Using Two Colors with the Cricut Foil Transfer Tool – Part Two

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This is Part Two in my foiling with two colors tutorial (more like a class) for the Cricut Foil Transfer Tool. This part will cover how to upload and cut the greenery for the card, tricks for Design Space to let you cut multiple colors of cardstock on the same mat and actual assembly of the card. The step-by-step foiling instructions can be found in Part One. I hope you will join me for part two as well because, as a card maker at heart, I feel the step when all of the elements come together to create a finished card is the best part! At the end of this post, there is also a bonus step that includes suggestions on how to assembly-line this card if you want to make multiples of it in the least amount of time.

Click HERE for the Part One post with video and instructions with photos

Please check out the video tutorial for Part Two below or scroll down for instructions with photos:

Step One – Open the Greenery Design in Cricut Design Space, Resize and Duplicate

Purchase the berries and greenery SVG design from the Silhouette Design Store. Make sure you purchase the SVG file as well as the Silhouette file format (that’s the default). To do so, you will need to check the SVG box under File Type on the window that opens when you click on the design and it may increase the price a little; it is $1.49 as of this post date. Go through the payment process and then do a Direct Download of the file to your computer, extract the SVG file (if necessary) and save it somewhere you can find it again.

Open Cricut Design Space and go to the Home screen. Click on the New Project box to open the Canvas workspace. Click on the Import button on the left side tool bar (the cloud icon with the up arrow on it). On the screen that opens, click the Browse Files button in the upper middle of the page. This will open a separate window with your computer’s file structure showing. Navigate to where you saved the SVG file, click on it and then click the Open button. The design will open on your Home screen in Design Space. If you get an error message about text elements, just hit Continue; not sure what that refers to as it doesn’t seem to make any difference with the design. Rename the design and add tags if you like, then click the Save button in the lower right. The software will take you to a new screen with the just uploaded greenery design showing in the first box under Recently Uploaded Images. Click on it to select it and then click the green button in the lower right labeled “Insert Images”. The greenery design should now open on the Design Space Canvas (Photo A).

Click on the screen near the greenery bunch and drag over it to select the entire design. Move your cursor over to the top of the right-hand panel that lists all of the elements/layers in the design and click the Ungroup icon. This will now allow you to select individual elements in the design. Go back to the bunch of greenery and select one element in the grouping and pull it away from the rest. Continue to separate all of the elements on the canvas, making sure to place the berries close together. Select one of the berries and move your cursor to the Size box on the upper toolbar. Make sure the lock icon is closed (aka locked) and change the height to .25 inches. If the lock icon was closed, the berry’s width will proportionally change also. If the lock was not closed, hit the Undo arrow, lock the lock and now change the height of the berry. Repeat for all three berries. Their individual widths will vary slightly after resizing and that is okay – just make sure all of their heights are changed to .25″. Click the Group icon at top of the right-hand panel that lists all of the elements/layers.

Now click the berries group again (if necessary) and then click the Duplicate icon also at the top of the right-hand panel that lists all of the elements in the design twice so you will have three groups of three berries each. Rearrange the berries as needed to get the groups close together but not overlapping each other – you want to make the bunch small so you use less cardstock when cutting out the whole group with your machine. Click and drag over all nine of them and hit the Group button again to make them a large group. You are going to do this exact same sequence for the remaining three greenery pieces. Change the mistletoe leaf’s width to 2.3″, duplicate twice (for a total of three leaves), rearrange them into a close bunch and then group them together. Change the small branch’s width to 1.5″ and duplicate twice (for a total of three branches), rearrange them into a close bunch and group them together. Change the pine branch’s height to 3″ and duplicate it three times (for a total of 4 pine branches), rearrange them into a close bunch and group together. When you have 4 groups (1 for  each element – berries, mistletoe, small branches, pine branches), one by one click each group and then click the Attach icon on the bottom of the right-hand panel that lists all of the elements in the design (Photo B). Only attach the groups to themselves – do not attach all of them together. If you attach all the groups together, they will transfer to the mat after you click “Make It” exactly as they are arranged on the canvas (as one big arrangement) and you won’t be able to separate the groups of elements into separate areas on the mat which you need to do in Step Two.

Step Two – Change the Elements so They all Cut on One Mat 

As you may know, when you click the “Make It” button, Cricut Design Space will break the project apart by color and place each color on a separate mat unless you have attached multiple items together (as we did with the foiled star in Part One). But, to make one card like this, it saves time if you can cut all of the greenery elements on one mat at one time despite the fact that each element will be a different color of cardstock. To trick the software into thinking all of the greenery should be cut on one mat, you need to change the color of all of the element groups to be the same color.

Right now, there are three colors in the design – red berries, dark green mistletoe and small branches, and a slightly lighter green on the pine branches. The easiest thing to do is to change the berries and the pine branches to the dark green of the mistletoe and small branches. To do that, click on the berries group to select it, move your cursor up to the toolbar just above the canvas to the colored box on the left side next to the Cut dropdown menu under Linetype; it should be red since the berries are red. Click on it to open a flyout box showing a bunch of colored squares. The first row under “Material colors” are the colors that are currently being used with the elements on the canvas. Click the dark green box to select it and the berries should all change to the dark green color. Repeat this step for the pine branches as well. Once all of the elements are the same dark green color, click the “Make It” button on the upper right (Photo A).

A new screen will open with one green mat showing and the four groups of elements placed on the mat. You can see a thin red line all the way around the square mat, about a quarter of an inch inside the outer edge of the mat – this indicates the actual cutting area on the mat. One of the groups (in my case the pine branches) should be placed right up against this border in the upper left corner of the mat which is good. You now need to click on each of the remaining groups and move them each into one of the remaining corners of the mat, just inside that red cut line. Arranging each element in a separate corner of the mat allows you to know which corner of the actual physical mat to place each color of cardstock. When I rearranged the elements on the mat, I left the pine branches in the upper left corner, put the berries in the upper right corner, put the small branches in the lower right corner and the mistletoe in the lower left corner (Photo B).

Once you have arranged the groups as you like them, count the grid lines on the mat to determine the width and height of each piece of cardstock you will need for each element. Then click the Continue button in the lower right. The next screen will ask you to select the Base Material. I choose Heavy Cardstock but you should choose what is appropriate for the weight of your cardstock. Be aware, however, that the pine branches are especially detailed and may require extra pressure or an extra pass to cut completely through. I did two passes to ensure they were cut by hitting the green Cricut button on my Cricut Maker after the first pass but before unloading the mat. Once you have selected the base material in the software, you can cut the colors of cardstock to the sizes needed and go to the actual mat – you will need a Standard Grip Cricut Mat.

Arrange the cardstock on the mat by color needed in the same order you did in the software; eg. if you have the pine branches in the upper left corner of the mat in Design Space, you should put a dark green cardstock in the upper left. The berries should be red, the mistletoe a lighter green and the small branches a warm brown (Photo C). Once you have the cardstock on the mat correctly, load the mat into the machine by hitting the flashing double arrow button and when ready, hit the flashing green C button to cut the elements out. When done, check to make sure they have cut well. If so, unload the mat by hitting the double arrow button and remove the greenery from the mat by flipping the mat over and rolling the mat away from the cardstock and die cuts to prevent them from curling. I used a Cricut spatula to help remove them.

Step Three – Prep Card Ingredients for Assembly 

For the card you will need to create an A2-sized card base by cutting a piece of heavy-weight white cardstock to 5.5″ W x 8.5″ L and folding in half at the 4.25″ mark on the long side. Cut a piece of kraft colored cardstock to 4″ x 5.25″ for the card mat. You will also need the greenery elements you just cut, and the foiled star and red star mat from Part One. Finally, you need a small heart punch, foam squares, liquid glue and tape runner and a fine point red marker that matches the red cardstock you used for the berries (or as close to a match as you can get).

To add detail to the corners of the kraft cardstock mat, flip the small heart punch over and feed the point of one corner of the kraft mat into it so the point of the heart is closest to the point of the mat corner, eyeballing the evenness of the punch placement in the corner of the paper by trying to keep equal amounts of cardstock showing on each side of the punch. When satisfied with the placement, punch out a heart from the kraft mat (Photo B). Repeat this in all four corners of the mat.

The greenery will need some trimming before assembly. Trim off the top two leaves of one of the mistletoe and discard the rest. Trim off the stems on the two remaining mistletoe leaves and discard. Trim all of the straight parts off the bottoms of the pine branches so you have just the top two V-shaped branches attached to each other. Cut one of these V-shapes apart to create two separate branches. In the end, you should have three Vs and 2 separate pine branches. The small branches all have two branches on one side and one branch on the other side of a main stem. One branch will keep all three of these and have the two-branch side of the stem face to the right. Glue red berries to it, putting the berries on the the end of each branch for a total of three berries. One of the other two small branches needs to have the two-branch side of the stem face to the left, the other faces to the right. On the branch with the two-branch side facing right, trim off the top branch on the two-branch side. On the other, trim off the lower branch on the two-branch side. Glue berries to these branches so you have two berries on each. you will have a couple of extra berries that you don’t need or add elsewhere if you like (Photo C shows completed trimmed greenery).

Finally, adhere the white foiled star into the center of the red star mat with tape runner and/or liquid glue. You are now  ready to complete the card.

Step Four – Complete the Card

Add tape runner and/or liquid glue to the back of the kraft mat and adhere into the center of the front of the card base. Add foam squares to the center back area of the foiled star (now matted with red) and adhere into the center of the kraft card mat. Add one of the V-shaped pine branches sticking out from behind the star between the upper left points of the star, the longer branch should face right. Place another V-shaped branch sticking out from behind the star between the upper right points of the star. The longer branch on this one should face left. Add the last V-shaped branch sticking out from behind the star between the lower two points of the star. Add one of the individual branches sticking out from behind the star between the lower left-hand points of the star. Add the final single branch sticking out from behind the star in between the lower right-hand points of the star. Refer to the completed card photos for help. Flip the branches over as needed and angle them to help them appear different from each other. You may also need to trim a bit off the ends that go under the star so the branches can fit well. When happy, remove one pine branch and add liquid adhesive to the bottom and a bit here and there on the backs of the branches and adhere in place. You don’t want to add adhesive all over the backs or the branches will look too flat. Repeat for all of the pine branches (Photo A).

Now add the mistletoe leaves behind the star. The two-leaf branch should be adhered sticking out behind the star on top of the single pine branch between the lower right-hand points of the star. One of the larger mistletoe branches goes on top of the pine branch between the two lower points of the star. The final mistletoe branch goes on top of the pine branch, behind the upper left-hand points of the star. Adhere in the same way as you did the pine branches, trimming as needed so they fit well. Finally, add the three-branch berries over the pine branch between the upper right-hand points of the star. Add the berries with the two branches near the top over the greenery between the lower two points of the star. Finally, the last berry branch goes on top of the single pine branch between the lower left-hand points of the star. Again, trim as needed so they fit well and adhere in place (Photo B).

The final step in the card assembly is carefully tracing the edge of the punched heart openings with a fine-point red marker. The easiest method is to run the marker right along the edge of the kraft cardstock while inside the punched opening so the red outline is drawn on the white card base. Take your time as this can be a bit tricky and you don’t want to make too many errant marks while tracing the outlines. Outline all four hearts (Photo C) and then enjoy the finished card. Yay!

Step Five – BONUS! Tips for Assembly-Lining this Card if You Want to Make Multiples

This is a lovely project when complete but you may be thinking there is no way you could make multiples of it to send out as Christmas cards. Well, I have some suggestions for ways to make that possible and easier to create. For this one time project, the foiling basically called for one piece each of 4″ x 6″ red foil and 4″ x 6″ gold foil. That is not terribly expensive but it’s not ideal both economically and timewise when making multiples of the same card. Unfortunately, the red foil is only available in 4″ x 6″ sheets so if you are really committed to doing the red and gold foil, you will be stuck doing each red portion one star at a time. However, if you’re willing to give up the red foil, I would suggest you use a 12″ x 12″ gold foil sheet with a 12″ x 12″ piece of white cardstock and create multiples of the star design on one mat so you can foil 4 -6 stars all at once. Then, use a bold red marker to complete the red parts of the star design. Maybe not quite as shiny but definitely still very pretty! For the greenery, you can cut lots of each type of greenery at once by creating as many groups of each kind of greenery as will fit on a 12″ x 12″ piece of cardstock. Change the colors of them in Design Space to the actual colors of cardstock you plan to use and so they are sorted by color into separate mats. Then cut a full 12″ x 12′ sheet of each kind of greenery. This way you will have cut enough of each kind of greenery with each pass of the mat through the machine to create a bunch of cards

In the alternate red version of the card shown in some of the photos, I used gold and silver foil on red cardstock instead of the red and gold foil on white cardstock as in the original. There are 12″ x 12″ sheets of silver foil available as well as the gold, so that version could be foiled in multiples – as many as you can fit on one 12″ x 12″ sheet of red cardstock. Then follow the above advice for the greenery and you could be making enough elements for 4 – 6 cards for each pass through the machine. Just remember to cut white berries instead of red and outline the hearts with a white gel pen instead of a red marker.

I hope these suggestions are helpful if you want to make a bunch of these cards. You could also turn the star design into an ornament to hang on the tree or into gift tags for presents. There are many possibilities where you don’t need many,. many copies of this design but I hope you find a way to use the techniques I’ve shown in this “class” in your future foiling endeavors. If there are additional topics you’d like me to cover with my various electronic cutters – the Cricut Maker, Silhouette Cameo 4, or Brother Scan N Cut DX, please leave me a comment below and let me know. Thanks!

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