Using a Circuit Maker to create a Hardwood Floor

 Two main tasks remain to finish the Manchester Country Home Interior: Wallpaper and flooring. There are several ways to install dollhouse flooring ranging from nicely printed paper flooring--either purchased or home printed-- that looks beautiful and is easy to install and less expensive than wood flooring. Miniature building suppliers offer a plethora of flooring options specifically for miniatures building, sometimes costly and even tricky to install,  or DIY craft sticks (popsicle sticks and coffee stir sticks)

 

To remind you, as I wrote in back on December 6, 2022, I had 3 rules when I began this build, “Use from my stash before purchasing new; make as much as my talents and knowledge would allow (somewhat limited there); and purchase items that are handmade or come from what I perceive as a small business or a cottage business--a home based business." My self imposed rules have turned this house project In to a very long one.  

The 3rd floor will require at least 2 12x12 Cricut wood veneer sheets, since the Design Space cut will be 10.5 wide, just sort of the full 12 inches.

The first floor planks are the from the old San Franciscan kit. I ran short for the second floor bedroom, so I used the light colored wood to fill in, creating quite a unique floor.

  

For the first floor and the second floor addition,  I used the ¼ inch wide flooring that came with an old dollhouse kit, The San Franciscan that was actually a disaster. The wood planks came in 12-inch-long strips in a variety of shades to make an interesting floor. When It came time to make the flooring for the second floor, I didn’t have enough of the San Franciscan kit flooring for the bedroom, so I cut some strips to fill in using Cricut’s oak veneer wood, which was much lighter. See the results here: “When Progress Isn’t”

 

Now I have created a complete tutorial to make an entire floor with the Design Place work sheet available in Cricut's Design Space. 

 

Supplies:

Circuit Machine that will cut wood (the Maker)

Circuit Deep Cut Blade (black)

Circuit Wood Veneer because it is specifically designed for their cutting system. Sometimes JoAnns, Michaels, and Hobby Lobby carry the product. (recommended). If you have Never cut wood, check out Jennifer Maker's tutorial on cutting Cricut's wood veneer. Click here

Purple Cutting Mat Strongest grip

Painter’s Tape

Heavy Card stock 100 lbs. (Michaels works best for me)

Tacky Glue or similar adhesive

Disclaimer: This tutorial is requires that you know some basic Cricut skills. If you do not know how to use the certain tools used here, then search YouTube for a quick lesson on how to accomplish the task that you want. We especially enjoy Jennifer Maker's Tutorials. 

Design Space Tools:

Align: Center

                           Arrange: Bring Forward or Send Back

                           Shapes: Score Line and Square

                           Attach

                           Group and Hide

To Increase size of screen images to easily read the image, on a Mac command +.

Follower these steps to cut planks for a  beautiful wood floor on your Cricut Maker:

1. Decide how wide you want to make your wood planks and how big a space you will cover with flooring. I am covering a  3rd story floor that requires two 12x12 inch sheets of Cricut wood veneer. Each package comes with two sheets. 

Before we begin, note that Cricut Design Space has pre-determined cut margins which means that it will not cut a 12.x2 wood sheet edge to edge on all 4 edges, so I will make my cutting area 10.5 wide which will require 20 lines created using the score line in Shapes. The lines will be 11.5 long from the top cutting line to the bottom cutting line. See the Make photo. 

2. In Shapes select the score line. The score lines will become solid once they are attached. For this project you need to Duplicate 20 lines. Size the first line: For this project it should be 1l.5 inches. You can select it and drag to length or select it and enter the length in the Size H tool. Now Duplicate 19 more. They will be staggered on the on the screen, so next you must line them up and position them.

3. The Tedious step: position the lines next to each other one at a time spaced  two work space squares apart to get a 1/4 inch wide plank, as demonstrated below the photo 1. Next select all the lines; use the Align tool at the top of the screen and select Align Top which will even the the top and lower margins. 

4. Select the lines and Attach them so that don't move around. 

5.  Photo 2: Create the cutting background. I colored mine brown to simulate the wood sheet. In Shapes select the Square and size it to 10.x 11. 5 inches.  You will drag it over the lines and will have to Send it Back to position it behind the plank lines. Last, select the image and use the Attach tool to join the two layers. Now you are ready to cut your planks

This photo shows that the tutorial as you will see it in DS. The instructions are grouped so the you click in the right panel the layer (green selection)  to hid it and just have flooring image to print. OR you can now copy an image and paste it into a new Design Space, which you can practice with tutorial.

Note: Before you click MAKE, hide all the images that you don't want to show up in the MAKE screen. I have grouped all those images together, so before you cut the image, hide the group by clicking on the hide button. 

Photo 2 shows the finished imaged ready to make, with the instructions grouped and hidden, using the layers panel.

 

This is the cutting screen. As you can see, I forgot to hide an image on the white screen. 

 You will note that the cutting image does not fill the 12x12 mat and there will be some waste  because of the way Cricut is designed. I found that attaching the planks to a background allows for a cut from top to bottom because the machine will first cut the square then the lines; otherwise it will not cut clear to the bottom of the wood, only to the bottom of the line. If you want a longer cut to full a 12 inches then use 24" mat. The machine will first cut the  brown background border around the lines then it will cut the planks.

Ready to Cut

 

I always cut my new patterns out on card stock first to make sure my design works, which I recommend you do the same. You don't have cut the entire page; just enough to make sure that your design is what you want.

Adhere wood veneer to the strong grip purple mat; use the brayer to create a tight fit; and secure in place with painter's tape around the edges. While the tape will hold the wood securely in place, since the planks will be cut from top to bottom, the tape will no longer secure the wood in place. You'll see. 

When you are creating a project for the first time, you make mistakes. For me, I misjudged the direction I want the grain to run. This image shows the cut going across the grain, but I needed it go with the grain, so I stopped the cut and realized that my cuts were not going to the bottom of the border, so I stopped the machine half way through the cut and started over with a new sheet of veneer. I always buy extra--just incase. 

A craft knife easily cuts through the veneer should you have this problem. To avoid this miscalculation, you will see that that lines won't go clear to the bottom in the Make It screen so that is the time to cancel the cut and make the adjustment by simply decreasing decreasing the size of the background layer. (In this tutorial, the brown layer.)

And here they are. Nicely cute wood planks for a lovely floor. 

I laid out the first bundle, as you can see the lighter colored ones and then cut another sheet of veneer which is darker--and that is okay because when I glue them to the floor template they will be mixed, giving the floor a natural look. 

The final step will be to glue the planks to a thin cardboard template. 

You will find this tutorial along with the Design Space image that you will be able to use. I do suggest that you Duplicate the actually cutting image and hid it in the layers panel if you want to modify it so that you don't destroy the original.  

You will find this tutorial in my Design Space public library. Making Miniatures with Cricuts, Laser Cutters, and 3D Printers and Dollhouse Miniatures and DIY

Thanks for stopping by. I hope find this tutorial useful. 

Have a great weekend, Ann