Cricut Maker Project Idea: Make a Planisphere
This Cricut Maker Project idea is perfect for someone who wants to push themselves with their Cricut skills. This DIY planisphere includes cutting basswood with the deep knife blade, using Infusible Ink to dye the wood and using free shapes in the Design Space software to create the shape and layers of the Planisphere.
As complicated as that may seem, it's actually easy and is a great way to get to know some of the tools and materials you can make with. This project however does take around 2 hours to create so set the time aside for a fun crafternoon.
If you don't have time to create the project yourself, here is the project I made. You will just need to customise the vinyl decorations to suit you!
If you are a beginner to using the Cricut Maker Tools or the Tools in Design Space, check out my Design Space for beginners blog here, if you are wanting to understand further how to create your own designs, subscribe to my newsletter here and receive a free PDF guide on how plus free tutorials and tips and tricks!
This blog goes into the full written tutorial of how to create the Planisphere on Design Space but for the whole tutorial from start to finish, check out my IGTV tutorial here.
Design Space - How To Make
As mentioned, if you don't want to have a try making the Planisphere yourself, use the template I created and customise for whatever your Planisphere is for. It doesn't have to just before for your partner but it could be a gift for your bestie, something for you that you happen to love... I am thinking of making a Harry Potter themed one for example.
The planisphere consists of the top layer, the wheel in the middle, a border and the bottom layer.
Creating the wheel
Start a new project. Head to the insert panel on the left-hand side and select a circle and half-circle shape.
Position the half circles with the rounded part facing outward and overlapping around the entire border of the circle. Make sure there are no gaps!
2. Once you are happy with the positioning, select all and use the 'weld' tool in the bottom right-hand corner. This merges the layers together and welds any overlapping shapes together.
The Top Layer
Select a square from the shapes option in the left-hand side insert bar as well as a cricle. Once you have sized the square to be larger than your squares to be larger than the wheel (my square was 7x7 inches) duplicate it for the back layer. Click on the circle and click on the 'lock' icon so that you can move the shape around and change it to an oval.
Position the oval over the right-hand border of the square half was down.
2. Select one of the square layers and the oval shape and use the 'slice' tool in the bottom right-hand corner. THis cuts through anything overlapping meaning the oval curve should have cut into your square. This will be your top layer and is so that you can see the wheel and spin it.
Remove the sliced oval so you are just left with the top panel, the weel and the square for your bottom layer.
3. Select a heart shape from the shapes area and position this in the upper half of the top layer in the center (heart shape size around 2 inches high and 1,8 inches wide). Select the top layer and the heart and use the slice tool. This will cut a heart shape into the top layer and will show you different destinations that will appear when spinning the wheel.
4. We now need to add a cutout circle on the top layer, the wheel and the bottom layer in the exact same place so that when cut out we can place a split pin through all three layers. As our top and bottom layers are the same we can use the align tool to acurately place the circle.
Select a circle shape and place it over the top layer. Select both layers. Use the 'align' tool in the top edit bar and select to align in the center. Use the Slice tool to cut a hole into the top layer.
5. Use the same circle to align the centre to the centre of the wheel (select both layers to dthis and the 'align' tool on the top layers panel. Then use the slice tool to cut the circle into the wheel.
Repeat this stop for the bottom layer so that all three layers have a hole cut into the center. Layer them back over one another to check they are all central.
The border
For the structure, there is one more thing we need to do. We need a border that sits between the top and bottom later so that when we glue the layers together, the pressure is not against the wheel. The wheel won't be stuck down as it needs to spin so we need to ensure the gap is big enough for the wheel to do this.
Create the border to go around three sides of your top and bottom layer, leave the right-hand side where you cut the oval into the top layer.
Take a square from the free shapes area and select this. Unlock this with the 'lock' icon and reshape into a long rectangle. Make it so that it fits the edge of the border of the bottom later and ensure there is enough of a gap between the border and the wheel inside so that when the wheel spins it won't get stuck on it. I removed the top layer to create this so I could clearly see where the wheel would be positioned and made sure that the border is flush with the edge of the bottom layer.
Place three rectangles overlapping one another for the border and when you are happy with the positioning, select all three and use the 'weld' tool.
Decorate your planisphere
Decorate your planisphere with shapes, initials to make it perfect for you! If you want the layout of your decorations to be exactly how you have placed them on screen, use the attach tool so that it cuts it out the way you positioned them.
I used Infusible Ink on the Basswood to colour the wood and used a clear wet dry glue to adhere the top and bottom layer together.
To see how to assemble check out my video on IGTV here.
To see the project in Design Space see here.