Want to know how to fill words with an image or images? Did you know you can do it in Cricut Design Space? Yep, you sure can and it doesn’t take long to do. This tutorial will show you how.
Choosing your photos
First you need to think about the overall look of your design. If you’re just using one photo for one word then it’s not so important. Everything will match up well because it’s all from the same photo. If you’re using several photos, like in my example, then you really need to put some thought into the photos you choose. You want to make sure that the colors are similar so that the overall project looks good. You also want to shy away from super close up photos because they just don’t give you enough room to work with when placing the letters in the photo. You’ll probably want one photo per letter. For my example I did the word “DAD” so I used 3 photos.
Once you have your photos picked out upload them all to Design Space. This may take a little time depending on how large the photos are. Make sure to choose “Complex” as the file type and then save as a “Print then cut” image. Open a new project and insert your images into the project. They will probably be really big so just reduce them down to a manageable size.
Choosing the font and creating the design
Now you need to choose the right font for your words. When you fill words with an image you need to use a thick, chunky font. I like the “Impact” font but you can look around and see what you like best. Type your word in all caps and size it to however large you want it to be for your final project. Once you have your letters sized, “Ungroup” them and DO NOT resize them again. You want to keep all the letters that same size and just adjust your photo so that when you’re done you don’t end up with letters that are all different sizes.
When you fill words with an image you want to work with one photo and one letter at a time. Hide everything but the one letter and one photo you’re going to work on first. Place the letter on top of the photo and then move and resize the photo as needed to get the look you want. Check out the video above to see how I do this. Once you have the letter in place on the photo where you want it, select both items and then “Slice” them. This will slice out the shape of the letter from your photo. Just repeat this step for all your letters and you’re all done.
Your finished product
If you are cutting your word from printable vinyl you can just send it to the printer from here and continue as normal. If you’re making a framed photo you will need to add a background. To do this just grab a square from the shapes tool and size it to whatever size you want your photo to be. Place your word inside the square where you want it. Select everything and then hit “Flatten” in the bottom right menu. This will flatten your word into the background so it doesn’t cut each individual letter when you send it through the Cricut.
Want to learn how to make a knockout design in Cricut Design Space? Check out this tutorial.
