Digital Union Feature
The Digital Union Prototyping Studio offers a Cricut Maker as a self-service option to work with flat media like paper, fabric, and adhesive vinyl. It can cut many materials, and, with the additional accessories on hand, can also draw, etch, score and perforate.
Materials
The Prototyping Studio has some materials on hand, but anyone making multiple projects or exceptionally large projects may be asked to provide their own materials, which are available at most craft stores and some office supply and big box retailers.
The DU provides a range of colors of light weight card stock, and a range of Oracal permanent adhesive vinyl, and white prototyping cardboard (ie chipboard). Additional materials such as Kraftboard, etc. may be available but cannot be guaranteed.
Other popular materials that must be provided by the user include heat transfer vinyl (aka iron-on vinyl). We do not currently have a heat or sublimation press, but your personal iron can work for heat transfer vinyl.
If you do choose to bring your own materials, you may use the materials request form to ask any questions or make sure that the material is appropriate for the Cricut. You may even request approval of the material before you purchase it. However, this is not required for the Cricut, as it is for the laser cutter.
All materials must be no larger than 12″ x 24," which is the largest mat which will fit in the Cricut.
The following is a list of general materials that will be approved for use on the Cricut Maker. This list is not exhaustive:
- Paper
- Cardstock
- Adhesive Vinyl
- Iron on/Heat Transfer Vinyl
- Kraftboard/light cardboard
- Thin aluminum sheets (engraving only)
- Some fabrics. Please use the material approvals form for information on the suitability of a particular fabric. Stiffer fabrics work best. (Rotary tool only)
- Leather (knife blade only)
- Some thin wood veneer (knife blade only)
- Stencil plastic
- Other items similar in weight and thickness to paper and card stock. Examples include sticker papers, labels, foils, window cling, transfer sheets, etc.
Software
The Cricut uses proprietary software called DesignSpace, or you can design your project in any program which can export a vector file (best is .svg) such as Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape. We suggest making your own DesignSpace account and uploading your artwork before visiting the Digital Union, so that you can save your projects and set up your files in advance. You only need the free version, no the paid or premium version. Our staff can assist in connecting your Cricut account or your device to our machine, or in uploading your design file.
If you do not wish to create your own account, our staff can assist you in uploading your artwork to our Cricut account, but you will only be able to access this in the Digital Union.
DesignSpace can work with .svg (vector) or .png (bitmap) files. However, svg files will be best for cutting. We do not currently have the ability to produce print-then-cut items reliably.