Cricut Design Studio: Welding Basics

One of the most basic things you will want to do with the Cricut Design Studio is to weld letters together to form one word. There are two ways to weld letters together. The first is to work with the word as one image that can be manipulated all together. The second way is to bring in each letter as an individual image that can be manipulated by itself.

As you type the letters in your word, you will notice that they show up on the cutting mat one right after another. When you select the group of letters by clicking on one of the lines, any changes such as size will be applied to all the letters at the same time. Another method is to type one letter and then hit enter before typing another. This makes each letter separate so that you can manipulate each letter individually.

 To weld a word when the letters are all one group, follow these steps:

1. Click the word with the mouse so it is selected.
2. Kerning is the space between letters. Set this at -.005 or leave at zero. Hit apply.
3. The letters will move together, some may be touching while others may not. Select each individual letter in the word . It will become a dashed line when that particular letter is selected. Move it using the nudge arrows until each letter is slightly overlapping.
4. Select the whole word again and check the welding box under shape properties.
5. The word will have dark lines showing where the cutting will be, while a lighter line will represent where it has been welded together.

There are times that you will need to work with each letter or image individually. This is particularly useful when you may want one letter one size and another letter a different size. To weld letters that are individual, follow these steps:

1. Select the first letter you will want to use. Make sure you hit enter to deselect the letter before adding a new one.
2. Select the second letter you will be using. Notice that when you select each letter, it is it’s own individual letter. It can be manipulated in any way and not effect the other letters.
3. Continue adding letters making sure to hit enter after each one.
4. In this welding method the kerning feature is not used. Simply select a letter, manipulate it to the size and look desired and check the weld box.
5. Select the next letter and manipulate it as desired. Move it to where it overlaps the first letter. The amount of overlapping is your discretion according to your design. Check the welding box.
6. Continue until all letters have been manipulated and the welding box is checked for each.
7. Preview the word. The letters that have had the welding box checked will appear as a dark line that will be cut with the lighter lines showing where they are welded. If any letter is a solid filled letter instead, the welding box was not selected for that particular letter. Simply go back and select the letter again and check the welding box.Welding is one of the most basic and most used functions in Cricut Design Studio. Follow the steps above and you will be on your way to using the Cricut in a whole new way. If you are more of a visual learner, many step by step guides to welding including screenshots are available online.