Cricut Offset Tutorial

This is a tutorial for how to shadow an image in Cricut Design Space create all sorts of new fun project templates.

Now that Cricut finally added this new offset feature, we no longer have to hack our way around it by using the print and cut feature. What a relief!

I thought I’d add my twist on the Cricut Offset feature in this tutorial by highlight some of my favorite craft projects that use this halo text and shape add-on to Cricut Design Space.

I will also provide a few troubleshooting tips for when Offset is not working. (It’s not perfect, they still have some bugs in the software.)

To demonstration this Offset features, I will use this mouse ears headband project as an example.

Cricut Offset Basics

You can use Cricut Offset with any shape or text. To access the Offset feature, select the shape or text that you want to offset and click on the dropdown menu from the top menu panel.

The Distance of the offset refers to the radial distance of the outline from your base shape or text. You can create an inward outline as well within your shape or text.

You also have the option or rounding or sharp corners.

Cricut Offset to Outline

Sometimes you might want to create an outline from a basic shape. There are a couple of ways to do this.

If you have just a single path with only one interior space, you can use the Offset feature to create a ring around the base shape.

Click on Apply after you’ve set your distance and corner to produce the actual new shape.

With both the base shape and new offset shape select, click on Attached.

Cricut to Thicken Lines

Sometimes you have a more intricate shape that has multiple interior areas that are not connected and you want to make it in a material that doesn’t cut well with thin lines.

In this scenario, you can use offset to thicken your line.

Here, I’ve used the negative outline to create a thicker outline from the base bow.

Cricut Offset and Text

Creating a halo around text is relatively straightforward with Cricut Offset.

Simple select the text and create an offset with round corners.

Sometimes if you creating offsets with certain fonts, there might be left over interior outlines you want to leave out of the base offset shape that has been created.

This is relatively straightforward to rectify. You can either make the offset thicker or contour/hide the interior space.

Cricut Offset not Working

Once in the a while, you might have sharp corners created with certain fonts. An easy way to remedy this is to slice off the edges you don’t want with another shape like a square or a circle.