Confession time!

As much as I’ve always advocated overcoming your fears when working with your Cricut, I’ve always been a little afraid to work with any material besides paper and vinyl.

I think it’s pretty obvious that paper is my “material of choice” when crafting with my Cricut…with vinyl and iron-on coming in a close second.

But…Wood? Plastic? Fabric? Felt?

It’s all been a little too scary for me, to be totally truthful. And while I often tell people ALL a Cricut can do, I’ve always sort of stuck with my favorites.

But this year I am bound and determined to change all that. I have decided to push myself out of my comfort zone…and it’s ALL for you, dear reader.

So why are these other materials scary to me (and possibly to you, too)?

First and foremost, most people tend to do what’s comfortable, right? I mean there’s nothing better than to spend an afternoon getting your craft on, am I right?

But then there are all the practical reasons, too.

There’s wondering if my machine will “do” the material. Then there’s choosing the setting. And, of course, I have to ponder what blade to use and also which mat.

Lots of pondering going on!

And then–just like that–I am overwhelmed.

But, again, I am bound and determined to break through these fears, so I’m setting out to do this one material at a time.

First up is FELT!

Cricut sells the most interesting 12″ x 12″ felt packs and I got my hands on one called Spring Rain, which you can find here: https://www.shareasale.com/u.cfm?d=327204&m=51766&u=1089398

(Please note that you will have to do a search for Felt to find this product)

These felt packs have 12 sheets of color coordinated felt and they are perfect for today’s Cricut Access Challenge–Felt Flower String Lights!

Because I was a bit nervous using a new material, I did keep the images simple and I found a nice selection of simple flower petal shapes to help make this project a success.

All of the flower petals are pulled from an old favorite Cricut cartridge called Flower Shoppe and are, of course, FREE to Access Customers. That’s a given for the Cricut Access Challenge.

Aside from the felt and these images, the only other thing you will need is a string of lights and perhaps a glue gun. (I do my best to avoid my glue gun, so if you are anything like me, I feel you!)

For this project I tried cutting the felt on both my Maker and my Explore Air 2 machines. I found that the Maker–fitted with the Rotary Blade–worked exceptionally well for working with felt, but, as you will see from this video, it is a bit slow:

For what it’s worth, the Explore Air was NO slouch with felt either! I fitted the Air with a deep cut blade and it cut the felt beautifully and quickly…however it did snag a bit on two of the flowers, as you can see in this photo:

BUT otherwise it did a great job–which means you can definitely do this project with either the Maker or the Explore!!! Psych!!!

Another really cool thing about this project is the holes that are automatically cut from the center of the petals, making this a no brainer project. All I had to do is increase the quantity of cuts to equal fifty–the length of my string of lights–and cut away.

Note: Because I used different petal shapes for visual interest, I set the Quantity to 9 for each petal and cut out six separate mats, which gave me 54 cuts–a few more than I’d need.

After all of the cuts are made, it’s just a matter of securing each petal to the light. Depending on your string of lights, you may be able to avoid the dreaded glue gun all together, so work with it and see.

Add one flower petal to each light head and work in color order if you’d like. Or consider putting two petals together on the same light! Or do your own thing! Whatever you prefer!!

And before you know it you’ll have a delicious string of felt flower lights to brighten up your front porch or guest room!

What a fabulous project for a quiet Sunday, isn’t it?

What fun!! And not that difficult either, right?

Here’s the Pinterest link to the project: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/273030796146135439/

And the Design Space file on Cricut Community: https://design.cricut.com/#/design/127502687

And stay tuned for future projects featuring all kinds of materials including acetate, bass wood, Foil, poster board, fabric and more!!

“Go forth and Cricut, my friends!”

Best always,

Miss Rita

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I do so appreciate your continued support.

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