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How to Make a Custom Cricut Joy Card Template

Have you wondered how to make a custom Cricut Joy card template? It’s easier than you think to use any image and write inside the card too!

I have been having a lot of fun playing with my new Cricut Joy and making cards has to be my favorite thing to do!

After making a bunch of the free Cricut Access cards I really wanted to figure out how to make a custom Cricut Joy card template and be able to write a message inside the card. Luckily, it was much easier than I thought!

I also had a few of you ask how to do it so I wanted to explain how I do it. I have two videos in this post for each of the two cards I made since they are both a little bit different.

cricut joy custom card

Materials Needed for Cricut Joy Card Making

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links from Shareasale, Cricut, Awin, CreativeFabrica, and Amazon.com. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my links (purple text). As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

How to Make Cricut Joy Card Template

In my last post, I told you all about the new Cricut Joy and showed you how to do three easy Cricut Joy projects. One of those projects was a card available for free in Cricut Access.

But what if you want to make a custom card? Is there a way to do that? Yes! And it’s pretty simple.

When you are on the canvas of Cricut Design Space, click on the “images” button on the left hand side. (Make sure Joy is picked as your machine in the upper right-hand corner)

In the search box, type in “insert card corners”.

insert card corners cricut

Find the corners you want to use and click on them. Then click on “Insert Images” on bottom right corner.

cricut joy cds

Remember all of this is in a video tutorial below so make sure to watch the entire process to see it in action.

Do not change the size of corners if you are using the standard Cricut Joy cards.

Now find an image that you want on the front of the card. The one drawback of using any image is that if the little pieces inside the letters are not connected they will be cut out and you have the choice of leaving them like that, gluing them on the card insert, or filling them in with markers (see below).

I inserted the image below and since it was long, I decided to make a horizontal card. I rotated the image by 270 degrees and sized it so it fit inside the corners. Then I used my cursor to put the corners and image in a box and aligned them to Center.

center design space

Note: you can also change any part of the image to draw if you’d rather it draw a part of the image rather than cut it. Click on Linetype in upper left hand corner and change to draw and then pick pen color.

Once it’s centered and how you want it, make sure the corners and image are both selected and click the attach button on the lower right.

Everything will change to the same color indicating it’s one cut layer.

Writing on the Inside of the Card

Now, if you want a sentiment to be written or “drawn” on the inside of the card, click on the text button on the left.

Write whatever you want. Then click on linetype or Operation and change it to Draw.

cricut joy draw setting

Click on the Font drop down and change the filter to “writing”. This will show you all the fonts that can be used for drawing a single letter line.

Pick the one you like! Then you can change the “alignment” to center and decrease the line height or letter space until it’s just how you want it. (remember all of this is in the video if it seems confusing!)

cds center

Since I was making a horizontal card, I rotated the text by 270 degrees and then used the double arrow and dragged it in to make the font smaller until it was small enough to fit on the same size card.

Once it’s how you like it make sure it’s selected and click “attach” so it all stays together.

cricut joy horizontal card

Make sure to save your project and then click Make It on upper right.

When the mat screen pops up, click on “On Card Mat”.

on card mat

Then change the Material Size of the card on the left hand side to 4.25 x 5.5. Now you will need to drag the text to center it as best you can in between the red lines. I left some space on the bottom to write my name.

inside sentiment cricut joy card

You don’t need to do anything to the second mat screen. This is the front of the card and is already centered since it has the corners. It will probably default to the larger mat size, but that’s fine. You’ll notice the entire design is inside the smaller rectangle.

cricut joy card placement

Click Continue and make sure your Cricut Joy connects. Select insert cards as the material.

Preparing the Cricut Joy Mat Card to Draw on Inside

The Cricut Joy will write or “draw” on the inside of the card first. So you’ll need the inside of the card facing up.

Simply do this by folding the front side of the card to the backside and insert the front of the card into the mat. (Again make sure to watch the video below, it’s hard to explain this, and it’s much easier than it sounds!)

cricut joy custom card

Cricut Design Space will prompt you to insert a Cricut Joy pen (Other Cricut pens do not work!). Close the clasp and hold the mat up under the guides and let the machine pull it in.

cricut joy custom card how

CDS will make sure it’s straight and then will prompt you to click on the green Go button on your laptop or tablet (not on the machine itself).

cricut joy custom card writing

Once the writing is done, press the unload mat on your laptop. Remove the card from the mat.

cricut joy unload

Then flip it the other way so now the inside of the card is under the plastic covering. You will be able to see the sentiment.

cricut joy custom card inside
cricut joy custom card mat

CDS prompts me to insert the fine point blade. Once I did, I hit Go! (I’m making a few different cards and on this one I had changed some of the words to “Draw” so that’s why it looks different!)

cricut software joy
cricut joy custom card

Once it’s done cutting and CDS prompts you to unload the mat, gently peel the top layer of the card off. Use your spatula to get under the corner!

cricut joy custom card

If any of the pieces don’t come out (if you mat isn’t as sticky as it used to be!), gently pull off the pieces from the back side. Then put in the card insert in the corners.

cricut joy custom card insert

Sign the card and it’s all set! Here are the two different ones I made.

cricut joy custom card inside
cricut miss you card
cricut joy custom writing
I make this card in the video!

I grabbed a marker and just colored in the missing inside pieces.

cricut joy custom card i miss you

How to Make Custom Cricut Joy Card Video

To watch the full video on YouTube click here.

Changing Orientation of Pre Formatted Card

For the next card, I wanted to add a sentiment inside a card that was a free card inside of Cricut Access. And I also wanted to change the orientation of the card.

cricut thank you card

I made this gorgeous Thank You card by removing the corners with the contour tool.

cricut joy how to write

I made a full detailed video tutorial of all of these steps and then just follow the rest of the directions from above to cut the card. The font I used was DJ Flirt.

The video is probably at the top or side of the post if it’s not here!

Can You Make Cricut Joy Cards with an Explore or Maker?

Yes! You can! You’ll just cut them out on a standard 12 x 12 mat or use the new Cricut 2×2 card mat!

I found them by clicking on images on a canvas. Then typing in Joy Cards in the search box.

joy cards on cricut explore

You can scroll through and see which ones you want to make. If you have a scoring wheel, it will ask you to insert one. If not, just delete the scoreline and fold the card in half (you’ll have to ungroup and then detach the scoreline to delete it).

cricut cards joy explore air
The cards will insert like this.

Most of the cards also come with an envelope. If you don’t want to cut the envelope, ungroup everything and delete the envelope.

I made this pretty Cricut Access Joy card with my Cricut Maker.

congrats cricut card
cricut joy info

How to Make Cards with the Cricut Joy

Yield: 1 card
Active Time: 5 minutes
Additional Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Estimated Cost: $1

Make a beatiful card in minutes with the Cricut Joy.

Instructions

  1. Find a card you want to make under Free for Cricut Joy in Cricut Design Space.
  2. Slide the backside of the card between the mat and the plastic guide cover on the Cricut card mat.
  3. Follow the Cricut Design Space directions to make your card. Press Go and then select Cricut insert cards as the material.
  4. Place the card mat up to the rollers and let the machine pull it in.
  5. Press "Go" on your computer when prompted.
  6. If using a pen, follow the onscreen prompts on when to insert a pen and then the cutting blade.
  7. After it's done, click "unload mat" on your computer. Gently pull the top of the card away from the mat.
  8. Insert a supplied card into the slits in the corners of the cards.
  9. Enjoy your fun and cute cards!

Did you make this project?

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Instagram

I hope this answers your questions on how to make your own cards to cut with the Cricut Joy.

If you’d like to save this post for later, simply hover over the image below and PIN It now!

cricut joy card template

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative day!

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Amy selfie

About Amy

Hi There!! Welcome to Leap of Faith Crafting and my little slice of the internet! I am so glad that you stopped by! My mission is to inspire others to be creative and to show you that everyone can be crafty! I am not an expert, I am just like you!! Read more...

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