How to Cut Wood with a Cricut

Instructions

1. Get My Free Simple Floral SVG Cut File 
   Upload my Simple Floral SVG into Cricut Design Space. Once uploaded to Design Space, your screen should look like this.  I included two versions of the same design for use with different size wood rounds. The bigger version on top is the one I used for the 18" round wooden sign in this tutorial. Because the design is longer than the wood can cut, the bottom layer (green leaves) is cut in half. Once the flowers are layered on top, the divide in the layer doesn't show. Use the format that works best for your size project.
   
   
2. Add Text (optional)
   When using basswood on the Cricut Maker, it's best to cut thicker pieces. I added a .03" offset to the text to slightly thicken my fonts.
   
3. Prepare Mat Screen
   When working with basswood, I recommend moving the cut pieces to the center of the mat and down a bit. This allows room for the wood to be placed on the center of the mat and still have room to add masking tape around the edges.
   
4. Select Material
   Select Basswood 1/16" from the materials list.
   
5. Load Knife Blade
   Insert the knife blade in the B clamp of your Maker. Note: if this is the first time you've used the knife blade, Cricut recommends doing a calibration first. See directions and full details from Cricut HERE.
   
6. Move Star Wheels
   Slide the star wheels all the way to the right. This prevents marks in the wood while cutting. Although the Cricut Basswood comes in 12" x 6" pieces, I cut each piece down to 11" wide as the star wheels on my machine were causing the wood to drag as it was still hitting the star wheels even though I'd moved them over as far as they would go.
   
7. Prepare Basswood on Mat
   Place the wood on a Strong Grip (purple) mat. I found it easiest to put the wood at the one-inch mark both horizontally and vertically. Remember in step 2, where we had to move the cut pieces to the middle. Make sure the pieces line up where the cuts will be without touching the masking tape (if possible). You're now ready to load the mat into your machine and cut.
   
8. Cutting
   When using basswood it's important to stay with your machine and watch to ensure the wood is not moving and the progress of the cuts. Cricut recommends 14 passes, but I found it doesn't necessarily need quite that many, especially with a brand new knife blade. The letters in LEAH, cut with about 8 passes while the more intricate floral and leaf design took 14. It's best to pause the machine part way through and check progress by lifting a corner to determine if the machine has cut all the way through the wood.
   
9. Weeding Wood
   As mentioned in the prior step, the flower and leaf portion of my design went 14 passes, but I still found there were a couple of small spots that were not cut all the way through. I easily finished the cut using my Cricut knife (Exacto style). Simply running the blade in the already cut line finished the cut.
   
10. Remove Cut
    Be careful when removing the cut from the waste portion as the more intricate pieces can easily snap and break. I found using a medium grip nail file worked well to sand any rough edges once removed from the waste.
    
11. Glue Layers
    I cut the letters for the name twice and glued one layer on top of the other to make the wood appear thicker. E6000 glue worked perfectly to glue the pieces together and adhere them to the wood round.
    
12. Paint
    Paint the pieces and let dry completely.
    
13. Glue Painted Pieces to Sign
    The last step in the process is to glue the pieces to the wood sign. On this step, I again used E6000 glue.