Cricut CCR: Making a Split letter Monogram

Split letter monograms seem to be all the rage these days so I thought I'd put together a tutorial showing how to create one using Cricut Craft Room.

See the end of the post for a video!

A friend of mine was married last year on the 12/12/12 so I'm making this project to give to her for her first anniversary.

Let's get started...

The first thing I do is place a rectangle on my mat to use as a guide for placing my images. The rectangle is the same size as the inside of my picture frame. My frame is 8" x 10" but the inside measurement is 7'5" x 9.5" so that's the size I use.

I used one of the rectangles from Cricut Craft Room Basics.

• Place the rectangle on your mat and click on the Lock Aspect Ratio toolbar button to turn it off. (It will turn grey.)

 

• Then using the Width & Height boxes on the toolbar resize it to 7.5" x 9.5".

To make it easier to see my other objects I'll turn the preview colour of this layer white.

• Click the preview colour button on this layers tab (in this case it's the red dot) then click the white circle from the Basic Colors palette. Press Apply to accept that change.

•  To help me centre my text I'll move my rectangle over so that it is centred on the 6" mark.

• Add a new layer to your project by clicking on the plus button next to the Layer 1 tab.

Now we'll start to add our text.

•  Make sure the 2nd layer is selected. (Its tab will be light grey.)

• Click on the Text menu

• Click the Add New Text Box button

• Select your font from the Font Cartridge menu. I'm using the Creative Memories Storks Delivery cartridge.
• Select which creative feature you wish to use. I'm using the Sugar & Spice Font.
• Select your text size. (You can change that later too.) Mine is set to 1".
• Type in your text. I'm typing in my friends Christian names. 
• You can change the spacing between the letters by clicking on the arrows next to the Letter Spacing option in the Text menu
• Press the Done button when you're finished.

• Next, add another text box (move it away from the first text box by clicking anywhere on the grey area around the box) and type the date. I like the term "established" so I'll be typing Est. 12.12.12. Press Done when you're finished.

• Add another text box and type in the surname. This is the text that will be inserted across the monogram when it is split.

• Move the surname off to the side then position the Christian names and date at the bottom of the large white rectangle. It's best to get your centering done now as you'll be able to lay down all the text onto your glass at the same time.

The next step is to create the monogram letter. Again I'm using the Sugar and Spice font from the CM Storks Delivery cartridge.

• Select your letter of choice and drag it to the mat. You'll notice that in the picture below my letter is white. That's because at some point I selected the large white rectangle which made that layer active.

• To remedy that I delete the letter I placed on the wrong layer, click on the tab for Layer 2 then add my letter again. This time it's yellow which indicates it's on the correct layer.

• Using the bottom right handle resize the letter to fit inside the white rectangle. I made my letter approx 6" wide.

• I wanted the letter to be longer so I used the bottom centre handle and stretched it to fit.

Now we need to split that letter. We'll use rectangles from the Cricut Craft Room basics cartridge.

• Select the Cricut Craft Room cartridge from the cartridge filter and drag one of the rectangles to the mat. Make sure you're still on Layer 2.

• Resize that rectangle. Using the Width & Height boxes on the toolbar I resized mine to 6.5" wide (to give me .5" on either side) and .25" in height. Don't forget to make sure the Aspect Ratio button is still off.

• Copy that rectangle to the clipboard (Ctrl C) then paste it onto the mat twice. (Ctrl V). You'll now have 3 small rectangles.

• Move the bottom rectangle away to be used later.
• Select the other two rectangles by dragging your mouse around them

• Move the two rectangles over and place them on top of your monogram letter. I placed the top rectangle so it just touched the bottom of the curve in the letter P. Place them where ever you think will look best. 
• When you move the rectangles onto the monogram they will be automatically welded. (Look for the Weld/Don't Weld button.) Ensure that you keep these two rectangles and the monogram letter welded.

(You may have noticed that I've closed the keypad drawer so I can see my project better. To do that click on the Show/Hide Image drawer arrow (indicated below).

• Select the second of the two rectangles and move it down. This will form the bottom half of your split letter.

If you have trouble selecting any of the objects on layer two turn off the preview for layer 1 by clicking on the Show/Hide Layer button on the Layer 1 tab so the eye turn grey. (Now that you have everything pretty much lined up you won't be needing that white rectangle.)

• Now take the third rectangle and stretch it so it is slightly wider than the other two. Then adjust the height so it's approx .65".

• Move the third rectangle over and insert it in between the other two rectangles. The middle rectangle should slightly overlap the other two rectangles. You may need to move the bottom rectangle up or down slightly.

• This time click on the Don't Weld button. That means that this rectangle will actually cut separately to the rest of the images on this layer.

Once you've cut and weeded your image this is what you'll be left with.

Below I have moved the surname over so that you can see that it will fit in the gap created. I can still move the bottom part of the letter P down after I've cut it though.

All you need to do now is move the surname below the other text, lay your vinyl on your mat and cut your project out!

• At the cut settings screen select Layer 2 from the Layer menu and select Vinyl from the "What type of material are you cutting?" menu. Follow the instructions for setting the blade depth etc and cut your project out!

I've squashed all that info into a video for you too! Here it is.....

A little extra info.....

If you don't like the top and bottom bars on your monogram you can omit those. Just use one rectangle to split your monogram, making sure you select Don't Weld.

If you want your monogram to be a bit more fancy shmancy weld some "swirls" to your letter. Do a search for swirl in CCR and you'll find plenty. Close To My Heart - Art Philosophy has some good ones!

Have fun with it and feel free to post your Split letter monogram using the links below.