It’s here! The Cricut Knife Blade is finally here. I know many of you, like me, have been eagerly been awaiting the arrival of the Knife Blade for the Cricut Maker and I’m thrilled to not only tell you that the wait is finally over! To celebrate this new product launch I’m sharing everything you’ll need to know about using the Knife Blade and these DIY Leather Luggage Tags you can make with the Cricut Knife Blade.
Let’s start by answering some of the questions you might have about this new product.
What is the Cricut Knife Blade?
- The Cricut Knife Blade is compatible with the Cricut Maker and is designed to work with the Adaptive Tool System. The Knife Blade features a steeply angled edge, so you can safely and easily slice though thicker, denser materials with 10X more cutting power.
What can I cut with the Cricut Knife Blade?
- With all the power behind the Knife Blade you are probably wondering what materials you can cut. You can cut materials such as balsawood, leather, craftfoam, Cricut chipboard, shrink film, matboard and so much more. Check out the entire list here.
What do I need to know before I start my first project with the Cricut Knife Blade?
- You will need to first calibrate your Knife Blade to your machine. To calibrate, just choose the drop-down bar on the left of your screen in Design Space. Follow the prompts on your screen and then select the cuts that match the best.
- Due to the nature of the materials you will be using you need to only use the Strong Grip Mats, these are the purple mats.
- You will need to use basic masking tape or painters tape to tape down your material on the mat. This is an extra step you do not want to skip, it will make a huge difference in helping to make sure your material stays firmly in place while the machine cuts out your project.
- The maximum width of the material you can cut is 11″
- Before you begin cutting you will need to move the white star wheels to the right side of the machine. It’s important to make sure no part of your material will go under the rubber rollers or this could cause the machine to jam or error.
- The knife blade works by slowly gaining more pressure with each pass of the blade. Because of this, it can do up to 20 passes for each cut. It’s important to note that this is not a super fast project kind of tool. Make sure you set your expectations that the project will take some time to cut and complete.
- Because it can take so much time to cut a project, you have to use your desktop for all Cricut Knife Blade projects. Make sure you change your settings so that your computer is out of sleep mode and it is plugged into an outlet.
Where can I buy the Cricut Knife Blade?
- Knife Blade + Drive Housing is for sale at cricut.com and on other major craft and fabric retailer websites.
Love the luggage tags! I tried to open the file you posted for the luggage tags and its asking me for my computer log in password?
Hi Linda, sorry about that. It looks like I linked the beta version of the file. Try this one, https://design.cricut.com/#/design/95277256. This will give you the basics to customize and create your own tags.
Thank you so much for the tutorial. I just got my knife blade and am excited to try it out on a project. If you lengthen your stitch length a bit (4mm), you will get better looking stitches on both vinyl and leather. Also, for others, don’t forget that once leather gets a hole, that’s it. Don’t use pins, just use clips for both vinyl and leather. Beautiful creations!
Thank you so much for the feedback Kelly! It’s been a while since I had my sewing machine out and it was my first time sewing leather so I struggled a bit with the finished look of these tags. I didn’t realize that lengthening the stitch would help, but now I can’t wait to try again with your tips and hopefully have better results. 🙂
Hello Mariah!
I love this project and I am going to make it for favors at my wedding! Where did you find the clear vinyl that you used for the window?
Thank you,
Cassidy Stephens
You can typically find it in the fabric section of craft stores. It’s sold on a roll and you just have them cut the amount you need. 🙂
what did you use to attach the tag to your luggage? Was it a scrap piece of leather?
-Beth G
Hi Beth, I just used a piece of leather cording that I bought at the craft store. You could also use a ribbon as well if you don’t want to buy anything extra.