Creating A Stroke from An Offset in Cricut Design Space [For Annie]

I created this video tutorial in direct reply to a viewer who left a comment on one of my other videos about how to create a stroke from an offset. I thought it would be helpful to others, also, if I made the video tutorial available to everyone who finds their way to my channel.
Thanks, Annie, for your question! 🙂
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[@tatcalrn78]

You are an amazing instructor. Very detailed, very clear in explaining very advanced aspects of Cricut Design Space 👏 I am so glad I found your videos

[@SVGTuts]

Thank you so much for the encouragement, and I'm grateful you found my videos, too. 🙂 I appreciate you taking the time to watch and comment.

[@jilliej7]

So I can hit the tab key on my pic and it will preview it?

[@SVGTuts]

When you're creating the offset, and after you type in the value, hitting tab instead of Apply will allow you to see the preview of the offset before you Apply/Commit to it.

[@mickeymesser]

What is the difference in a (stroke) and a (offset)?

[@SVGTuts]

Thanks for your question.
For all intents and purposes, you cannot simply create a stroke around things in Cricut Design Space.
The work around to making a stroke around something in Cricut Design Space is creating an offset--an offset being a duplicate of the object but just larger--and then slicing out the middle of the offset.
Thanks, again, for taking the time to comment. I do appreciate it.

[@tatcalrn78]

You were born to teach

[@SVGTuts]

Aw, thank you for this. I have always believed that teaching is my calling. I used to teach 8th grade American Studies, and many of my students used to tell me the same thing. I haven't heard it in years, so it's so awesome to see it in writing! ❤

[@Akziis]

Thank you

[@SVGTuts]

You're welcome. Thank you for watching and commenting. 🙂

[@tatcalrn78]

Faydra why did the yellow layer get removed from the group once you removed the black part of the heart ( you didn’t need)? Why are there two solid black hearts on the layers panel? I find the layers panel confusing. Do you have a video explaining how to work with the layers panel?

[@SVGTuts]

Tatiana, first let me apologize for taking so long to reply. Please forgive my delay, and thank you for your questions.
Your question: why did the yellow layer get removed from the group once you removed the black part of the heart?
My best answer: I really don't know why it does that.
I'm thinking that Cricut Design space is "seeing" it as a new layer and removes it from the group and makes it a standalone layer because I selected it but didn't select anything else in that group. It appears that Cricut Design Space "saw" that yellow layer as now a part of the layers that go with the SLICEs that were created from my last request.
Your question: Why are there two solid black hearts on the layers panel?
My best answer: When you create an offset, you're creating a duplicate of what's on top of the offset. In my example, when I SLICEd two things--the original design and the offset--I got three results/layers--the original design is on one layer, the part of the offset under the original design is another layer and the part of the offset outside the original design is another layer. You're not actually seeing two black hearts. There's one that does look black, but it's just the visual representation of what's in the grouped layers of the original design, which looks black because it's so tiny.
Your question: I find the layers panel confusing. Do you have a video explaining how to work with the layers panel?
My answer: I do not have a video on working with layers, but I'm going to make one or more because you've given me the idea. 🙂 Thanks for letting me know you'd be interested in that type of video tutorial.
In the meantime, check out my short video of how to get cheat sheets from learn.cricut.com ruclips.net/video/uLyEWPdnLTs/видео.html. There's a free one about working with layers.

[@tatcalrn78]

You’re the BEST Faydra. Thank you so much for taking the time to provide such a thorough answer
I am really looking forward to your video ☺️

[@tatcalrn78]

Thank you Faydra

[@SVGTuts]

You're welcome. I'll be in touch when the video is live!

[@SVGTuts]

Absolutely! 🙂

[@marlettaengland1513]

I’ve never heard an offset referred to as a stroke. What’s the difference between the two. If there’s no difference I think it would be less onto your audience if you would just stick with the word offset. Otherwise this was an excellent tutorial

[@SVGTuts]

This tutorial was created in direct reply to a viewer who confused "stroke" with "offset." Since the person was only seeing the part that shows outside of the original object when you make an offset, the person thought that all there was to the offset was what appeared to be a "stroke," so to speak, because until you move the object away from the offset all your see is an outline around your object.
I've been doing graphic design and image editing via Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop since the early 2000s, and what I was accustomed to was adding strokes to objects, not offsets. It wasn't until March of 2022 when I got my Cricut Maker 3 that I was introduced to offsets when creating illustrations where I wanted something that appears like a stroke. It's possible that the person who asked the question comes from a similar background.
Essentially, the difference between an offset and a stroke depends on what application you're using. 🙂 To create a stroke in Cricut Design Space, you first have to make an offset and then slice it along with the object from which you made the offset to be left with what will function as a stroke. In Adobe Illustrator and/or Photoshop, you add a stroke by using the fx tool.
Thanks for your question and for watching and commenting.