{"id":1847,"date":"2019-09-05T13:50:19","date_gmt":"2019-09-05T17:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crystalscrafties.com\/?p=1847"},"modified":"2020-03-05T20:28:02","modified_gmt":"2020-03-06T01:28:02","slug":"knockouts-in-cricut-design-space-yes-you-can-still-do-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crystalscrafties.com\/index.php\/2019\/09\/05\/knockouts-in-cricut-design-space-yes-you-can-still-do-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Knockouts in Cricut Design Space…YES, you can still do it!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yes, you can still make knockouts in Cricut Design Space! I know there has been a lot of controversy lately about making knockouts in Cricut Design Space since the \u201cSave As\u201d feature was disabled. This is due to some legality for Cricut however, knockouts can still be done. In this tutorial I\u2019ll show you 2 different methods for creating knockouts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"knockouts<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Method One Using Phonto<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In this method you\u2019ll need a smart phone app called Phonto.\nIt is a free app and you can download it on an iPhone or Android phone. \u00a0Once you have the app on your phone, follow\nthe steps below to create your center word (the word you are going to use for\nthe knockout portion of your design):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 1:<\/strong> Open Phonto and click the camera at the\nbottom of the screen then select \u201cplain image\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 2:<\/strong> Choose the white square in the top right hand\ncorner (it\u2019s next to the black square and may be hard to see). Once the white\nsquare is selected click the \u201cupload icon\u201d in the top right hand corner of your\nscreen and select \u201cuse\u201d. You will now see a white square in the middle of your\nscreen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 3:<\/strong> Tap the white square, tap \u201cadd text\u201d, add in\nyour text and click \u201cdone\u201d (you can change the font later, I\u2019ll show you how).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 4:<\/strong> Once you have your text added select \u201cstyle\u201d. You will see 3 options: text, stroke and background. Text will be highlighted in grey and this is where we want to start. Change your text color to white by clicking the white color box under the word text. You will see your text turn white (you may not be able to see it at all but that\u2019s okay, don\u2019t worry about that).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"using<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Step 5:<\/strong> Now that your text is white you\u2019ll select the\n\u201cstroke\u201d box so that it is highlighted in grey. Turn the stroke black by\nclicking the black square under the word stroke. You will now see a black\noutline around your word. Go down to the bottom of the screen and find the\n\u201cwidth\u201d slider. Slide that up until you get your desired shadow. (Note, some\nwords may not achieve a full shadow but you can fix that in design space.) Once\nyou have the shadow you want click \u201cdone\u201d, click the \u201cupload icon\u201d in the\nbottom right corner and save the image to your phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 6:<\/strong> Awesome, you have your shadow saved but now\nyou need to save the text inside the shadow. Click your word and select \u201cstyle\u201d\nagain. This time go to \u201cstroke\u201d and pull the \u201cwidth slider\u201d back down to remove\nthe shadow. (Tip, you may want to leave some of the shadow if your font is\nsuper skinny. The Cricut has a harder time cutting skinny font and this is a\ngood way to thicken the font a little.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 7:<\/strong> Once the shadow is removed select \u201ctext\u201d again and turn your text back to black. Select \u201cdone\u201d and then the \u201cupload icon\u201d and save that image to your phone. From here you just upload the images you saved in to design. Skip down to \u201cHow to Create Knockouts in Cricut Design Space\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"knockouts<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Method Two for Creating Knockouts in Cricut Design Space Using Inkscape<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For this method you\u2019ll need the free design software\nInkscape. Just Google Inkscape Download and it should be the first link that\ncomes up. You can choose to download for either Windows or Mac. Once you have Inkscape\ndownloaded follow the steps below to create the center word of your knockout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 1:<\/strong> Open Inkscape and click the \u201cText\u201d Icon on the left side menu bar and type in the word you want. You can click the \u201cSelect\u201d icon at the top of the menu and then make your word larger if you need to.\u00a0 Make sure you \u201cLock\u201d your design before resizing it or the scale will be all funky. (Pics below for the \u201ctext\u201d, \u201cselect\u201d and \u201clock\u201d icons.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Icon<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Step 2:<\/strong> Choose the font you\u2019d like for your word.\u00a0 Inkscape will show any font you have downloaded to your computer. Just click the \u201ctext\u201d icon again and you will see the font drop down appear in the top left corner of your screen. Once you have the word you want in the font you want follow the next steps exactly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 3:<\/strong>\u00a0 Select your word (make sure you go back to the selector icon) and click \u201cPath\u201d then \u201cObject to Path\u201d at the top of your screen. (See the photo above for the path menu.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 4:<\/strong> Your word will now all be separated out by letters (you won\u2019t see it but it is).\u00a0 Select the whole word by dragging a box around it or clicking each individual letter while holding shift.\u00a0 Make sure every letter is selected then to go \u201cpath\u201d and then \u201cunion\u201d.\u00a0 This will basically weld your word like you weld in Design Space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"working<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Step 5:<\/strong> Now that your word is all one path or \u201cwelded\u201d you can start to create the shadow.\u00a0 Select the word and go back to \u201cpath\u201d then select \u201cLinked Offset\u201d. You will notice your cursor change to a skinny cursor and there will be a diamond at the top of your word.\u00a0 Don\u2019t mess with any of that. Just use your keyboard and hold down \u201cCtrl\u201d and hit the right parenthesis \u201c)\u201d as many times as you want to get the desired thickness for your shadow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Step 6:<\/strong> Once you have your shadow as thick as you want click back in to the \u201cselector\u201d icon and click the middle of your word. Drag down and you\u2019ll see your original word and also the shadow layer you created.\u00a0 There will be 2 separate parts now. To remove any gaps in your shadow layer, select the shadow layer, go to \u201cpath\u201d and then \u201cBreak Apart\u201d.\u00a0 You\u2019ll see some little boxes appear in your shadow layer. Next click \u201cPath\u201d and then \u201cunion\u201d and the boxes will disappear and so will any gaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"creating<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Step 7:<\/strong> Change the color of the main word (use the color boxes at the bottom of the screen) and reposition it to the middle of your shadow.\u00a0 Select \u201cObject\u201d and then \u201cGroup\u201d and this will group your text and shadow together. Size the whole thing down to fit the page and then click \u201cSave As\u201d.\u00a0 Your design will save as Inkscape SVG and you can import that directly into Design Space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to Create Knockouts in Cricut Design Space<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Now that you have your knockout word created in either\nInkscape or Phonto you can import it into Design Space. Once you\u2019re in Design\nSpace choose a bold and simple text for your main word. In my example I chose \u201cAlgerian\u201d\ntext and the word \u201cMerry\u201d.\u00a0 Resize the\nword as needed. You\u2019ll probably want to make it a bit taller so you can get a\ngood knockout in the middle.\u00a0 When you\u2019ve\ngot it looking the way you want, \u201cweld\u201d the word together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next move your shadow layer text to the middle of your word and \u201cSlice\u201d it out. This creates the actual knockout. From there place your center text (in my example it was Christmas) in the middle of your knockout and you\u2019re all done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Cricut<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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