Scoring EVA Foam With a Cricut Maker Or Explore Air 2

It’s so easy to score 2mm EVA foam with a Cricut Maker or a Cricut Explore Air 2! Using a Cricut can help you achieve intricate designs, clean cuts, textures on EVA foam without using a utility knife!

Please note that this tutorial assumes you have a general idea of how to use Design Space.

For this project we will be scoring this Haku design with surrounding small scales!

Materials needed:

• 2mm EVA Foam
• Blue Painter’s Tape
• Fine Point Blade
• Cricut Maker or Explore Air 2
• Strong Hold Mat
• A design in .jpg, .gif, .png, .bmp, .svg, or .dxf format

I am using 2mm HD-Foam and 2mm EVA 38 foam from TNT Cosplay Supply. These two foams have slightly different properties, but will score similarly. HD-Foam is softer than TNT foam, so a lighter blade pressure can help to avoid tearing and dragging.

Step 1: Find a design!

The Cricut comes with free software called Design Space that comes with simple design tools you can use for basic graphics. For this tutorial, I am using my own .svg vectors that I created using Adobe Illustrator.

Step 2: Choose a Sheet Size

These robust machines can score up to 12” x 24” of material. For EVA foam sheets, I always use a maximum size of 11.5” x 23” to keep the material and design safely within the margins of the rollers. This will also help provide you with enough space along the edges to place a strip of tape for stabilization.

Step 3: Add a removable adhesive layer to the foam sheet

EVA foam will have an easier time sticking to the Cricut mats with a little help. I like to add a removable layer like blue painter’s tape or removable vinyl sticker sheet to the back of the foam. For this tutorial, I’m using blue painter’s tape. Don’t use regular masking tape, as this will likely damage the foam when it is removed.

Step 4: Secure the foam to the mat

Place the foam sheet tape side down on the mat and press firmly to release any air bubbles. Add painter’s tape around the edges of the foam to secure the edges in place.

Step 5: Design Space settings

Create a new material setting with the following parameters and load the Fine Point blade:

Note: you CAN use the Deep Blade for scoring instead of the Fine Blade using less pressure. Experiment with what works best for your material.

Step 6: Additional Fine Point Blade Settings

Generally, you’ll want to leave this at “Default”. Change this to “More” for dense foam, and “Less” for less dense foam.

Step 7: Move the Star Wheels

Move the Star Wheels all the way to the sides, two on each side. This prevents your material from being damaged. They will be hard to move, but they will eventually slide.

Step 8: Load the Mat

Position the mat in the Cricut, and press the blinking double arrow button to load the mat into the machine.

Step 9: Start the Cut

Press the “C” button to start the cut. The Cricut will cut 1 pass of the entire design and then will stop. Don’t unload the mat yet!

Step 10: Check the cut

If you aren’t satisfied with the score depth, press the “C” button for one more pass.

Step 11: Unload the mat

When you are happy with the results, press the unload button and carefully remove the foam from the mat.

Before Heat Sealing

After Heat Sealing

You can see here that the detail is maintained for even the closest lines!

All done! You now know how to score two EVA foam with your machine! Go forth and make all the things!