One of the great benefits of owning the Cricut Design Studio is the ability to collaborate with other users. Each person who designs a file can save the file on their computer. Many choose to post the file on the internet and allow others to use their designs as well. Once you start browsing other people's work, you will be amazed at the incredible work of these generous and talented Cricut users. Here is a step-by-step guide to downloading and cutting using other people's files.

There are numerous blogs and sites that have projects posted and the cutting files as well. Each person may store and share their files in a different way. Most use a third party file sharing site, while some have the files hosted right there on their website. Many of the files on the Cricut.com message board are saved as a text file and must be changed before using.

Once you have found a file you would like to use, you need to begin the download process.

1. Click on the link that they have provided to take you to the file. If it is hosted on their website, it will ask you whether you want to open, save or cancel. If the file is hosted on a file sharing site it will tell you to wait for the download or to "click here to download file" . Once you select that link it will take you to the screen that asks if you want to open, save, or cancel.

2. Once you are on the open or save screen, you will need to choose save. Before you do, make sure that the file directory is showing the place that you want the file to be saved. You may want to create a folder specifically for Cricut files. If you want to change the file name, do it at this point. Click save to begin saving the file to your computer.

Now that the file is on your computer, you can open it within the Cricut Design Studio program. Follow these easy steps to cut a saved design.

1. Open the Cricut Design Studio program. Select the "file" drop down menu in the top left corner and then select "open".

2. After selecting "open" a screen will come up that shows cut files that have been saved in the "my projects" folder. These are files of your own that you have created. To find the file that was downloaded and saved, locate the folder you saved it in by selecting it in the "look in" area.

3. Select the file you want to open and click on the open button. This will bring up the file that you downloaded and open it in your software. To cut it as it is, load the paper and click the scissors to cut. You can also change or add to the file if you would like, but make sure you always give credit where credit is due and never claim a design as your own unless you designed the entire file.

Spend some time browsing other people's designs and projects and you will soon have more ideas and files than you are able to cut. Make sure you leave a comment or a thank you when you download someone else's files, and share what you have made if you can. Look for an upcoming article to show how to download files from the Cricut message boards and change them from text files to cut files.