Cricut Maker Knife Blade DIY Letterboard!
Have you used the Cricut Knife Blade yet? I think you should go for it!
The knife blade is a revolutionary tool for the Cricut Maker 3 or Cricut Maker and makes otherwise unheard of projects totally possible!
This cute ledge style letterboard is a cinch to make using the Cricut Knife Blade.
I think you should go for it. Ready to get started?
Supplies Needed:
- Cricut Knife Blade (able to cut materials as thick as 2.4mm)
- Cricut Chipboard
- Purple Cricut Mat 12X24
- Craft Foam 12x18
- Blue Painters Tape
- Pine Board 12x12
- 1x2 Boards cut to 12"
- School Glue
- Hot Glue/gun
- This Cricut Design Space Project
The Cricut's adaptive tool system makes it possible to use the knife blade, rotary blade, scoring wheel...and who knows what's next! Let's talk about the Knife Blade for a second. Materials that the knife blade is rated to cut are:
- Balsa wood, up to 3/32”
- Basswood, up to 1/16"
- Tooling leather, up to 7 oz
- Garment leather, up to 5oz
- Cricut® Chipboard, 2mm
- Matboard, 2-ply or 4-ply
- Craft foam, up to 3mm
If you haven't used the knife blade before, begin by calibrating your blade. Go to your CDS sidebar...
Click Calibration and then Knife Blade.
Now, do what the instructions say.
Insert your knife blade...use a lightweight piece of paper on the green mat and insert it into the machine.
Then continue.
The knife blade will cut several small cuts and then ask you questions about which ones lined up best.
Answer the prompts and that's it...it's ready to cut with.
Don't forget when using the knife blade to slide the star wheels to the right side of the bar.
Just like pictured. This will keep them from grooving and gouging the material that is being cut.
Now stick your craft foam to the purple mat and tape the edges with painters tape.
Insert the blade into the Cricut Maker.
Then insert the mat.
Cut the Cricut Design Space project I designed...it will give you a great variety of letters and numbers. Set the material to Craft Foam...it will make 2 passes.
Before removing the mat, check and see if the cut has gone all the way through the material. I needed to do one more pass. Then remove the mat and pull out all the letters.
So many options with these fun letters!
Now cut the backing pieces with the Cricut Maker on Cricut Chipboard. The Cricut Chipboard is made differently than other chipboards, so it's optimized for the knife blade and the Maker.
Same idea as before, tape down the chipboard to a purple mat. All you need to do now is cut rectangle shapes that are 1.5X3" and a few that are 2x3"...for the M's and W's.
Then place one letter on each board. Adhere them all in one sitting or just pick the phrase you need and assemble it then.
Use the hot glue to adhere the craft foam letters to the chipboard.
Now to assemble the letterboard. It's so easy! If you don't have power tools to cut the wood yourself, they will help you out at the home improvement store. You need a 12x12" board and then 1x2 strips that are 12 inches long.
Measure the side of the pine board and mark the 4" and 8". Then repeat the marking process for the opposite side.
Run a squiggle of school or wood glue on one side of the 1x2 strip.
Place the boards down right above the markings made, plus the last one right along the bottom edge.
Then the chipboard letters just sit on the ledge.
The chipboard is heavy enough to keep them all in place perfectly! So really--if you haven't used the Cricut Maker Knife Blade yet--I think you should go for it! 😄
The Cricut Knife Blade will quickly become your favorite tool! Here's some other things you can make using the Cricut Maker, Maker 3 and the Cricut Knife Blade.
And here's where my new letterboard is hanging out! I love it!
Don't worry, that little fishy is fine. ;)
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