How to Weld Text and Images in Cricut Design Space

Ready to learn how to use Weld in Cricut Design Space? You’re in luck. This comprehensive blog post will teach you everything you need to know about the Weld tool and how to use it to make creative designs in Cricut Design Space.

We’ll cover how to weld images, how to use Weld to connect letters, and more. Plus, I’ll explain why the Weld button might be “grayed out” or not working, and show you how to fix it.  

Cricut Design Space is a powerful design program with lots of great tools for creating and customizing designs. But, if you’re new to Cricut, learning all of the different Design Space tools can feel overwhelming. 

That’s why I’m excited to share this article with you – all about how to use the Weld tool in Cricut Design Space. I’ll walk you through everything you need to know about the weld tool and how to use it. And, I’ll include plenty of screenshots, so you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Once you understand these tools, Cricut’s Design Space software will be SO much easier and fun to use! You’ll be able to use Design Space with more confidence and create your own designs more quickly.

This step-by-step tutorial will explain to use Weld in Cricut Design Space. After reading this article, you’ll know.

• What the weld tool does, and where to find it.
• How to weld different shapes together to create a new shape
• How to connect cursive text with the weld tool
• Why you might want to weld images together, even if they don’t overlap
• Why the weld tool might be “grayed out,” and how to fix it.

After that, I’ll give you my best tips and tricks for using the Weld feature in Design Space. I’ll answer some common questions about Weld and help fix some common Welding mistakes.

The Weld Tool in Cricut Design Space

The concept behind the Cricut weld tool is pretty simple: Weld joins two or more shapes together to create a new shape.

You can use the Weld tool to combine shapes or connect letters. Whatever shapes or letters you Weld will merge together. They will become one layer, and be cut as one united piece. 

Where to Find Weld

You’ll find the weld tool inside the Cricut Design Space desktop program or mobile app.

On Desktop: You’ll find the weld tool in the Layers Panel in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, right next to the Weld Tool. You can also find the weld function in the right-click menu.

On Mobile: You’ll find the weld tool in the Actions sub-menu in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, between Weld and Flatten.

What does Weld mean?

The Weld tool allows you to join two or more separate shapes into one single shape by removing any overlapping cut lines. 

What does that mean? Design Space will remove any cut lines from where the two shapes overlap. 

When you think about Welding in Design Space, think about welding metal. The two pieces melt and fuse together to create a permanent bond. They are no longer two separate pieces of metal, but one single piece.

What can you weld?

You can use the Weld tool whenever you want to permanently join two or more separate shapes into one shape that you want to cut out as one piece.

You can use weld on any object: simple shapes from the Shapes panel, text from the Text panel, and images from the Cricut Acess Library.

For instance, you can use the Weld tool to connect cursive letters so that they will be cut as one piece. When you Weld the overlapping letters together, the lines between the letters disappear, and the individual letter shapes merge to become one single shape.

Or, you can weld two or more basic shapes together to create more complex shapes than you can find in the Layers panel. When you weld two shapes together, they will join into a single shape and be cut as one piece. 

Here are some of my favorite ways to use weld:

• create new shapes from two standard shapes in the Shapes panel
• connect cursive letters so that they cut as one shape
• modify a ready-made image from the Cricut library
• simplify a complex design by combining multiple small layers

We’ll go into each of these different ways to use the Weld tool in more detail below.

How to Use the Weld Tool

Here are the basic steps to using the Weld tool.

1. Arrange 2 or more images so that they overlap. Click and drag the images so that one overlaps the other.
2. Select the layers. You’ll see a gray bounding box appear around the images, and the selected layers will be highlighted in the Layers panel. Once you select the layers, the Weld button will turn black and become active.
3. Click the Weld button. You’ll find the Weld button at the bottom of the Layers panel if you’re on a computer, or in the Actions menu at the bottom of the screen if you’re using the iOS and Android app.
4. See your results. After you click Weld, the images will merge into a single, new image. The new image will be on its own layer, named “Weld Result.” You can now move or edit this layer, just as you would with any other image layer.

In the example above, I’ve added two shapes to the Canvas in different colors, so you can see what’s going on. Once I select both layers and click Weld, the blue circle and the green star merge together. All overlapping lines are removed.

You’ll also notice that the “Weld Result” layer is blue, because it has taken on the characteristics of the bottom blue circle layer. 

Want more examples? Keep reading to see 4 different ways to use the Weld tool – with plenty of screenshots!

Can I Unweld an image in Cricut?

Not exactly. There isn’t an Unweld button in Design Space. Once you save your file, Welding becomes permanent, and you can’t undo it.

The only way to “unweld” is to press the Undo button or Command/Ctrl + Z on your keyboard. But be careful, you can only use the Undo button before you Save your design. After you save the design, you won’t be able to Undo your Weld.

What’s the difference between the Weld and Attach?

This is a very common question. In brief, the Attach tool keeps your shapes in the same arrangement when you send the design to the cutting mat. The shapes are still on separate layers, but their layout is frozen in place.

The Weld tool, on the other hand, unites two or more separate images into one single image. For more detail, read this post: When to Use Weld vs. Attach in Cricut Design Space

Tips and Tricks for Working with the Weld Tool

Weld is a powerful and useful tool – but it’s not without its quirks. Here are a few tips and tricks to keep in mind when using weld.

• Weld works on two or more layers. If you only have one layer selected, the button will be “grayed out,” and you won’t be able to use it.
• Use Weld on overlapping images. In order to join images so that they are cut as one piece, the two images must be overlapping. 
• You can Weld Grouped or Attached images. If you Weld Grouped images, all visible layers within the Group would become one single Weld Result layer.
• Hidden layers will not be Welded. If you Weld a Group with a hidden layer, the hidden layer will be separated and not part of the Weld Result layer.
• The “Weld Result” layer will have the properties of the bottom layer.  In other words, weld merges layers “down.” So, if you have a red shape on top of a blue shape, the Weld result will be a blue shape.
• There is no Unwleld button. After you save a project, Welding becomes permanent, and it can’t be reversed.

4 Ways to Use the Weld Tool

Now that we’ve covered the weld tool basics, let’s open up Design Space and walk through some examples. 

Note: If you don’t already have Cricut Design Space, you can download it for free.

Welding Text

In this example, we’ll use Weld to connect letters in a cursive font. 

1. Start by using the Text box tool to type a word in a script font.  
2. If the letters look too far away from each other, try decreasing the letter-spacing.  
3. If the letters still aren’t touching, you can adjust them manually. To do this, click on the Advanced drop-down menu, and click Ungroup to Letters. Then, move the individual letters until they overlap.
4. Select all of the letters in the word, and press the Weld button.

Let’s look at the results. The thin black line between each of the letters is gone. When you send this image to the mat, it will be cut as one single object.

Important note about Welding text.  Take a closer look at the Layers panel in this example. You’ll see that when we first added the word “Congrats” to the Canvas, it was an editable Text layer. But after we used Weld, it changed to a “Weld Result” layer. This means that the text is not editable – you won’t be able to edit typos or change the letter spacing anymore.

Welding Shapes: Create a new shape from two standard shapes

In this example, we’ll use Weld to make a flower shape from four heart shapes.

1. Start by adding four heart shapes to the Canvas.
2. Arrange the hearts in a circle, so that they are just slightly overlapping.
3. With all four hearts selected, click Weld. You’ll be able to tell it worked if you see the Weld Result layer in the Layers Panel on the right-hand side of your screen.

Let’s look at the results. You can see that the Weld tool has joined the heart shapes into a single layer. It has removed the cut lines wherever the shapes overlapped.

Welding Text and Images Together

The Weld tool treats text, shapes, and images the same. In this example, we’ll weld text and shapes together to design a cake topper with the word “Congrats.”

1. Start by adding the text layer to the Canvas. Then, add two rectangles and two triangles.  
2. Resize the shapes as desired. Then, arrange the text and shapes so that they are slightly overlapping.
3. Next, we’ll weld everything together. Select all of the layers, and click Weld.

After you Weld all of the layers together, you’ll see a single “Weld Result” layer in the layers panel. When you send this design to your Cricut, it will be cut as one single connected piece.

Simplifying a Design: Welding shapes that don’t overlap.

So far in this tutorial, we’ve been talking about how to weld images that overlap. But you may have noticed that it’s actually possible to weld images that aren’t overlapping.

Why would you want to do this? Well, you might choose to Weld a bunch of shapes to clean up your layers panel. 

As you can see in this screenshot, I created a floral pattern made from about 100 different shape layers. With this many layers, you can bet that Design Space was running pretty slowly!

If, let’s say, I wanted to cut all of these shapes out of the same color vinyl anyway, I could go ahead and Weld them together. After Welding, all of the flower shapes would be one single layer in the Layers panel.

Another reason to Weld a lot of shapes like this is so that you can Slice them at the same time, instead of slicing them individually. (Because, as you may already know, you can only use the Slice tool on two layers at a time.)  

For instance, let’s say I wanted to Slice this floral pattern out of a large heart shape to make a floral-patterned heart. 

Since I can’t Slice more than two layers simultaneously, I’d have to slice all 100 flowers individually, one by one. But if I weld the flowers into one layer first, I can Slice them all at the same time.

For more information about how to use the Slice tool, click here: How to Slice in Cricut Design Space: The Complete Guide

Troubleshooting Common Problems

Here are some FAQs and common issues you may run into when using the Weld tool.

Why can’t I use Weld in Cricut Design Space?

If the Weld button isn’t clickable, that means it’s unavailable to use with the layers you currently have selected. Here are some reasons why the Weld button isn’t working.

• You only have one layer selected. To use Weld, you need to have at least two layers selected.
• One of the layers is Hidden. Unhide that layer before using Weld.

Why is the weld button grayed out?

If the Weld button is grayed out, it means that the Weld option is unavailable to use with your current selection. To fix it, make sure that you’ve selected at least two visible layers.

How do I select more than one layer?

To use Weld, you need to select two layers in Design Space. Here are a few ways to select more than one layer in Cricut Design Space

On Desktop

• Click and drag a selection box around two shapes to select both of them.
• Hold down the Shift key (on PC) or the Ctrl key (on Mac) on your keyboard while clicking on each layer on the Canvas.
• Hold down the Shift key (on PC) or the Ctrl key (on Mac) on your keyboard while clicking on each layer in the Layers panel.

On Mobile

• Tap on the screen and drag a selection box around both layers.
• On the Canvas, tap on one layer to select it, then long-press on the second layer to select it.
• In the layers panel, tap on one layer to select it, then long-press on the second layer to select it.

Can I use weld on text layers?

Yes, you can use Weld on text layers – both editable text layers and text that you’ve Ungrouped to Letters. All you need to do is drag the text layer so it overlaps another layer. Then select both layers, and click weld.

Why is Weld filling in letters?

If your letters are very close together, the Weld button can sometimes fill in the interior spaces of letters like “a” and “e”. It doesn’t happen all the time – but it can be very frustrating when it does!

The easiest way to fix this is to make your letters very large before Welding. Sometimes the larger size helps you notice a letter-spacing problem that you didn’t see when the letters were smaller.  

Once you’ve got the letter-spacing how you want it, try Welding again. After Welding, you can make the letters smaller again.

Why is my text not editable after weld?

As discussed in the examples above, weld treats all text as an image. After using weld on a text layer, it becomes a Weld Result. That means you cannot go back and edit it with the usual text tools, such as font and letter spacing.

Can I use weld on multiple layers?

Yes, you can use Weld on more than two layers at the same time.

What’s the difference between Weld and Attach?

Great question! Click here to read a full tutorial about when to use the Attach tool and when to use Weld instead: When to Use Weld vs. Attach in Cricut Design Space

More About Cricut Design Space

Isn’t weld such a great tool? I hope you’ve learned some cool tricks to use the next time you’re in Design Space!

When you’re ready for more awesome Design Space tips, check out these posts:

• How to Upload Images to Cricut Design Space
• How to Upload Fonts to Cricut Design Space
• How to Connect Cursive Letters in Cricut Design Space
• How to Slice in Cricut Design Space: The Complete Guide

What’s Next?

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