How to choose Lettering Delights images for MTC and the Cricut

While many of us are already familiar with Lettering Delights, it can be challenging for the beginner crafter to figure out which one of their offerings would work well with the Cricut. This quick guide is designed to give you an idea of what to look for when you are shopping for a LD graphic for use with Make-the-Cut (or SCAL) and your Cricut die-cutting machine. The sets recommended below are just a small selection of what I personally think would work well. There are plenty more on the LD website.

When I shop at LD or any other online seller of digital graphics I look for images that are bold and have little details. Textured images and those with a lot of details might be more difficult to work with and may not trace well in MTC. I also try to visualize the layers and where the images could possibly have what is commonly known as "broken lines". I will avoid those as well. Here are just a few of what I think are easy to cut with programs like MTC:

Doodlebats:

Doodlebats are Lettering Delights' version of dingbats. They are downloaded as .ttf or TrueTypeFonts files and can be used in MTC like a font. These are the easiest LD graphic files to work with as you do not need to convert them first in other graphic editing programs like Adobe Photoshop. You can just do a "Add font from TTF file" in MTC and use them like you would any other font file.

Here are a few Doodlebats that should work well in MTC with minimal (if at all) tweaking. Notice that they are have little details and are mainly solid images.

Graphic sets:

Images from the Lettering Delights' Graphic Sets may need to be converted first in Inkscape or a graphics editing program like Adobe Photoshop and then traced in MTC. You can watch my video tutorial on converting LD images in Adobe Photoshop here.

The Pun Intended graphics set is a LD Sneak Peek of the Month and was only available to purchase when you buy something else. However, during this sale, it is available with or without another purchase. This is one of the easiest sets to convert as the lines are mostly (if at all) unbroken. The images are bold and the colors help in figuring out the layers. In fact, some of the images do not even need any conversions. I used the brown elephant in this set for my elephant cards and all that I needed to do was to do a "Pixel Trace" in MTC. You can also do the same for the red car in this set.

I just had to include the You Take the Cupcake graphic set in this list as it is so similar to the Cricut SWEET TREATS cartridge.

The images in this Around the World Sites seems daunting but they are easier to convert than they look. Some may have a lot of layers (St. Basil's Cathedral, and the Taj Mahl) but others (Eiffel Tower, Leaning Tower of Pisa) have less. I am including this set in my list because the images are different from what you can currently find in a Cricut cartridge. I used this set in my recent Pan-Dee post.

Cliparts:

Personally I like to use Doodlebats and the LD Graphic Sets for my cards but I have heard of success stories from crafters who use the Cliparts instead. I view the cliparts as sort of an in-between Doodlebats and Graphic Sets item. They are not fonts so you cannot do a "Add font" in MTC and you will still have to do a trace BUT you do not need to use any program to convert the image. As there is already a black and white image within a Clipart set, you can just do a "Pixel Trace" in MTC of the uncolored image.

I have not used any LD cliparts in my cards but I think that these would trace easily in MTC:

Venturing outside of cartridges can be scary but with the Lettering Delights $1 sale(AND coupons),  it really is a great time to try out their images for cutting. Remember that although I had mentioned that I avoid textured and detailed images for cutting layers, such graphics still work great for print-and-cut. Graphic sets like Garden Kokeshi could pose a challenging in converting to a cut-able file but it is perfect for printing and cutting.

Even though I use my low-tech method of cut and print (print on scrap paper, then adhere my cutout temporarily over that printed page, and print over the cutout again), Kay over at Clever Someday has a great tutorial on her "Hinge Method" of printing and cutting.

Another point to note is that some graphic sets have equivalent Doodlebat versions. The latter will save you some time since you don't have to convert in Inkscape or any other graphics editor. For example,

I hope that this quick guide has helped you in your selection of LD sets. Kay also has a good list of doodlebats for beginners at her blog and you are welcome to check her list out too. 

Do take advantage of the Lettering Delights $1 sale. As far as I know, they usually have this sale only two times a year and now that they have two limited-time use coupons, it makes for a really good deal. How can you not try them out?

To go to the sale, just click on this banner: