Acetate sheets give you room to expand your crafting ideas way beyond paper, cardstock, iron-on, and vinyl cutting. What is Foil Acetate? What are the guidelines for cutting it with Cricut? Which machines can work with this type of material, and which cannot? What can you make with these sheets?
Digital Art Dreams loves exploring the features of a new Cricut Maker 4. This smart cutting machine was released in February 2025. While it shares the same features as the previous Maker 3 and Maker, it cuts much faster, delivering smooth results and clean cuts even with the most precise lace designs.
Acetate Sheets
When Digital Art Dreams began offering paper piecing designs for scrapbook titles and embellishments, we used premium cardstock and inking techniques to complete the projects. Adding Cricut acetate sheets to paper crafting is a neat idea, as it opens more impressive possibilities for card making and scrapbook layouts.
Acetate sheets are plastic sheets made from cellulose acetate. They can be translucent or colorful. You can cut this type of plastic with your Maker 4 or another Cricut machine using the Premium Fine Point Blade.
Read also: Learn to Make Layers on Cricut: Master "Slice" and "Stacked" Projects.
What is Foil Acetate?
Cricut Foil Acetate is the setting used for cutting plastic sheets with a smart cutting machine. It is not present on the Explore 'wheel' (Smart Set Dial), but you can select it through Custom settings. It is also available as one of the material types for all Makers, including the newest Maker 4, through Design Space settings.
Foil acetate is a neat feature that makes cutting acetate sheets with Cricut a simple process, just like cutting thick cardstock or thin vinyl. You need a specific type of mat to use with this material because acetate sheets typically come in 12" x 12" sheets and are not available as Smart Materials.
Cutting Acetate with Cricut
Clear or colorful acetate sheets can be used as card overlays, sunglasses lenses, scrapbook frames, gift wraps, transparent boxes, snow globe glass, and so much more. This type of plastic is straightforward to cut, fold, and score, allowing you to create a wide range of crafts with it.
Here are the steps for cutting acetate with Cricut Maker 4 (also works for all other Makers and Explore machines):
Step 1. Unbox your acetate sheets. Digital Art Dreams used Cricut acetate, which comes in a pack of 6 (12 x 12 inches each).
Step 2. If your design is much less than 12 x 12 inches, use scissors or a portable trimmer to cut it to the desired size for your crafts.
Step 3. All Cricut clear acetate sheets have a protective film on both sides. Remove the top film (it's ok to remove the bottom film after cutting this material).
Step 4. It's best to use a Cricut StandardGrip cutting mat (green color) for plastic because it's thicker than cardstock or vinyl, which can be cut using the LightGrip mat (blue color).
Step 5. Ensure you have a Premium Fine Point Blade in your machine.
Step 6. Adjust the settings for the material. If you have Maker 4 or another Maker, you need to 'Browse All Materials' and scroll down till you see the 'Foil Acetate' option under 'Plastic.' If you have an Explore machine, set its Smart Set Dial to 'Custom' and find 'Foil Acetate' in the list of materials.
Step 7. Follow the on-screen guides in Design Space to load the mat into your machine.
Step 8. Press 'Go' and see the magic of cutting acetate with Cricut. It's fast and easy.
Step 9. Unload your mat and weed the acetate pieces to use in your crafts.
Enjoy your clean cut and explore many outstanding Cricut acetate projects.
For example, you can download Summer scrapbook title SVG files that feature sunglasses with lenses cut from acetate sheets. Follow the included instructions to cut your first "Foil Acetate" material and enjoy professional-looking embellishments for your new layouts and cards.
This Beach Vibes scrapbook title also features sunglasses with a black-and-white striped frame and acetate sheets for lenses. You can cut it for your scrapbooking layouts using a Cricut machine and these Beach Vibes SVG files.
You can also add transparent plastic pieces to other scrapbook embellishments. Experimenting with colors and materials is always a great idea, as it often leads to impressive new products and fantastic results. Laying out cute scrapbook pages and card making require ephemera, photos, clipart images, premade paper piecing, and all other types of decorations you can think of. Try adding clear plastic elements to paper crafting cuts, and you'll see how layered art comes to life, looks fresh and new, and amazes everyone around you!