5 Best Cricut Weeding Vinyl Hacks: Tools, Tips & Tricks

Were you stoked to create your first Cricut vinyl project only to find that you HATE weeding? You’re not alone! Which is why we created this cheat sheet of the best Cricut weeding vinyl hacks, complete with the best weeding tools and our favorite tips and tricks! 

For more tips and tricks check out this FREE guide to everything you need to know about vinyl for Cricut crafting. This guide has everything from the best brands of vinyl, and vinyl hacks, to the best deals on vinyl, vinyl storage solutions, and more!

"I really hate weeding and fighting with the vinyl. I get irritated and frustrated with it. It makes me want to quit messing with my Cricut again."

"Is there a trick to weeding...? It seems to just want to tear when I’m weeding. First time user!"

"I hate weeding… It’s so hard to see."

And my personal favorite comment:



"How do y’all do this? And you like it? Omg. I would rather gnaw off my own hand."

Bear with me, quality doesn’t mean expensive, don’t worry! Whether you’re using Cricut brand vinyl or the fan-favorite: Siser Easyweed, or if you’re like me and buy off-brand vinyl on Amazon lightning deals, just make sure you do your due-diligence before hitting that purchase button and read the reviews. I can’t stress this one enough; there are so many products out there and some are fantastic and others are borderline scam-worthy. Here are some steps you should take when researching a product’s quality:

• Check it’s average customer rating. If it’s below 4 stars out of 5, don’t buy it. If it doesn’t have ANY reviews, don’t buy it. In both of these cases, the product has already failed the quality test.

• Check the star ratings distribution. How many people gave it 5 stars out of 5? Did ANYBODY rate it 5 stars? Is it a true hit or miss with either 5 star or 1 star reviews? Does it generally get okay reviews at around 3 or 4 stars? Checking the ratings is another good indicator of what to expect in a product and it gives you a fuller idea of the reviews beyond just the average rating

• Read the reviews. What are people saying? Do most people generally have the same issues and complaints? Did the people who gave it low ratings really have issues with this product, or were they doing something else wrong?
• Occasionally people will give 1 star reviews on vinyl that they think was low quality when in reality they were using the wrong strength grip mat, or the wrong blade, or an old blade, etc. It’s good to do a deeper dive into the low reviews to see if their issues are in fact due to a low-quality product or if it was possibly operator error.

• Look at the customer review photos. This is one feature I love about Amazon reviews, because photos don’t lie. Are people giving 5 star reviews and leaving photos of end-results you would rate as a 3 star performance? Or vise versa, are they giving something a 2 star rating that you don’t even see any flaws in? It’s always a great idea to take a quick look through customer review photos so you can make your own judgement on the quality of the products, and people’s general results with it.

• Read reviews for the product outside of that retailer. Occasionally, even on Amazon, you can come across products with fake reviews, or that have reviews for a different product. Google the product and see what people are saying about it online, not just on the site they're selling it through.

How can you spot fake reviews?

• Take a look at when the reviews were posted, and who they were posted by. If more than 10-20  five star reviews were all posted on the same day by people who haven’t reviewed any other products, who don’t have a customer profile photo, or whose account was just created that day or within about a week prior to posting the review, odds are they’re fake accounts leaving fake reviews to boost the products overall average customer rating.

How would there be reviews about a different product?

• It’s possible that the seller had a listing for a different product and to avoid new listing fees, or to make a new product seem better than it is, edited the original listing and changed it to be a new one instead of creating a new listing from scratch. For instance, if I bought 1,000 rolls of low-quality vinyl that I wanted to sell on Amazon, I could first create a listing for high-quality water bottles I sell at cost to get good reviews. Then, after I have 200 reviews averaging 4.5 stars, I could edit the listing and change the photos, listing title and description to be for the low-quality vinyl. This way, my new listing starts off with 200 high rating reviews and people think my garbage vinyl is great and it will take a long time and many purchases for the new bad reviews to water down my 4.5 star average review.

• You can catch this tactic very easily by reading the reviews and checking out the review photos. If people are referencing a totally different product in their review, or posted photos of a different product, that is a huge red flag that the seller may be trying to dupe you. Don’t fall for it! 

Do your research before buying, and don’t be afraid to try highly-reviewed off-brands. After all, if you’re buying from a retailer like Amazon the worst that can happen is you try the product, don’t love it, and return it. It’s that simple! Just make sure before you buy that they do in fact offer free returns, most do but some don’t.

If you’re like me, and you started off your first few vinyl projects weeding with your hands… STOP IT! You would never paint a room with a toothbrush, so stop weeding vinyl with your hands. There are tools out there that are better suited for the job, and they’ll save you a LOT of time and stress (and your nails too!)! 

Getting basic weeding tools is a must. Some of the basics include:

• Weeding tool

This guy will be your second-in-command and your favorite assistant. From helping you weed out bits of vinyl that would be nearly impossible to get off the mat with your nails, this tool is PERFECTLY suited for the job! It’s also amazing for lifting long and skinny strands of vinyl off the mat because once you get this guy under it, it’s just a matter of following the strand before it’s finally off and it won’t pull up neighboring pieces of vinyl with it too the way it could it you just used your hands and ripped that sucker off like a band-aid (don’t ever do that… PLEASE). Check out affordable weeding tools on Amazon.

• Pin Pen

I was actually genuinely angry with how long it took me to discover this tool because I had gone SO long (YEARS) using my weeding tool, or my fingers to try and wrestle out the teeny bits of paper and vinyl from my grip mats and it seemed like the harder I tried, the worse I was at it. The pieces just wouldn’t come out no matter what i tried! But with this baby, anything is possible! You could be weeding out a tiny 1mm circle of vinyl and all it takes with the pin pen is a quick little stab and it’s out, just like magic! And, not only is it a fantastic tool to have, but they’re also CHEAP! Check out affordable pin pens on Amazon.

• Tweezer Sets

Tweezers are SO nice to have while weeding! The first two tools are perfect for lifting little pieces of vinyl up off your grip mats, but what’s great about having those and tweezers, is for larger pieces of vinyl that aren’t as intricate, that you don’t have to be quite so delicate with, is that you can use your weeding tool to lift up a corner of the vinyl and grab it with your tweezers and pull it up from there. Tweezers also come in extremely handy when you occasionally drop little bits of vinyl on your design or the grip mat. Again, instead of using your fingers and accidentally pulling up other parts of your design, or trashing your nails, you can just pick it up with your tweezers and put it right in the trash so it’s out of your way for good! They’re also awesome because you likely already have a pair of tweezers around the house that you can snag and add to your toolbelt, or if you’re in the market for tweezers or just want an aesthetic pair just for crafting, or one that’s part of a cute matching set of weeding tools, you can find tweezers for cheap on Amazon!

It’s amazing how much our surroundings affect us. A cluttered environment leads to a cluttered mind and a cluttered mind is a recipe for frustration and a short-temper which definitely isn’t what you want while crafting and trying to have fun. After all crafting SHOULD be fun! Say no to stress, and keep your crafting space clean by containing the chaos. Specifically, when weeding you NEED a scraps collector.

• Convenience Ring

This is a fan-favorite product, and it’s no secret why. Talk about a time saver- it doesn’t get much faster than being able to dispose of scraps that are being picked up in one hand, to off-loading them to the other hand! To clean it out, you simply wait until it’s full enough that the scraps stick together enough that you can compress the ring on the outside until they form a larger ball of scraps, then just pull it out and throw it away! You’ll likely still have a few smaller pieces of vinyl in the ring but that’s ok! You don’t need to empty it out 100% every time. If you really wanted to get every bit though, you could always use your handy dandy tweezers or pin pen to pull out the remaining stubborn survivors! Check out the top weeding rings on Amazon and see if there's one you like!

• Desktop Project Scraps Collector

Similar to the ring collector, this one is for the people that don’t like accessories on their hands while they weed OR for people that want to use 2 collectors. Some people use the ring collector on one hand and use a desktop collector on the side opposite their ring collector so they have one on each side of their grip mat while they weed. Using two can help reduce weeding time because you have to empty them half as often and while weeding you can dispose of the pieces in the collector that’s closest to you. I personally am a bigger fan of the desktop collector too for craft room aesthetics, so if that’s your thing too, check out the different styles and colors of desktop weeding scrap collectors on Amazon and see which one best suits your style! 

• Large Collector

Small scrap collectors are awesome to have as close as possible during each project’s weeding process, however depending on the size of the project, and how many projects you weed in one go, those collectors can fill up fast and it’s often another great time-saver to have a larger collection container you can keep on, or nearby your desk. From a DIY Clorox box bin, to a cute little floor or desktop trash can, convenience is key when it comes to keeping your craft table clean and clutter-free. Check out some larger tabletop scrap collectors on Amazon and view some DIY solutions below!

#4: Speedy Clean-up

Ok, so you’re now in on some of the best tips & tricks as well as some handy DIY hacks for making your weeding life easier, but what about once you’re done weeding? I don’t know about you but my LEAST favorite part about weeding before, was cleanup… I couldn’t stand the tiny bits of vinyl, or all the pieces left behind on the grip mat. That is, until once again, I discovered the tools to help me with a quick and easy cleanup!

• Scraper Tools

This tool is another absolute must-have for any Cricut crafter, but especially those doing a lot of weeding. Though most of the time when working with vinyl you weed out what you don't need and transfer and use what’s left behind, I guarantee you there will still be stray scraps here and there, I mean they’re bound to go all over the place. It’s almost as if the tidier you try to be with vinyl, the more it jumps around and gets stuck to everything EXCEPT what you want it to. BUT the scraper tool isn’t just for your grip mats, it can also be used on your desk! I highly suggest getting a minimum of the standard sized scraper tool for a quicker Cricut cleanup, however I’m going to be buying the XL scraper because since it’s more than 2x bigger than the standard sized one I have now, that should mean grip mat and desk cleanup in the future will take half as long! I do love me a good time saver; check out standard and XL scrapers on Amazon and see if there are any good ones you can snag on sale!

• Lint Roller

Talk about another life saver, the lint roller will be your BEST friend while weeding anything intricate, but especially if it’s vinyl because once again, where to the tiny vinyl weeding bits end up? EVERYWHERE! You can find small lint rollers at the Dollar Tree and you probably have one or two hiding around your house somewhere too, snag one and claim it as your own in your ever growing stash of Cricut tools, and browse Amazon for lint rollers if you’re like me and out of everything all the time and don’t like going to the store!

• Light Pads

It’s no secret that cut lines can be VERY hard to see, especially on more detailed projects that are on very dark or white vinyl. Say no to eye strain and do your eyes a favor and get a light pad! Light pads are the perfect solution to revealing those cut lines, and not only does it save you from straining your eyes and getting eye-strain headaches (yes that’s a real thing, you’re not alone!) but it can also keep you from accidentally weeding out the wrong parts of your project. Have you ever meant to weed out the negatives of your design and realized halfway through you’ve been weeding out the positives the whole time? Again, YOU’RE NOT ALONE! So save yourself the strain, stress, headaches and frustration and get yourself a light pad to assist you in your weeding endeavors. They seem to always be on amazing sales on Amazon, check out light pads here!

Join my Facebook Cricut group and learn from other's mistakes, get in on good deals, and discover new Cricut tips & tricks! Post all your wonderful weeding successes and pics of your current projects by joining our Facebook community of Cricut crafters at: Any and All Things Cricut.

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