Layered Cactus

Click HERE or scroll down to see the ‘making-of’ process video on YouTube

Products Used

Baby Succulents!

I recently ventured into the world of owning some succulents. Right now, they are tiny little things in teensy little pots and probably need to be replanted into a better pot with better soil. To celebrate my newfound green thumb, I bring to you this layered cactus decal.

Cut Settings

As always, remember that the specified settings are specific to the Cricut Maker. For a reference guide to cut pressures for each Cricut setting, check out this handy chart:

materials-to-cut.pdf Download

Glossy holographic vinyls: premium outdoor vinyl setting with more pressure
Glossy green variations from 40 pack: premium outdoor vinyl with more pressure
Opal green malachite vinyl: premium outdoor vinyl with more pressure

This is the first project in a while where I’ve used the same cut setting for all of the layers. The premium outdoor vinyl setting is working super well for the glossy holo vinyls as well as the opal vinyl. I did have bit of struggle with the three glossy green variations after they were cut on that setting, but they did all weed cleanly. Perhaps next time I use some vinyl sheets from that pack, I’ll try a little bit more pressure to get an easier-to-weed cut.

Whoopsie!

I had a little mishap that I didn’t notice until the end of the project. Of course it meant that after noticing it, I had to fix the mistake and redo the after photos. At the top left of the design, the cactus has a little flower bloom. The flower blooms are just outlines for three of the layers. Silly me missed weeding these parts out on the light green layer…which is on top for the flower bloom part.

As you can see from the screen cap below (first two pictures), those pieces were missed completely. I don’t know why I missed them. I really don’t know how I missed that during the layering either. How did I miss it the first time I took finished project pictures? SMH Once it did get noticed, it was luckily easy to fix (third picture below).

Keeping Track…Messed That One Up Too

I mentioned in the betta fish project post that I’ve been working on a new process for keeping track of layer order. The same method was used for this project too and it was going great, until I messed up. While weeding each layer, and lining them up, I noticed that two of the layers were backwards. There’s a point in the video where I stop, realizing the mistake, then swap the layers in line (first and second picture below). The fourth picture shows where I scribbled out the wrong numbers and corrected them.

The second mistake here was not saving the corner of the sixth layer. Again, it can be seen in the process video exactly when I realized my mistake. I pointed to the corner and turned around to announce my oops to the room.