Making Printable Acetate Christmas Ornaments - Cricut

Floating Christmas Ornaments
I love these so much!  They are photos printed on acetate  (Transparency sheets) that "float" in the center of the ornaments.

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Quick Tips:
The Transparency Film
  • This is a new to me brand of inkjet transparency paper, but it should work exactly the same as the graffix brand I normally use - and it's SO much cheaper! 30 sheets for $10!
  • Make sure you place it in your printer so that it prints on the correct side (the matte/rough side of the film)
It's important that you buy the right transparency paper for your printer.  If you have an inkjet printer (most household printers are inkjet.  Some are laser.  You probably know if you have a laser printer, they are not something you typically purchase accidentally)  you need inkjet compatible transparency film.  When I first attempted these, I bought the wrong transparencies - the ink will not dry if you attempt to use an inkjet printer on film made for laser printers.

When you open the package, you will feel the difference on one side.  One side is very glossy, one is a bit more rough and matte.  Be sure to place the film in your printer so that it will print on that matte side.
The Insert Shape:


Unzip the file, and you will see the insert in a variety of sizes.  Upload the svg for the ornament you are working with.   You CAN easily make your own by adding a rectangle to a circle in design space, but these are already all put together and properly sized for each ornament.

 Uploading Your Photo As A Print than Cut File - 
  • Image Resizer For Windows
  • You can only slice if TWO, and ONLY TWO images are selected at one time.  If your slice button is greyed out, it is almost always because there are more than 2 images selected.  
  • If you want to print text on your photo, be sure to select it, and your photo, and flatten.  If you do not flatten text to a shape, Cricut will cut out each letter individually.
Next I uploaded photos I wanted to use.

It is not necessary to resize your photos before you upload them.  But if your photos are very high quality, you MAY find it helpful to resize your photos before uploading them, so that it's a smaller file for Design Space to load and work with.  Image Resizer For Windows is an add on that allows you to right click on a photo and resize it, quickly.
Choose "Complex"

There Is no need to clean the photos up at all - simply upload as a complex image.  When the next screen appears, giving you the option to select and erase, do nothing except click on continue on the bottom right.  
On the 3rd screen, select the image on the left, which says "save as a print then cut image" under it.  You will see a green line around that box, as shown above, that means you have selected it.


Slicing The Insert Shape From The Photo

Place the shape svg that you have uploaded, over the photo you have uploaded, select all, and slice.

Delete all of the "extras", and you will be left with your photo in the shape of the insert.

I did that for each of the ornaments below.


For the Gilmore Girls ornament (top left) I had to re-add the topper - there wasn't enough space at the top of the photo for a full slice of just the image.  So after deleting all of the extra slices, I selected the top and the photo and chose "flatten" to make it one image for print and cut.

 If you add any writing on the photo (I usually cut writing in vinyl and place it on the outside of the ornament instead) be SURE TO FLATTEN.  If you do not select all and flatten, the text will cut out as well.  Flatten makes it just print the inside, and cut only the outside shape.

 Sending To Print, Then Cut
  • For the 3.15 disc ornaments, I can fit 6 on one page.  But I have to move and attach them myself, Design Space will put them on two separate pages if I do not space them to fit manually.
  • Tips For Solving Common Print Then Cut Problems
  • I use the Foil acetate setting, under custom, to cut
When I hit "make it" for the project below, it separated it on to three separate mats.  Not two - three.  I have no idea why.  They were all set to print then cut images.  They would all fit on one page, but only if turned a bit.

So I rotated each image a bit (see photo below) and moved them close enough together to so that when I chose select all, the total size was less than  6.75 x 9.25 in size.   Once I had them all positioned, I clicked select all, and chose attach.  Then when I clicked on Make it, it kept all the images on one page.


Once you click on make it, you need to be connected to a printer to print.  Make sure your printer is set to best quality when printing - here's how to find that dialog box:

Once printed, place on a mat (I usually use a green one, but blue works too) and insert the mat into your cricut machine to cut.

On An Air 2 - Move the dial to custom, and on your computer screen, find the foil acetate setting from the options.  On Aa Maker, Browse the material options for Foil Acetate.



If your machine "cannot read the sensor marks"
  1. Make sure your project is loaded the same way it is shown on the screen.  I've put pages on upside down, and the machine would not find the sensor marks.
  2. Change the lighting in the room.  Sometimes I have to turn lights off, sometimes I have to turn extra lights on.  
  3. Close the top  lid of your machine 
  4. More Tips For Solving Common Print Then Cut Problems
Roll your cut inserts gently, insert into the ornament, and as it unrolls the tab at the top of the insert will snap into place in the top "stem" of the ornament, holding it in place.

In the photo above, the image on the right is printed on inkjet vellum, the image on the right is on transparency film.  The Vellum rolls up around the edges over time, the acetate does not, in my experience.


    Adding Vinyl To The Outside
    I like to add vinyl words to the outside of the ornaments.  And sometimes some filler on the inside too...  Samantha is my favorite font to use for these, but Samantha is never free.  There are some fancy free alternatives to the Samantha font here - https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2018/08/free-alternatives-to-samantha-font.html

     You will want to use a character map to find all the pretty extras on these fonts - 
    How to find and use the font glyphs - tails, swirls and extras, in the Samantha font



    That's all there is to it!

    Here's a step by step with free template for making the Memorial Version
    https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2019/10/making-memorial-ornaments-using.html

    https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2019/10/bigfoot-ornaments-using-vinyl-on.html
    You can also make floating ornaments by putting vinyl on the Transparency film
    This can be so much easier than attempting to put vinyl on the outside of the ornament.


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