Paper crafting with Cricut is so much fun and such a great creative outlet, let's check out 10 paper crafting tips for beginners! Plus grab a new free SVG file for St Patrick's Day to practice with!
Whether you want to make paper flowers, greeting cards, cake toppers or maybe just learn some new techniques for paper crafting, I hope we can work together to help you master the art of paper crafts.
This blog may contain affiliate links that help me earn a small commission at no extra charge to you, read my full disclosure here.
Mobile users turn your phone or watch the YouTube video here.
Here are my 10 Tips for Paper Crafting:
Tip 1: Invest in the Scoring Stylus
If you are use to hand cutting you might already have a bone folder, but my suggestion for paper crafting with your Cricut machine is to invest in the scoring stylus for your folds. Right now on Amazon you can grab a scoring stylus for only $5 but they should also have this at your local craft store! This will help you have super clean fold lines and also help you have straight lines as well! I use a lot of scoring in my 3D paper crafts and I actually have a scoring stylus both both of my machines.
Tip 2: Add Layers with Duplicate and Offset
This works for all different designs with paper crafting, you can use this for just one layer and add dimension or you can add an offset to your entire design and create different widths for more colors. It's such an easy technique and will make your paper craft project really pop. I went over this technique for making cake toppers, I find layering to be the perfect way to make really extraordinary paper crafts. So many paper crafters create beautiful one of a kind projects by adding layers to their simple designs.
Tip 3: Use Vinyl with Paper Crafts
I love using vinyl for my crafts because it's a great way to keep words all lined up properly. You can take a design and use vinyl (both regular and heat transfer vinyl) to create unique artistic elements easily. I will give you another tip later on how to use this properly, so don't worry about the learning curve. I just find using vinyl is a simple paper crafting technique perfect for small shapes and lettering.
Tip 4: Learn How to Adjust Pressure Settings
Cricut predetermines the pressure for different materials so your scrapbook paper, your tissue paper, or your glitter paper might be slightly different from what Cricut has decided. This is adjustable though! There are two different ways you can change this: You man manually go in and add or remove pressure in the material settings so that every time you use this material, it is always at a higher or lower pressure. Or you can add the more pressure drop down when you are in the Make part of Cricut Design Space. This is a tip in my eyes because you should get to know the materials you use, test, and then adjust so in the future you don't have to worry about if it will work or not and end up wasting material. There are lots of different types of papers out there on the market so Cricut might now always get it right. For the best results, learn how to adjust your settings and what works for each kind that you use. And as for your blade tip - I like to use the regular fine point blade and change them often so they are sharp!
Tip 5: Pull the Cutting Mat Away from Your Paper
To prevent curling of you card stock paper, pull the mat away from your paper rather than your paper away from your mat and I promise it will make all the difference. Imagine making handmade cards and all of them are slightly in a C shape. The best thing is to pull the mat away, it wont break if you are gentle and keep the paper as flat as you can. I like to use a Standard Grip cutting mat for all of my projects but a lot of paper crafters tend to go for the light grip as well. It's totally up to you, but I would still keep this tip the same for either kind.
Don't forget to sign up for my newsletter below for more crafting tips, free SVG files and the password for the 3D St. Patrick's Day hat file
Tip 6: Use the Right Adhesives
Now this can be a bias here, but hot glue very tacky glue vs foam tape vs a tape gun - these are all amazing but you might not be able to use them all interchangeably all the time. It's a good idea to test different glues and tapes with all your different card stocks. For example: I have found that hot glue works better for my glitter card stock paper over 65 lb paper where I like to use a craft glue. If you're working with thinner papers, you might nix glue altogether and opt for a tape gun! Just get to know your materials again, that way there is less waste.
Tip 7: Patience While Your Adhesive Dries
This one is hard for me, I want to fly through some of my different designs but we need to learn some patience while our adhesives fully set. You don't want to work on a cake topper for an hour just for something to start slipping and sliding because your glue wasn't dry enough yet. Hot glue tends to dry faster but you also need to be more precise, you will learn new skills each time you make a new paper craft.
Tip 8: Transfer Tape and Heat Settings
Use the right transfer tape to avoid tearing - right now I have been loving this matte transfer tape from teckwrap, it's not overly tacky and goes onto my paper like butter. As for Heat Transfer Vinyl, if you opt for this, my suggestion is to use the lowest setting and continuous movement without too much pressure. There is always a chance of your card stock discoloring and thats never fun and can ruin your paper craft.
Tip 9: Make Up for Paper Crafting
If you have seen some of my paper flower videos or tutorials, then you have seen me use this technique to shade and color my card stock. I use a relatively cheap make up palette and a Q-tip to add different designs onto my paper. The best part is that this opens up so much in terms of design - you can take a simple design and add your own unique spin. You can also opt for alcohol inks, crayons or markers for a personal touch.
Tip 10: Foam Tape
I have fallen in love with using different colors of foam tape, not only can I add height to my designs but now its more hidden and less stark than the normal white. That's not to say I hate the white foam tape for my paper crafting because they not make foam tapes that are higher, which means adding levels to your paper crafts is easier than ever. This technique is used again a lot in cake topper design and even in handmade greeting cards.
As you continue to practice your paper crafting and using these 10 paper crafting tips your skill level will increase and soon your will be able to take a simple piece of paper and make it into something incredible. I love working with card stock paper because there are just so many creative ways to use it, it's truly an amazing material to work with.
Now, lets use these tips to create our 3D St Patricks Day Craft!
You can find the file under my community SVG files, sign up for my newsletter to receive the password. You can find download instructions here for Chrome/desktop and here for Safari/iPad/iPhone.
Step 1: Cricut Design Space
(Tip used: paper cut settings, scoring stylus)
Size as you see fit, keep in mind the size of your paper. I made mine around 18 inches in total. Then I ungrouped everything and changed the line with the curved piece to a score line to use with my scoring stylus and attached with the paper clip. I cut everything out on the medium card stock setting on fast mode.
Step 2: The Top of the Hat
(Tips used: paper curling, adhesive type and patience)
Once everything is cut remove your card stock from your cutting mats and remember that you should remove the mat from paper and not the paper from the mat to prevent curling, you will fold in on those score lines and glue the two sides of the curved piece of paper together.
Step 3: Attach the Top
(Tips used: patience)
Center this top piece the best you can to the circle and glue down, I used a tacky glue for my regular 65 lb paper and for my glitter paper I used hot glue. You can mark the center of the circle paper before you glue down if it helps you align everything but the crookedness sometimes adds a nice handmade touch...
Step 4: Create Your Belt
(Tips used: patience)
Attach your buckle to the middle of the long strip and wrap this around the top of the hat kind of in the middle, slightly down. It should fit snug but I glued mine to stay up on the hat but that is optional! I also like to line up my paper seams at this point and put them towards the back of the paper bag.
Step 5: Attach your Shamrock Handle
(Tips used: patience)
This las step is simple, glue you handle onto both sides and let it dry. Now you have a super simple and fun 3D paper craft for St Patricks Day!
Additional SVG file: if you want to add on the overly lucky SVG file, you can add on layers using the offset feature and try out that vinyl on paper technique. Regular layered SVG files are great to try out all these new techniques we looked at today. I was able to use my foam tapes to create height and make a really fun looking project. (Tips used: offset/duplicate, foam tape, make up for shading, vinyl).
Saint Patrick's Day definitely throws me for a loop and I forget a lot to craft for it, but this was so fun to make and I need to remember to create even more fun St Patty's paper crafts for us all to make!
I hope you learned some new paper crafting tips and if you have any that I missed, you can definitely shoot me an email so that we can continue to grow and craft together! I love hearing what you do to make fun, unique paper crafts. Also, a lot of these tips can be utilized across a lot of materials (like the curling of materials and the cutting mats). The world of paper crafting has helped me tremendously with my anxiety and has also helped me grow in my creativity. I hope it will do the same for you!
.webp)
