A Card Carrying Member of the Design Space Haters Club
who I am, how I got here, and what this blog will be about.
Hi, My name is Shelana (aka trillianinspace) and I am a craftaholic.
It all started in 2019 with an engagement ring, a common origin story when it comes to hobby cutters. I walked in to a JoAnn's (RIP!)fully ready to buy a Cry-Cut (fortunately the cashier said to me “Oh! you’ll just love the CRICKET!” before I had the chance to embarrass myself) and it took me all of 3 days to realize that Cry-Cut was probably a more appropriate name for the device because it’s software, Design Space, was the WORST program I have ever been subjected to.
I did some research and realized for my technological ability, the type of designs I was using (ones I designed myself in Adobe Illustrator) and the amount of freedom I was used to, the Silhouette Cameo might have been a better fit for me. It was too late for that however, there was a strict no-return policy on open Cricut machines and I had already bought a quite a bit of tools to go with it. Over the next few months, I learned quickly how to get around some of the biggest obstacles caused by Design Space, bought a second machine to speed up production and went on to create a pretty magical wedding day:
Shortly after the wedding, I went on to open a small business that specializes in custom goods (however, I rarely use my Cricuts for those items) and I really have thrived in offering advice to fellow Design Space haters on r/cricut, the subreddit I now moderate.
What this blog will be about
I realized in my time as moderator of the Cricut subreddit, I repeat myself a lot. I started a YouTube channel to record tutorials for my most frequent given answers but with the busy family life that I have, its not always practical to sit down and record a whole video (I will get back to that very soon though, I have some exciting ones planned for the next few months!)but I can start keeping a written repository of my advice that will be easier to index than reddit comments are.
Here is where you will learn some of my favorite hacks like the PDF Overlay Method (beyond what is taught in my original video), The Whole Mat method for jig making, double sided Print then Cut projects, and much more. All of my methods are for more advanced users, so if you use Design Space for more things than uploading, changing operation/line type, and hitting attach before you hit make it…This may not be the place for you. If you are here because you are considering purchasing a Cricut, let me be clear when I say if I was starting from scratch to buy a cutting machine for the first time..it would NOT be a Cricut. They are great for beginners or people with zero design experience/ability who just want to buy premade graphics and cut them out, but if that doesn’t describe you…please research further before making an investment.
Lastly, it is my intention to keep this blog free of intrusive ads for as long as I can. While I may add the occasional affiliate link, I can’t stand when every page has a billion pop-ups and videos on autoplay, I wouldn’t want to do that to you either.
I hope you find what I have to say valuable, and let’s hate Design Space together!
- Shelana
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