One of the funnest things about owning the Cricut Design Studio is the ability to share your work with other users. Anyone who designs a file is able to save the file on their computer. A lot of talented users post the file on the internet and allow others to use their designs. Once you start browsing their creations, you will be amazed at the incredible work of these generous and talented Cricut users. Keep reading for a step-by-step guide to downloading and cutting using other people’s files.

There are numerous blogs and sites that have projects posted and the cutting files as well. Each person may store and share their files in a different way. Most use a third party file sharing site, while some have the files hosted right there on their website. Many of the files on the Cricut.com message board are saved as a text file and must be changed before using.

When you have found a file you want, you need to download it.

1. When you click on the link that they have provided it should take you to the file. If it is hosted on their website, it will ask you have the option to open, save or cancel. If the file is on a file sharing site you need to wait for the download or select “click here to download file” . After you select that link, it will take you to the screen that asks if you want to open, save, or cancel.

2. Once you are on the open or save screen, you will need to choose save. Before you do, make sure that the file directory is showing the place that you want the file to be saved. You may want to create a folder specifically for Cricut files. If you want to change the file name, do it at this point. Click save to begin saving the file to your computer.

Now the file is on your computer and you can open it from inside the Cricut Design Studio program. Next you need to follow these easy steps to cut a saved design.

1. Start the Cricut Design Studio program. Choose the “file” drop down menu in the left corner and then choose “open”.

2. After you select “open” a screen will come up that will show all the cut files that you have saved in the “my projects” folder. These are files that you have created on your own. To find the file that was downloaded and saved, locate the folder you saved it in by selecting it in the “look in” area.

3. Find the file you want to open and click the open button. It will bring up the file that you downloaded and open it inside of your software. If you want to cut it as it is, load the paper and select the scissors to cut. You can also change the file and add to it if you would like, but make sure you always give credit where credit is due and never claim a design unless you designed the file from the beginning.

If you are looking for some great ideas, just spend some time browsing other people’s designs and projects and you will soon have more ideas and files than you have time to cut. Make sure you leave a comment or a thank you when you download someone else’s files, and share what you have made from it if you can. Look for an upcoming article to learn how to download files from the Cricut message board and change them from text files into cut files.