you use an iron instead of a heat press for sublimation?” Click here to find the answer.