How to make a simple papercut style card using your Cricut Explore

Posted on 25th July 2017 by Angela Dodson
Filed under Card Making Ideas, All Papercraft Tutorials

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Hello it’s Angela here to share a simple papercut style card. If you have a cutting machine then it is easy to create the look of a paper-cut design and quickly add personalisation. I have included the link to my own design but you can easily create your own or edit mine to suit your requirements, follow these steps to create your own:

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Step By Step

Open your Software onscreen, I’m using Design Space for my Cricut Explore and starting a new project. Insert a square from the ‘shapes’ button down the left column, unclick the padlock symbol on the shape so you can adjust the sizes. I have sized mine 7” wide by 5” high.

Next select your focal point design, I’m using a motorcycle shape that is a layered design, we only want the main layer, so ‘ungroup’ the shape and delete the layers you don’t want and you should be left with a nice outline layer of a motorcycle. You can see the shapes used here on the project page:

Project Page Motorcycle

Click on your previously sized 7x5” rectangle and click duplicate, the duplicated rectangle now needs to be smaller than the original as we are going to use this one to slice into the original and make it a frame, but first we need to check the motorcycle sizing.

Select the motor cycle and adjust it to your preferred size, don’t unlock the padlock, keep that locked as this will keep the shape in proportion. Just drag the corner until the shape is the size you want by testing it on the rectangle shape, you need the shape to touch the inside of the rectangle at the bottom tyres, top handlebars and left side tyre and right side taillight / exhaust, just so the shape will attach later (but don't attach now!)

Place the smaller rectangle onto the larger 7x5” rectangle, highlight both rectangles and click ‘align’ button to ‘centre horizontally’ and then ‘centre vertically’.

Then highlight both rectangles again and select ‘slice’, this will cut the frame, simply remove the 2 waste rectangles from the centre and ‘delete’ them.

Screen Shot Slicing

Now you have a frame, you can position your motorcycle shape inside the aperture, check it touches the sides and when you are happy with position, highlight frame and motorcycle and click ‘weld’. You should now have a single piece.

Screen Shot Frame

To add personalisation, simply click ‘Text’ and a box will appear, type your greeting ‘Happy Birthday’ and then select the font, as we are cutting into a sheet of card a Stencil font is best so there are no missing parts of letters. Simply click the ‘font’ box and in the search box type ‘Stencil’ this brings up a few to choose from, I am using ‘Stencil – single layer cutting’.

Now position the greeting into the top space of the frame, adjust the size as desired and then highlight the frame and click ‘align’ then ‘centre horizontally’, this will position the text centrally across the top.

Now do the same for the bottom space of the frame, choosing your preferred name or greeting and remembering to ‘align’ and ‘centre horizontally’.

Screen Shot Choosing Fonts

Now just insert another square from the ‘shapes’ menu and resize larger than your frame, I have sized to 7.5” wide by 5.5” deep. Don’t forget to select a colour onscreen for this backing piece, so the machine knows it needs to go onto another mat / another colour card.

And that’s it, it’s actually quite simple to create this style of card, once you’ve worked through the steps you will find it easy to create your own styles and themes. I have included the file for my own design, but if you just want to change the name at the bottom then simply insert a shape to cover the name cut-out and select weld, then you can go back in and cut your own name or greeting in the bottom.

Screen Shot Background Align