Supplies:
- Cardstock
- Inkjet or laser printer
- A sheet of printer paper
- Cricut machine or a way to cut nice straight squares.
- Double sided tape
- Foam double sided tape
- Optional: scoring stylus or scoring wheel
- Stained glass image you like. Creative Fabrica has a lot of nice options.
Steps:
- Find a stain glass image you like. See my supplies list #8 for the exact image I used as well as some other options you could use.
- Upload your stain glass image to Cricut Design Space or other program of your choosing. Choose the complex setting, then click continue, apply and continue (bottom right) (we do not need to do anything here since we are doing a print then cut), Then click the print then cut option, and upload. Then select your image and click add to canvas on the bottom right-hand side.
- If you need help opening a zipped folder, then click here.
- If you need help uploading your design to Cricut Design Space, then click here.
- Create a square by clicking shapes on the left side of the screen.
- Now click the unlock button in the top middle of the screen where it tells you the size of your square.
- Change your square to have a width of 10 and a height of 5. I am working in inches.
- Click shapes, but this time select the line (score line) and change its height to 5.
- Select both the score line and the rectangle (select two items at once by holding the shift button or dragging over both items), then click align – center (top middle left side of screen).
- Then with both the score line and the rectangle still selected, click the attach button at the bottom right side of the screen. This will tell Cricut to keep these two items together on the same mat, even though they are different colors.
- Create another square and make it 4 x 4.
- Then create another square and make it 3 x 3.
- Now we want our images to be slightly smaller than these squares, so the boarder shows just a little. To do this make a square that is 4.75 x 4.75, 3.73 x3.73, and 2.75 x 2.75.
- Make sure to adjust the size of your stain glass image to be larger than 4.75 x 4.75. If you keep the lock button closed next to the sizing options at the top, then you can make the smallest side of your image 4.75. This will then make the other side change with it and not distort your image.
- Select both the 4.75 x 4.75 square and your stain glass image, and click align – center, then with both items still selected click slice (bottom right side of the screen). Delete the solid square and the boarder of your image that was cut out.
- Now duplicate this sliced image (in the layers panel on the right-hand side or right click, then click duplicate)
- Take one of your images and the 3.75 x 3.75 square and click align – center, then slice. Delete the solid square and the boarder that was cut out of your image. Do this again for the 2.75 x 2.75 square.
- Now hit make it and select your cutting settings. You could also cut these simple shapes by hand.
- For my cardstock I select medium cardstock, more pressure (this will differ a little bit depending on the cardstock you are using. You can use a light grip blue mat or standard grip green mat.
- For the stain glass image, it will all fit on one printer paper page if you used the same measurements as I did. I used the copy paper setting default setting and left the bleed on. I recommend using a light grip blue mat to cut on. Make sure to place the printed-out page on your Cricut mat exactly as it is on your screen.
- If you need to calibrate your machine before doing a print then cut, then click here and I will walk you through how to do this.
17. Flip your mats upside down and slowly bend them backwards to remove paper materials from your mats. This helps the paper not to curl.
18. Fold your rectangle along your score line or in half.
19. Use the double-sided tape to attach the larger image to the front of your rectangle/card.
20. Use the double-sided tape to attach the medium size image to the medium size 4×4 square and the small image to the small 3×3 square.
21. Place the foam tape around the back side of the medium size square and place it directly over the largest image on the front of the card. Make sure to line up the images as best you can.
22. Place foam tape around the back of the smallest square and place it directly over the medium size square you just placed on the front of the card. Make sure to line up the images as best your can.
23. Hand write or have your Cricut write a little note to attach to the inside of your card.
I think this is a fun card, and it actually was pretty quick and easy to make and assemble. You could get fancy and add multiple different layers or 2 different layers of cardstock between each image. You could also do this technique with other images, but I really like how the stain glass looks with this effect. It is amazing how different a card can look by just changing the color of the card stock you put it on. You can use Cricut Design Space to see how your card will look before you make it, to help you determine which color of cardstock you would like to use. To quickly line up this card to see what it will look like in Design Space, click on the medium solid 4×4 square, and move it over the largest image, if the 4×4 square moves behind the image, then click arrange, more to front. Then do this with the next piece/layer of the card, which would be the medium size image and so on. Then drag over all of these squares and click align, center. While the squares are still all selected, move them all at once over to the rectangle/card front. With everything on top of each other it can be difficult to select and change the colors of the squares. So, I recommend selecting them from the layers panel on the right-hand side.
