How to use Cricut Design Space for cutting vinyl - Beginner

Because there are so many of you that ask us questions about how to use Cricut Design Space, we decided to help you.
This is why we will create a series of tutorials on how to use the files, depending on what you are trying to create.
For this particular tutorial, we will focus on how to prepare the files for cutting vinyl fast and easy. 

You can watch the video tutorial or you can follow the step by step instructions.

1. Creating a new project.
To start, open the folder with the files you want to use and Cricut Design Space.
After Design Space has loaded, select New Project.

2 Uploading files
Now we need to upload the file.
To do so, hit the icon with the cloud in the left and a new page will pop up. here you will find in the upper section 2 buttons, one to upload an image, and another for patterns. This time we are interested in the first button, Upload Image.

Click it and a new page will upload for you. Here, you have 2 options.
1. Drag and drop the file you need - if you already have the folder open
2. Browse for the file - search and point to the location of the file on your device

We will use the first, drag and drop. To do that select the folder we open earlier and minimize it. Now search for the svg file you want to upload,
select and drag it into Cricut Design Space.

After it is uploaded, save it.

In the upload page, below the upload buttons, in the Recently uploaded images, the design will appear in front.
Select it and click Insert Image from the right down button.

Great job, you uploaded the file in Design Space software.

3 Preparing the file for cutting
First, resize it to fit your project. Select the design and in the upper bar, in the middle of it you have the size.
Be sure to have the lock proportions selected (lock closed), otherwise, it will distort your design. Set the size you need and hit enter.

Now hit ungroup from the upper right icons. Now it will be grouped by color. This design has 6 colors so there will be 6 groups.
To see how they are structured you can hit the eye in the right of every layer.

Attaching layers

To make them ready to cut we just need to attach these color groups. To do that, select every group and hit the attach button in the bottom right.
Repeat the process for every group.
After completing this process the files are ready to cut.

Now select the vinyl sheet size and don t forget to hit the mirror button if necessary (read the vinyl instruction).
Prepare and place on the mat the vinyl accordingly to the instruction that comes with it.
Then hit continue and select the steps that the software requires, depending on your Cricut machine type.
After the cut is done, it is time to place vinyl together, color layer after the color layer.