- In this Cricut Tutorial for Beginners, I am showing you how you
can quickly and easily convert a single layer image
into a multiple layer image, otherwise known as converting
a PNG file or a JPEG file into an SVG file, so let's get crafty. (upbeat music) Hey I'm Michael and this
is Mr. Crafty Pants, your Cricut and crafting
channel, where I show you Cricut tips, tricks, and
tutorials every single week. So, if you are new around here and you're just trying to
figure out the best way to use your Cricut cutting machine, well you may want to consider
stamping that subscribe button and then ringing that little
bell for all the notifications, because you do not want to miss out on a single Cricut minute
especially during December because as most of you know I'm sure, during December at least
around here on this channel, it is the 12 Days of Craftmas, where I have been bringing you all 12 different Cricut Christmas
or holiday themed projects, as well as 12 different chances to win a huge Cricut prize package, because y'all, I'm giving
away a Cricut Maker, as well as a Cricut
Joy, with the hopes that you'll just pay it forward
and share some love and give away one of those machines to a friend or to a family member. I'm also giving away a
huge bundle of my favorite permanent adhesive vinyl
which is the StarCraft HD, a 30 foot roll of my
favorite transfer tape, my favorite weeding tool, a squilgee tool, and some of the little goodies as well. Now to get registered it's
super easy, all you have to do is watch these videos
from the very beginning, all the way up until the very end, because hidden inside
of each of these videos is a new Cricut Christmas
or holiday themed phrase. But here's the thing, these phrases will be popping
up one word at a time, they'll look a little
something like this right here, and whenever you see one
of those words pop up, all you have to do is jot down that word and keep on watching all the way up until the end of the video. Once the video is over,
you'll have the full phrase, and then you can text that into me to 502 878 7189 if you're in the US or if you are outside of the states, just email it to me to
mcpgiveaways@gmail.com. And you have any time all the
way up until December 25th at 11:59 PM Pacific Standard
Time to get those phrases in, so if you missed any
check out the playlist that is linked at the end of this video, as well as down in the
description box below. But now onto today's project,
which I am so excited about because I did a somewhat
similar tutorial to this a few months back and since then I have gotten so many
comments, so many messages, asking me to do the same type of project, but with HTV, with heat transfer
vinyl, so here y'all go. It's really a very, very similar tutorial, but you all ask and I will listen. So what we're gonna need to make this Cricut Christmas magic happen is obviously a cutting machine, and y'all know, I love my
Cricut cutting machines, so I'm going to be using
my Cricut Maker right here, but you can use any cutting machine that works with SVG cut files. We are also gonna need
a heat source, right? Since we're doing HTV. I will be using my EasyPress right here, but you can also use an actual heat press or even a household iron. And if you've never used
the household iron before, I will link a video for you right up here on how to apply HTV with
a regular home iron. We're also gonna need something
to apply the HTV to, right? And I'm gonna be using
this t-shirt right here. This is the anvil brand. I did get this from jiffyshirts.com, and links to literally
everything that I used will be listed for y'all down
in that description box below. We're also gonna need some HTV, and this is my favorite type of HTV, or at least one of my favorites. This ranks up there,
right with Siser Easyweed, this is the StarCraft SoftFlex and I'll be honest with
y'all, I'm really liking this even more than the Siser
Easyweed as of lately. This stuff is amazing, it's
super matte, it's super soft, it blends in beautifully with your shirt, and it applies at a lower temperature for a lower amount of time, which makes it in my opinion anyway, easier to apply with a household iron. Its just all around a great, great, great
high quality material, and I cannot recommend it enough. And we're also going to need an image to make our design with, right? And I figured since it
is Craftmas after all, that I would do an example project with the Grinch that stole Christmas. And emphasis on an example project, please do not go and take images like this and go and try to sell
them, that is illegal. Do not go and get in trouble because you really could get in a
lot of trouble for that. So the whole point of
this video is to show you how you would take a single layer image and then convert that into
a multiple layer image, or basically a PNG or JPEG file, and convert that into an SVG file. And I'm doing this all as
just basically an illustration to show you how you
would go about doing this for maybe a business logo
that was designed for you, and you want to convert
that into an SVG file. Or maybe you want to
take a digital version of a drawing that you made, or
maybe a kid or grandkid made, and turn that into an SVG file as well, then this process that
I'm about to show you is perfect for that. However, keep in mind that copyrighted images are copyrighted. And I'm using the Grinch today
to basically just show you how you would normally go
about doing this process. However, keep in mind that
those images are trademarked, you can not go and sell them
or do anything crazy like that, but just so we have all that clear, let's go ahead and get started. Right, here I am right now on Google, and I did do a Google image
search for Grinch cartoon, and this image right here, I think I'm actually going
to be using this guy. So I'm gonna come right
over here, right click it, and then select Save Image As, all right I'm gonna go ahead
and save it just like that, and I am using Chrome as my browser, so it did pop up down here at the bottom left-hand
corner of this window. However, if you are using a
different type of browser, it will most likely end up just like in your downloads folder. So now I'm gonna go ahead
and hit over to pngtosvg.com, and I will have that linked for you down in that description box below in case you're interested. But this really is a great site to make a really quick
conversion of a PNG or JPEG image over to an SVG file. Now, any image converting
service like this or like convertio.co,
they're not 100% accurate, so may just lead with that, okay? Sometimes they do a really good
job, sometimes not so much, but I'll show you a little
ins and outs here in a second. Let me start and scroll right
down here, and as you can see, this is asking us to drag and drop a file or you could just click on Choose a File and upload it that way,
but since I am using Chrome and my file is right here at
the bottom left-hand corner, let me go ahead and click on that and then just drag that
right into that little box, and there is the Grinch right there. So real quick, what we need to do is actually count the number of colors that's being used in this image. So I know that it does
have a white background, which I typically like to steer away from, although I will show you how
we can just get rid of that super quick and super easily, right. So we have some normal like
lime green kind of color, as well as yellow, black and that white. So really we have just
about four colors or so, so right up here where
it says five Colors, I'm just gonna click on
this little minus button just like so, and then over
here where it says Palette, we can basically change up the colors. So, instead of like
this darker green color that they just automatically picked out, I wanna select that, and then with this little eyedropper tool, I'm gonna come over here
and select the yellow, and that's basically
just telling this website what colors we're working
with for this file. So now I'm gonna select
Generate, and there we go. So here is our image, I'm gonna come right down
here and select Download SVG, and don't let this right here fool you, it is a completely free service. If you want to donate and
show your appreciation, you can, but it's free. All right, so here is our image down here at the bottom left-hand corner. So now what I wanna do is come over here to Cricut design space, and
I'm gonna come over here to the left-hand side of the
page and click on Upload, and I'm gonna come right up
here and select Upload Image, and then on Browse, and
here's that file right here. So I'm gonna select that
and then come down here towards the bottom right-hand
corner and select Open, right. So basically right here, we can go about just naming the file, so I'm gonna go ahead and
just put in here Grinch and then down here towards
the bottom right-hand corner and select Save. And here it is, right here in
our recently uploaded images, So I'm gonna go ahead and select that and then come down here towards
the bottom right-hand corner and select Insert Images, here we go. All right, so first things first, let's take a look over here at the right-hand side of the
page in this layers panel, and here is all of our layers. So, real quick what I'm actually gonna do is click on Ungroup. Here is the yellow layer for his eyes, here is the white background which we can just drag
that off to the side, we can go ahead and delete
it out if we want to, here is the black outline
for all of them, right there, and then here is all of that green. Now I'm actually using my
green shirt as the background so we don't need like his skin color coz the shirt is gonna
serve as that skin color, so I can go ahead and
delete that out as well. And so that basically leaves us right here with our black outline
and the yellow eyes. And here's the thing, I don't want all of this
right here on my shirt, so what I'm actually gonna to do to actually customize
this a little bit more, is to come down here towards
the bottom right-hand corner and select Contour. So with contour, it's just a really great and a super easy way to
actually customize our image just a little bit more
than what we normally could inside of Cricut design space, so what I'm actually
gonna do first of all, is trying to remove everything
inside of this image except for whatever the
largest part of that image is. So whenever you come down here
and select Hide All Contours, that's exactly what that does. It basically erases or removes everything, but it has to keep at least
a one part of that image or one element of that image,
so it typically always leaves the largest part of that
image, which in this case is the outline of the Grinch
himself, so there we go. So basically that is
still in place, however, basically when we come in
here and click on his eyes, so basically you can see that it goes from a lighter gray to a darker gray, and that basically means that
we're adding that element or adding that piece back into that image. So I make sure I get his nose, maybe a couple of these
lines around his eyes, make sure we get his eyebrows. (upbeat music) All right, so one thing I can see that could be a little bit of a problem, not really but a little bit of one, is that his smile is actually connected to the outline of his entire body. So what I'm actually gonna do is go ahead and just select
that outline to remove it, and so basically what
we'll do is come in here another way to get just his smile. So, I'm gonna come over here and click outside of
this Hide Contour box, and as you can see here if we zoom in, as you can see here, we have just his eyes and basically the parts
that we picked or selected to keep as part of that image. Now I am gonna go ahead
and right click this and then select Duplicate like so, and with this duplicated
version, I'm gonna come down here towards the bottom
right-hand corner again, and select Contour again, and this time I'm basically
wanting to remove everything except for the outline
and his mouth, obviously. So I'm going to select Hide All Contours, and again that's basically
removing everything except for his outline. So, let's go ahead and
click outside of this box and there that is right there. So, let me actually come over here to the left-hand side of the
page and click on Shapes, and I'm gonna open up a circle, and this way I'm actually gonna go about basically isolating just
his mouth from all this, so we don't have to worry about
anything else in this image. So just so we can see
things a little bit better, I'm gonna come up here towards
the top left-hand corner, click on this little color
swatch and then change it to, we could really change it to any color as long as we can see what's going on, but let's change it to green because well, that's just kind of fitting, isn't it? I'm gonna right click the
circle and select Send to Back, I'm actually gonna click on
this little recess handle and shrink the circle down, I'm also gonna click
on this little padlock, which basically unlocks the
proportions of that circle, so I can kind of just stretch
this out all over the place and really just try and get the shape that we're needing for this. So, let's go ahead and
just shrink this down, and again, I'm wanting
to get just the smile. (upbeat music) All right, so something like
that should do the job for us, I am gonna click and drag over that layer and over that circle,
and then come down here towards the bottom right-hand
corner and select Slice. All right, so let's
move this out of the way as we can see it did slice
that out of the image and click on this, move
this out of the way, this is basically just the
remnants of the part we sliced, we can delete that out, and the circle we can delete out as well. So basically this is the remnants, although we do need to come
in here and clean that up just a little bit more, don't we? So let me come down here again to the bottom right-hand
corner and select Contour, I'm gonna zoom out and then
I'm gonna come down here towards the bottom
right-hand corner again, and select Hide All
Contours, and there we go. So it's basically, it's leaving his mouth and then this little
piece right over here, which we can take care of in a second. So let me again, click outside
of this Hide Contour box, and let me again come over here to the left-hand side of the
page and click on Shapes, then click on a circle,
here we go, all right. Let's go ahead and change
the color of this again, we can right click this
and select Send to Back, and then I can just downsize this, I can click on this little padlock to basically unlock the proportions, just like so, I can rotate this. (upbeat music) All right, real quick
before I slice this again I'm gonna actually duplicate this, and then drag one off to the side. All right, so now I'm gonna
click and drag over his mouth and over this, the shape
we have going on here and then come down here towards
the bottom right-hand corner and select Slice. All right, so that removes part of it, so let's go ahead and get rid of this, this is just garbage now. And with this one that we duplicated, I'm gonna unlock the proportions again. (upbeat music) All right, so I'm thinking
something just like that is gonna do the trick for us. All right, I think
that's gonna be perfect. So let me click and drag over
the shape and over the mouth, and again come down here towards the bottom right-hand
corner and select Slice. All right, so there is our mouth. We had to work for it, but you know what? That's all right sometimes. All right, so I'm gonna go
ahead and kind of position this back the right way,
and then shrink it down a little bit like it was, just like so. All right, so I am now gonna
actually click and drag over the mouth and over the face, and then come down here towards
the bottom right-hand corner and select Attach. And basically what that's doing is attaching those two pieces together so that they cut out on the cutting mat just like we see right here on our canvas. So I'm actually gonna go
ahead and grab his eyes and then just drag those into place, and then I'm gonna click
and drag over all of this, and then come up here towards
the top right-hand corner and select Group. And by grouping those together, we can actually resize those collectively. So what we're gonna do now
is actually resize those to fit onto our t-shirt. So to do that, I'm gonna come up here towards the top left-hand
corner and select Templates. Now, if you are a tablet
user, last time I checked this template option was
not available for you guys. Fingers crossed, hopefully they
will actually fix that soon and make that available
for all of you all, but for you guys basically
what you have to do is to just take down measurements
the old fashioned way and go about resizing it that way. But I'm gonna come up here
towards the top right-hand corner and just do a search for shirts, and I'm gonna come right over here and select classic
t-shirts, and then up here in the top left-hand corner we
can actually make adjustments to the size of our template. So right here, it says men short sleeve, although you could change
it to women short sleeve, or toddler, or baby, whatever you want. However, I am gonna leave
this on a men short sleeve, and then I'm gonna come
over here towards the size and I'm gonna change that
to medium, just like that. All right, so here is the template for the front side of the shirt and for the backside of the shirt. I will come over here and click
on our Grinch face like so, and I'm gonna click this
little recess handle and then just drag this outwards. All right, so personally,
I like the way that that looks right there on
the shirt on the template, so I will go ahead and leave
it at that sizing right there, and now I'm gonna come up here towards the top right-hand
corner and select to Make It. All right, so this is
the map preview screen, which is basically showing
us where at on the mat, our image is gonna be cut out at, but maybe more importantly,
for those who are using HTV, this is also where you
actually mirror your design. Now with the Grinch here, we
don't really have to mirror it coz it's not gonna look too
terribly different if we do. However, it is a really
good habit to get into, to actually go ahead and mirror those out. So I'm gonna come over here to the left-hand-side of
the page and select Mirror, and then will come down
here to the yellow layer and do the same. All right, so now I'm gonna come down here towards the bottom right-hand
corner and select Continue. All right, so this is where
we put in our cut settings. Now I am using the StarCraft SoftFlex HTV, this stuff is amazing. However, I will be cutting this out with the everyday iron-on
vinyl setting right over here. Now, if you are using a
different type of material that you've never used
before I beg of you, please, please, please do test cuts. Typically I just insert
a shape onto my canvas, I resize that shape down
to about a half an inch, I proceeded in cutting
it out, weeding it out and actually applying it just to make sure that everything goes
the way that it should, and if it goes great, then awesome, we actually have our cut settings
for that type of material. However, if it doesn't, we know that we need to change
up the pressure settings or the actual material
cut settings as well. So, please do test cuts. I know it's frustrating and
time-consuming in the moment, but over time it's gonna
save you so much time and money and frustration. Another really good
thing to know about HTV is that with 99.9% of all HTV, you need to place the shiny
side down onto the cutting mat. So I'm placing this side right here, as opposed to this more
matte, dull side right here. (upbeat music) And we can go ahead and load
this into our cutting machine. All right, so while all this cuts out, I'm gonna go ahead and
preheat my EasyPress tool to 285 degrees for eight seconds. (upbeat music)
(printer clattering) All right, so we are
removing any of our vinyl HTV from our cutting mat, what I
like to do is flip my mat over and pull my mat away from the vinyl, just to prevent any damage
from occurring to our material. (paper rustling) And while our second layer cuts out, I'm gonna go ahead and start weeding out this layer right here. (upbeat music) All right, so I'm gonna go ahead and grab my Cricut EasyPress Mat, and I think I forgot to
mention this earlier, so if I did, I apologize,
but I'm gonna go ahead and grab my EasyPress
and just kind of preheat or kind of warm this up a little bit, (upbeat music) and then I'm gonna grab
my t-shirt right here, and then just go ahead and lay this out onto the EasyPress Mat. (upbeat music) All right, so now I'm going to go ahead and preheat this shirt. And this is just so important you guys, I know that a lot of
people skip over this step, but I just personally feel like it's very, very important. Moisture is the enemy of HTV, and believe it or not even a
very what seems to be dry shirt can still have moisture inside of it. So you gonna make sure you
get all that moisture out and you also wanna make sure that you get all the wrinkles out as well. So I typically just grab my EasyPress and then just go over this
for about 10 seconds or so. (upbeat music) And then what I like to do after that, especially with t-shirts
is fold it in half from seam to shoulder seam, and then once you have it
perfectly folded in half, I like to go ahead and grab my EasyPress and then just run it right over where the fold is, right here. And so, not only does
that preheat it even more, but it also should put
a nice little crease right down the center of your shirt, so that you know exactly
where to line up the HTV at. And there it is right there, I'm not sure if you can
see this on camera or not. But then you can also, if you'd like to, take your HTV and then
just fold it in half with the sticky side facing out, so it doesn't stick to itself, and then to basically put a
nice little crease right here, along the center of that HTV. (paper crumpling) And then you can take that
crease and then line it up with this crease right here, and then get your HTV perfectly
centered onto your shirt. Oh, and I almost forgot
to say that I typically, in most cases like to apply
the largest sheet of HTV first. And I typically like to
do about two finger widths below the color, so right
about there should work. And another thing that I forgot to mention at the beginning of the
video was a Teflon Sheet. Now for a cover sheet, you
can use a Teflon sheet, you can also use parchment paper. Personally, I felt that the
Teflon sheet helps to disperse or to dissipate that heat
a little bit more evenly, so I tend to go towards a Teflon Sheet. However, if you don't
have one, don't fat it, a sheet of parchment paper
will do the trick as well. All right, I'll just go
ahead and cover this up, and basically what we're gonna do is just the tack it method with all this, we're basically gonna apply heat to this for about two to three seconds or so, just long enough to tack
the HTV onto the shirt. We are then gonna peel
off the carrier sheet and then apply the second layer of HTV. And here's the thing, if you
apply the full amount of heat for the full amount of time, for the full like eight to 10
seconds or so for each layer, you could very, very easily
end up scorching your design or actually degrading that
adhesive, or it's not gonna last nearly as long as it would have otherwise. So I'm gonna go ahead and grab this and then apply the heat
for just a few seconds. All right, so let's go ahead
and pull back the Teflon Sheet and the carrier sheet, and whenever you are pulling
back the carrier sheet be sure to go slow because you don't want to actually end up pulling
up some of the HTV. If some of the HTV is wanting to come up with the carrier sheet,
basically that just means that it needs more heat or more pressure. All right, so now I'm gonna
grab the second layer, the eyes right here, and then just kind of fit this into place. Another really good reason
to tack the HTV down is because HTV shrinks up
once that heat is applied and you don't want one
layer or one part of the HTV shrinking up too much without having the other
elements in there as well. And again, I'm gonna do about
two to three seconds or so. (upbeat music) (clock beeping) All right, so now let's go ahead and peel off the carrier sheet. Now some people, if they are
working on the last layer with the carrier sheet, they will go ahead and press
for the full amount of time. However I don't like to
do that, because sometimes the carrier sheet can
actually leave in an indention in parts of the other HTV
and it just, it's not cute, so, I much prefer to go
ahead and remove this and then cover back up with a Teflon Sheet and then pressed for the full amount like we're about to do right now. (clock beeping) (upbeat music) Now if you all like today's episode, or if you learn something new, it would honestly mean the world to me and help me out so much here on YouTube, if you took two seconds
to stamp that like button, as well as drop a comment down
in the comment section below. Also, if you are new around here, and you're just trying to figure out how to best use your
Cricut cutting machine, well you may want to consider
stamping that subscribe button and then ringing that little
bell for all the notifications, because I put out new Cricut tips, tricks and tutorials every single week, and you do not want to miss
out on a single Cricut minute, especially during December
coz y'all already know it's the 12 Days of Craftmas. So at this point in the video, you should have all of
those words that create that hidden holiday or
Christmas themed phrase. So, if you are in the US you
can go ahead and text that into me at 502 878 7189. If you are outside of the states, you can email it to me at
mcpgiveaways@gmail.com. Thank you all so, so, so much
for watching today's episode. I truly, truly, truly, I'm
just extremely grateful for each and every single one of you all, and until next time stay crafty (upbeat music)
