Hi, friends! I am SO excited to share the invitations I created for Laura’s baby shower today! I’ve always wanted to try this delicate die cut look for an invite, and it was so much fun to put together! We teamed up with our friends at Canon USA to create this downloadable design and share how to create these sweet invitations!
Ok, let’s get started!
First you will need a design for both the die cut part of your card and the invite on the inside. To design the die cut, use any design program to create the design you want to cut out on a white background and save it as a .jpg image.
Make sure it is the right size to fit into your envelopes once you’ve folded it. I used pink A7 envelopes for 5×7 invitations.
If you want to use our design, you can! DOWNLOAD HERE.
Follow the instructions that come with your Cricut machine, which we were so excited to try out! We used 12×12 card stock (regular scrapbooking paper) in both a mint color and a light green.
Each invite takes about fifteen minutes to cut, not including weeding it out by hand afterwards. So I would not recommend this level of detail in the design if you have a huge number to create (for a wedding for example). But they are so beautiful!
It doesn’t end there. Once the cutting is done, carefully remove the paper from the cutting mat. This step takes patience. Carefully weed out all the details with this tool. If a few shoots rip or are imperfect, I say let it be. If you look very closely at mine, they aren’t 100% perfect, but they still look awesome.
Next, print the inside of the invite. We designed a simple invitation, and I was able to fit four of them on each 13×19 sheet using my Canon PIXMA iP8720, which is perfect for both larger scale prints and projects like this where I can fit multiples pieces on one page!
I used Fine Art Photo Rag paper in 13×19. I like this paper for this type of project because it looks more like stationery and less like photo paper.
Here it is done… ish.
I am SO proud of these invites. Laura actually helped me assemble them one night (I know it doesn’t seem right to let her help, but it was a lot of fun, so oh well!), and we had so much fun learning to use the Cricut and putting them together.
This is definitely one of the most intricate and time consuming DIYs I’ve done in a long time, but the results are beautiful. So I felt like it was worth it!
Thanks for reading. xx -Elsie
32 Comments
This is so beautiful! I’m crazy for cacti, what a great idea for invitations – I might do something similar in the future. So inspired.
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
Oh, I hope this means more Cricut DIYs are coming from you guys! I love using mine — it’s so helpful to be able to cut things out perfectly at the most random of times.
I agree, I love my Cricut machine and would love more DIY’s for it – I’ve cut thin leather on it before and it was so fun! I LOVE how these turned out, great job!
SO PRETTY!!!
Laura 🙂
This looks so so gorgeous! Also loving your new template.
Beckie xo // The Pale Tails
Beautiful invitations! I love the color combination.
I was wondering, though, why do I have to click through more than once to read a single post now? It’s a bit strange and frustrating. Thank you for taking the time to read this!
Hi Kate!
You can still view the blog the “old way” by clicking “skip to the blog view” (in mint near the top of the page. If you bookmark that page you can read it the “old way” still.
We did this because we have a lot of posts with 10+ photos and it was too long of a load time for a LOT of blog readers.
🙂 Elsie
These are the cutest invites! Love them!!
Thank you!!
This is SOOOO GOOD! Love it!
Oh wow! These turned out great! And I’m a stationery designer & letterpress printer, so I should know! Haha. I have done SO much hand assembly, which can be super tedious, so I hope you only had a few to clean up the cutting because it looks a little painful! I’m pretty impressed by the Cricut – looks like a great craft tool!
P.S. The new blog design is so great, I love it!
http://www.shessobright.com
Omigosh those are so gorgeous! Now I want a baby…. or maybe I can just have a Palm Springs birthday…….. hmm
I wanted to say one thing about the new website design, I really wish that it said the author of the article at the beginning of the post. I like to know who’s voice I’m reading so I always find myself scrolling to the bottom of the post before I read it, and I feel like I’m spoiler alerting the post for myself. Also on the new home page, it would be cool if it said the author’s name there too, before you click on the post. I know it’s a new design and you probably have a lot of kinks to work out still, and it is GORGEOUS AND AMAZING, but I thought if I was you I would like to hear this feedback. 🙂
TL;DR: you guys are the bomb.
Haha I started thinking “Maybe I could do something like this for my wedding invites” and then read on and saw how tedious the weeding was. Love this idea and the design!
Yeah- it could totally work with a simpler design, but this one is very detailed & takes forevvvver.
xx- Elsie
I am SO excited to see a Cricut DIY on your site! Two things I love in one place, score!
Love!
I’d really enjoy reading your thoughts on the Circuit machine. When would it be worth the investment in your opinion?
Wow, I definitely want this machine!
http://www.makeandmess.com/
Just imagine cutting it all out by hand o.o My fingers hurt at the very thought of it.
So beautiful. As a photographer, I’m dreaming of doing something like this as a photo holder for clients (it’s so unique and fun)…possibilities are endless. So glad you shared this!
Your invitations were so lovely! A bit of feedback on the post: I don’t have a cricut machine and don’t have plans to get one, but the level of detail in your invitations, the pretty colors and photos, etc., were still great inspiration for other projects. I have also been looking for rag paper, which you linked. In short, I love how versatile your posts are, even when I don’t plan to replicate what you are doing exactly. Thanks for another great post!
So intricate but worth it! How many did you end up making for the shower?
These are so pretty! You did an awesome job!
Paige
http://thehappyflammily.com
These invitations look so great!!! I hope you do more Cricut projects. I’ve had one for two years and there are nearly limitless possibilities for projects. The trick is to figure out the right setting for each cutting material. It looks like maybe you cut this on the cardstock setting. Because of the texture on this paper, I would recommend setting the dial one notch past that to cardstock +. Weeding is also easier if you flip the mat over after cutting, with the paper on a flat surface, and pull the mat away from the paper instead of viceversa. The little bits of paper stuck on the mat come off quickly with a lint roller brush. Hope that helps!
These invitations are awesome! I did not know this machine!
Serena
https://www.etsy.com/shop/Mydrops
Whoa! These are amazing!!!! You must have some serious patience to weed out all those tiny little details. But, wow are the results worth it!! I’m pretty curious about that machine now. Hope you guys do some more tutorials with it.
Alright, I’m going for it!! These really fit my wedding, perfectly so I am so excited that you posted it! I have a few months before invitations need to go out, so I have some time to work on it.
I did a few test runs last night, and this is what I found….just in case anyone else tries it out!
During the first two trials my Cricut ripped some of the areas. I made sure I had it on the right setting, which I did. But, I found that you if you placed it on custom setting, and select Cardstock-Intricate Cuts, this didn’t happen.
I also found that it was quite a bit quicker to weed out the details if I left it on the sticky mat! I put a record on, and I was able to weed out the details in the time of one song–and the beginning of another! (So, probably about 5 minutes).
I ordered some pearlescent greenish/aqua cardstock to fancy it up a little for the wedding–I can’t wait to see how it turns out!
Hi Terri! I had the same thought when I saw this post- I want these for my wedding! I don’t care if they’re a little tedious to weed out, I need them! I was hoping you could help me though- I’m a bit of a Cricut newbie… I downloaded the jpg, but now I am not sure how to go from there? It is not working for me when I upload the image in a new project. I hope this makes sense…I have never created a custom project with Cricut before. I’ve only used their pre-made projects. I really want these for my invites!! Your help, or Elsie’s would be much appreciated, please 🙂
Was searching for Save the Date & Wedding Invitation Ideas using homemade postcards and came across this post. This is the first time I have ever heard of a cutting machine that can do this and really love the end result. I an definitely going to have to do some research and get one asap.
Hey there all! I’ve uploaded the template to my cricut design space and have spent hours trying to erase all the white space so I can move on to use it for cutting … I’m struggling with the erase part. Has anyone already done the erasing and saved the file? Any tips? Or is it just very tedious and painful???
You should email the cricut support! They would be able to help you the best and the fastest! xx!
Do you have this saved as a svg file?
Sorry! We only have the .jpg file.