Cricut Chirp! (More on cutting felt with the Cricut...)

Exciting day for me!  I was spotlighted in the Cricut Chirp, a newsletter for Cricut owners.  After doing more experimenting with cutting felt, I put together some pictures and more tips for cutting felt and submitted it.  Since this answers a few questions I've gotten since my first post about cutting felt, I thought I'd post the little segment here, too.  Fun stuff!

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

Name: Tomi Ann Hill
About: I'm a 31-year-old mother of three and a certified Cricut addict. I've been papercrafting for about 13 years, but it's only been a passion since I first got my hands on a Cricut nearly four years ago. Now I can't get enough, and I've expanded from papercrafting to using my Cricut for all sort of fabric crafting as well!
Tomi Ann's Project: Fabulous Felt Clippies
Cartridges Used:
- Home Decor
- Mini Monograms
- Plantin SchoolBook

Instructions: I am willing to admit that I have an addiction to cute little accessories for my little girl, and a whole new world has opened up to me now that I learned how to use my Cricut to cut felt for creating little clippies!

Here are my best tips for cutting felt:

1. Only use wool felt. The cheap polyester stuff from the craft aisle, or that you buy on the bolt won't work. Wool felt is actually a blend of wool and rayon, and it is much stiffer and nicer than the polyester stuff.  The best source I've found for wool felt is www.woolfeltcentral.com.  They have over 70 colors, and the price is the best I've found.  I've also bought wool felt locally at a quilt shop.

2. Use a stabilizer, just as you would to cut out other fabrics. But peel the backing paper away before you load it onto your cutting mat. That backing paper sticks to the mat terribly and isn't needed during cutting. You'll save your mats and your sanity if you just take it off beforehand! (This works for other fabrics as well.)

3. Load the felt onto the mat adhesive-side down.

4. I cut mine at blade depth 6, speed and pressure at max. You may need to adjust for your machine. Check your blade housing frequently to remove the felt-fluff buildup. You may need to use the multi-cut function to get a finished cut.

5. Make sure you run a lint roller over your mat after cutting so get any remaining fibers off. For the projects pictured here, I used wool felt in a variety of colors and cut it using the Plantin Schoolbook (for the flowers), Mini-Monograms (for the scallop circle), and Home Decor (birdie) cartridges. I also used buttons, beads, and big brads for extra embellishment. I mounted the finished shapes to alligator clips, snap clips, or pin backs. Voila! Fabulous custom accessories, made in minutes with my Cricut!