Learn how to work with large scale projects with a Cricut

Working With Large Scale Projects

Aug 1, 2017 • Contributor: Jessica Roe from Everyday Party Magazine

Hello everyone! I’m Jess from Everyday Party Magazine, if you follow my blog, you may have seen my recent mermaid party. My sweet little niece is obsessed with all things mermaid, and I wanted to spend some special quality time with her, so I turned our party space into a mermaid grotto just for her!

An awesome mermaid tail pallet sign for a mermaid party

I fell in love with the layered mermaid tail in Cricut Design Space in May when I hosted our pirate party. I knew when I planned our special mermaid day I wanted to make a giant mermaid tail backdrop.

Supplies Needed

1: Prep Pallet for Paint

Get your pallet ready to be painted

The first thing I did was prep a pallet for paint. I pressure cleaned it, waited for it to dry, and then sanded it. Once it dried, I used a rag to whitewash the pallet with DecoArt Color Stain.

2: Create Mermaid Tail in Design Space

Work on the different parts of your oversized mermaid tail

While I waited for the Color Stain to dry, I worked on the mermaid tail in Design Space. I used the Mermaid Tail cut from the Mermaid Party Cartridge. I wanted the tail to be about 30” tall and half as wide for the pallet. But, clearly, that would be impossible to cut as one piece in DS.

I placed the design on my canvas and sized it appropriately. (I also removed or hid any parts of the design I didn’t want to cut. In this case, I didn’t want the mirrored tail image or the middle layer, so I hid them)

3: Add Square Shapes and Resize

Create square shapes that will help you get the mermaid tail to be long enough

Next, I added square shapes to my image and sliced it into pieces that could be cut on a 12x12 or 12x24 cutting mat.

Resize the sliced sections
Adjust the size of your sections

4: Cut Out Your Pieces

Use your Cricut to cut out the different sections of the mermaid tail

Once I had the design sliced into sections, I sent it to the mats to cut.

5: Trace the Mermaid Tail on the Pallet

Now it's time to use your cut pieces as a stencil

I used the tail as a stencil in two different ways. I placed the solid mermaid tail on the pallet and pieced it together, carefully matching cut lines. I used two colors of vinyl so you could see this better.

Piece together the cut images for your tail to trace
Your stencil is ready for tracing
Trace the tail onto the pallet

Once the stencil was set, I traced around it with a pencil.

6: Paint in the Tail

Put on your main coat for the tail

Paint the primary color on the tail and let it dry.

7: Apply Secondary Stencils and Paint

Add detail to your tail with secondary stencils

Once the primary color of the tail was dry, I applied the next layer of the vinyl stencil.

Paint inside your secondary stencils

Instead of tracing the tail this time, I painted inside the stencil. When I finished painting inside the vinyl stencil, I carefully removed it.

Mermaid tail pallet sign for a mermaid party

My beautiful mermaid backdrop was ready to use, and my niece loved it!

Be sure to follow my blog, Everyday Party Magazine, for more party tips, inspiration, and more!

Have you done a large scale project before? Tell us about it in the comments below!

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11 thoughts on “Working With Large Scale Projects”

  1. Oh boy, another project I can understand and actually make! where will I find the time?
    All kinds of thoughts running through my mind. Large Disney Mickey and Minnie, a large Santa on my front door for Christmas, HUGE army men on a sign for my daughter returning home, after a tour in Kuwait. I need time and supplies and I’ll be on my way !

  2. Cricut, please tell me where I can find the vinyl pattern for the round table that is in your new Cricut Maker SEE IT IN ACTION ad video. I absolutely love it and would love to make it for my breakfast table that is in need of a 24 year redo update. It seems that the design was broken up into eight pie pieces. Can you please let me know where I can find the pattern & maybe a how to do instructions as a base for my creating this image for my breakfast table.You can send it to my email.
    I would greatly appreciate it.

  3. We have a Cricut Explore Air and have not been able to print anything larger than about 8″ x 6″. I see in your post that you are cutting using the full 12×12 and 12×24 mats. Am I doing something wrong or is that the difference between the Cricut Explore Air 2?

    • For Print then Cut, it is limited to an 8.75″ x 6.25″ area. Otherwise, you may need to change the mat size for your project. Leave a small border (about .5″ around the edge of your design) See the article here for help. The Material Size drop down menu has shifted to be right next to the project copies on the left.

  4. I’m having a hard time finding this specific image. I’ve search mermaid party in design space and no cartridges are found. I’m using design space on iPad so I’m not sure if that makes a difference.

  5. Could you please tell me where I can find the vinyl pattern for the round table that is in your Cricut Maker SEE IT IN ACTION ad video. I have a smaller table top that I would like to do.

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