I was recently doing a project where I needed to cut cellophane. There isn’t a setting for that in Cricut Design Space. This is rare, but when it does happen, it’s nice to know how to add a custom material setting to your Cricut machine. 

More often, I come across materials that are made by third parties for cutting on the Cricut. For example, Teckwrap Vinyl. They will often include instructions on what pressure and how many passes to use when cutting their material. If I am told I should cut at 150 pressure 2x cuts, how do I know what setting that lines up with?

I will show you how to solve both scenarios below.

Featured Short Video

Watch me add a custom material or if you prefer written instructions, continue reading.

Review Current Custom Materials

Whether I am trying to find a specific pressure setting provided to me or I’m trying to cut a new material not listed in Design Space, it’s good to be able to know where to go to see the current materials and their settings. Maybe there is already a match and we won’t have to add a new material. 

To do this, with your canvas open in Design Space, go to the hamburger menu on the left side. Drop down to Manage Custom Materials under Canvas.

If you have more than one Cricut device connected to Design Space, it will ask you which machine you want to look at. 

Now that we are in the custom materials, you can take a look around. Is there anything in there that meets your requirements already?

I scrolled through all of the materials. I thought perhaps Pearl Paper would work for me. The pressure was 170 and it made two passes cutting. I gave it a try. It was too much pressure. My cellophane was tearing. There was nothing that worked perfectly for me, so it was time to add my own custom material. 

Adding A Custom Material to Cricut Design Space

Step 1: Open the Add Custom Materials Page

Follow the steps above to get to the page (Manage Custom Materials) to add your new material. Scroll all the way down to the bottom and select the Add New Material button.

Please Note: If you are adding a custom material you must add it to each Cricut device separately. It will be associated with that specific machine only. That means if you get a replacement machine, you will lose all of those added custom settings. I recommend keeping a master list elsewhere on your computer so it will be easy to set up with your new machine. Also keep in mind that each device is different. The same setting on my Cricut Explore Air might not work perfectly on my Maker. This is why you must select the specific device.

Step 2: Name Your New Custom Material

Next, name your new custom material. Give it a good descriptive name so you will remember it in the future. A good practice is to also put your initials behind it so you know you added it and it wasn’t an original Cricut Design Space material. 

Select Save. 

Step 3: Input Your Cut Pressure

Next, you will want to slide the scroll bar to the pressure you want. I actually want 150 for my cellophane cut. For some reason I cannot save when it’s on 150, so I selected 149 and hit Save. If you don’t know the exact cut pressure you need, no problem. It’s a lot of trial and error with custom materials. Take your best guess, do a test cut and you can always come back in and edit your setting until it’s perfect. 

Step 4: Select Your Number of Cut Passes

Select the number of cut passes you want your Cricut to make when cutting your custom material. You can select up to 9x. With each pass, a little more pressure is applied. Since cellophane is so delicate, I’m going to do 2x. More passes are also good for thicker materials. 

Step 5: Select Blade Type

Lastly, you need to decide which blade type you are using. The Maker also gives you the choice of a rotary blade. 

Fine-Point Blade is often used with:

• Paper, cardstock, Poster Board, Vinyl, Iron-On, Other thin to medium weight materials

Deep-Point Blade is often used with:

• Chip board, magnets, foam, cardboard, Other thicker materials

Select the SAVE button.

I added my Cellophane material to my Explore Air 2, did a test run and it worked great.  Next time, I cut cellophane I won’t have to go through all of the trial and error, I’ll just turn my dial to custom and search for cellophane.   

Hopefully this saves you some time and frustration in selecting material and getting the perfect cut.