How to Use Siser® HTV & EasyPSV®

with the Cricut Joy

When Cricut released our “new DIY best friend”, I didn’t realize how literal that would be until I was quarantined with it! If you’re also stuck at home with your Cricut Joy and a variety of vinyl, you may be wondering if you can cut other materials on it. I’m here to offer some good news- you can! Keep reading for all the steps to cutting Siser vinyl on the Cricut Joy.

Supplies

• Cricut Joy
• Siser heat transfer vinyl (AKA iron on vinyl)
• Siser EasyPSV® (AKA pressure sensitive or adhesive vinyl)
• Weeder
• Ruler
• Scissors or exacto knife
• Self healing cutting mat (not required, but handy to have)

Step 1: Cut Siser Vinyl to Size

Use the sample piece of vinyl provided with the Cricut Joy as a guide to cut your other sheets to size. Or just remember you’ll need the width to be 5.5″ to fit inside the Cricut Joy and still be covered by the pinch rollers. I like to use my self healing cutting mat, metal ruler, and exacto knife to make precise cuts, but I bet a paper trimmer would work well too!

Step 2: Open the Cricut Design Space App

Open the Cricut app to design your image, choose one from the Cricut library, or select one that you’ve already created and saved to the cloud. I prefer to design on a larger screen, so  I opted for the last option.

Once you’ve selected your cut file, you can choose to “Customize” and make changes before cutting or “Make It” and jump directly to cutting. If your piece of Siser vinyl is wide enough to fit under the pinch rollers, you can select “Without Mat.” But if you’re cutting with a smaller scrap then you’ll want to use the little cutting mat that comes with the Cricut Joy.

Step 3: Feed Siser Vinyl into the Cricut Joy

Line up the edges of the vinyl with the edges of the Cricut Joy and push the vinyl towards the pinch rollers. When the Cricut Joy senses the vinyl, it will automatically feed it into the machine- no cutting mat required!

Remember: EasyPSV® is cut with the paper liner side down and colored side up while HTV is cut with the plastic carrier side down. 

Step 4: Cut and Weed

Pop back over to the app (because there’s no buttons or dials on the Cricut Joy!) and select your cut setting. The Cricut Joy is limited to “Smart” settings. You can see the grayed out options on the left. Select the smart setting that’s closest to the product you’re working with and do a test cut before cutting the full design.

We highly recommend doing a test cut before cutting your actual design with any cutter, and the case is the same with the Cricut Joy. A test cut ensures you’re cutting deep enough for easy weeding, but not so deep that you puncture the plastic carrier on HTV or paper backing on PSV.

If your test cut meets those 2 requirements, then you should be good to cut the rest of your design! Please note, cut settings can vary based off of blade wear and tear. If you’re using a brand new blade or well-loved blade, you may find yourself needing to test different settings.

Do you have a different Cricut cutter? Check out this post for how to cut Siser HTV with the Cricut Explore series or this post for how to cut Siser HTV with the Cricut Maker.

Pin the image below to Pinterest for safe keeping and share with your friends!