I am just thrilled to have you here with me today to make this beautiful DIY Father’s Day Card from Scratch using our cutting machine! We will be using some basic shapes and also items from cricut access. I hope this helps you with your card making journey!
When I started crafting with my cricut, there weren’t many people to follow. The ones you could find just helped you put their template together which was great, but I wanted to learn how to make them!
All I wanted to do was learn how to design my own cards and create them the way I wanted to. So I thought I would help you in your journey! So let’s dive right into creating this DIY Father’s Day Card From Scratch using our Cricut.
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I am so thrilled to teach you how to make this DIY Father’s Day card from scratch using your cricut! This post may contain some affiliate links for your convenience (which means if you make a purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you! Read my full disclosure here.
Materials Needed for this DIY Father’s Day Card
- Design Space or similar program
- Cutting Machine
- Cutting mat– blue or green
- Scraper
- Fine Point Blade
- Glue or 3d Dots (for dimension)
- Cardstock or I find my cardstock here as well.
- Cricut Pens
- Cricut Access (or you could make items for your card)
- Positive and creative mindset
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Cricut Design Space
The first thing we are going to do is log into cricut design space and start a blank canvas.
Still learning Cricut Design Space? No problem at all- Check out my Ultimate Beginners Guide to Cricut Design Space
Making the Base for our Father’s Day Card
So we have started a new black canvas.
Step 1. Now let’s go to our left side panel and find the shapes icon and click on that.
Step 2. We are going to want a square, so go ahead and select a square and unlock it. See the image below. The square has to be selected in order to unlock it.
Step 3. Now size it to 9.861 (W) x 5.486 (H). And we can also change the color of the square to whatever color you want the base of the card to be. For this I am using blue for right now.
2 ways to resize
The first way to resize is by simply selecting it and dragging out the bottom right corner.
Second way to resize is by going to the top panel and directly putting in the size that you want where it says size.
Woohoo! We have officially made the base. Except we need one more thing which is the score-line. So let’s go back into shapes and click on the score line.
Now the score line is on your canvas. Go ahead and stretch it down so it will score your whole card. 0 (W) x 5.611 (H)
Now we need to select both the card base and also the score-line, (Select the card base and hold down your shift key and select the score-line).
We are going to head up to the align icon and align center. See image below
While they are still both selected head on down to the attach icon which is the paper clip and hit attach. You can see it in the picture above.
WOOHOO! Our score-line is now attached to our card base.
NOTE: if for some reason your score-lines attaches to the back- detach and make sure it’s above the card base like the picture above shows! Then hit attach again and it should stay in front.
We are now ready to make the panels for the card.
Creating the panels for our Father’s Day Card
Let us go back into shapes and grab another square. Unlock the square like you did before. (select the square and in the left bottom corner is the unlock).
Change the color to whatever color you want your panel to be. I am using a light blue.
We are going to size this square to 4.491 (W) x 5.222 (H) and once it is sized we are going to duplicate it one or two times depending on how many panels you want for your card! That is your choice.
2 ways to Duplicate
First way to duplicate
Select the panel and if you right click (depending on what kind of computer you are on it may vary) then hit duplicate like the picture above shows.
Second way to duplicate
Select the panel in which you want to duplicate and head up to the top of the right hand panel and hit duplicate until you have all the panels you want.
We have now made are panels for the card! We are now ready to decorate and jazz it up with embellishments from cricut access.
Decorating our DIY Father’s Day Card
We are now ready to grab the embellishments from cricut access that we want to use:)
I am pretty sure your decorations and images will be different, but I am going to walk you through a few things I think will help you. When I first started there were so many things that did not click until a few years later! LOL
So I am here to teach what I would have wanted to know back then.
Route 66 Embellishment
So my dad is a huge route 66 kind of guy that loves his toys and cars. I grabbed the route 66 embellishment.
I just did a search for route 66 and this image popped up. The number in design space is #MBE4E689. Just copy and paste that into the search icon under images.
Steps-
Go to your left side panel and find the images icon and click on that.
Then paste the number in the search bar.
Select the image and insert it onto your canvas. (when selected it will be on the bottom right side of your screen right next to the cancel icon)
I didn’t care for what looks like snowflakes to me so select the image and head down to the bottom of the right panel and hit that contour icon. and a screen pops up.
Don’t get scared, this is awesome! Now just hit both snowflakes, they will be highlighted when selected (see image below) and hit the x to close that and LOOK AT THAT!!!! It took them away from our design.
This little icon is a game changer! Especially if you want to edit the design you are working with. AND I just found out about this like 2 years ago. OH All the time I wasted. So that is an easy way to edit your designs.
Now as you can see it’s see through and we do not want that. So let’s duplicate the image (right click and duplicate or right hand panel and duplicate) so we now have two of the same images.
Filling one of the images in so it can be our background
As you can see from the picture above I grabbed squares and circles and sized them to fit inside this shape. Make sure there are NO blue holes showing but if there is, its ok. We can always cover the holes again.
Now let’s move the card base and panel out of the way and draw a box around the shape and everything in it by left clicking our mouse and dragging. (this option may vary depending on the computer you are on)
Another option is heading to that right side panel and holding shift while you select all the layers.
Once all the layers are selected, we are going to head down to the bottom right panel and click on weld which is the second icon.
The above pictures show you the next few steps. Once it is all welded together like the first item shows, let’s go ahead and change the color. I chose white.
Now white shows you everything! Do you see the spots we missed? Let’s go ahead and grab a few more shapes, cover those, and once they are covered, lets go ahead and select all the items and head down and weld again.
Resizing the route 66 image
We are now going to select both the welded background and the route 66 image, head up to align and center it, then group it together so it moves as one piece. Lets resize this to 1.539 (W) x 1.502 (H)
Adding a road to our Father’s Day Card
So I wanted something to come off of the Route 66 image and thought a road would be fabulous. You may want something else which is ok. Find what you want to use.
I went into images and searched for roads. If you want to use the road the number is #MA1BA521. Just copy that number with the # symbol and paste it in the search bar.
For this image, because you CAN ungroup them, let us head up to the ungroup icon which is on the right side panel (second icon) and hit UNGROUP.
Lets delete the words and then resize our road to 3.005 (W) x 1.719 (H)
This is what we should have so far, Plus our side panels.
Happy Father’s Day Saying
Now I went into Images and searched for Happy Father’s Day Sayings. If you want to use the one I did copy this number and paste it in the search bar #M243D52AD. The saying will pop up, select it, and insert it onto your canvas.
For this image I only wanted the Happy Father’s Day, so the first thing we need to do is ungroup it, which you know how to do now. So let’s ungroup it.
Now that it’s ungrouped, let’s select the words, and head down to the contour icon. WE do NOT want the and so let’s hide the a, n, and d. So we are now left with Father’s Day.
Let’s select the tan words now and head down to the contour icon. I only wanted the happy so I am going to hide everything else. But you may want to keep some of it which is ok. Just hide the items you do not want by clicking on the items in the contour screen that you want to hide.
I then went to our left side panel and clicked on text and typed out Daddy. I changed the font to Cooper Black.
WE are now going to resize everything to fit the front of our card.
Sizes for the images
- The Happy banner is sized to 2.628 (W) x 0.736 (H)
- Father’s Day is sized to 3.102 (W) x 1.434 (H)
- Daddy is sized to 3.186 (W) x 0.574 (H)
Now you can go ahead and organize the front of your card how you want to or you can take a peek at mine below. 🙂
Typing out Text- You’re the Greatest
Next, Let’s head to our left side panel and click on the text icon and type out you’re the greatest. Now go into that text box and put the greatest on another line by hitting the enter key. So now we have this on the front of our card.
The final size of you’re the greatest is 0.961 (W) x 0.378 (H). Now let us weld this together.
Because this is so small and would be a pain to glue we are going to make this Draw so our cricut machine can do it for us.
Select the words and Head up to operations and under Draw there’s a pen option- that’s what we want. (see image below)
We aren’t done yet! Yes it will draw, but where? We need to let our cricut machine know where we want this to draw.. So.. Lets select the draw words and also the blue panel behind it.
So select the you’re the greatest, hold your shift key down and select the light blue panel as well and head down to that attach icon. We have now told our cricut machine to draw those words right there on the blue panel:)
Now it’s in front of everything, so lets either move it backwards until it is right where it was or you can send it to the back and bring it forward until it’s in the right position.
Print n Cut of your DAD
Alright I am just so excited about this idea I had. I found a photo of my dad that I wanted to use and removed the background. I usually head to www.remove.bg to remove the backgrounds of my photos. Sometimes it works fabulous, other times not so much. But it worked for this picture.
If it does not work for yours. It’s ok just head to google and search for picture background removers and try a different one. One is bound to work.
So we have removed the background, Now we need to upload it into cricut design space.
Uploading it into Cricut Design Space
Head on over to the left side panel where it says upload and click on that. Now you have two options- upload image or upload pattern.
Let’s click on the upload image (above pic), then browse (picture below), and find the image we just removed the background to. Then hit open.
That brings up to a screen that looks like this.
We are going to choose complex and hit continue which is in the bottom right side of the screen as you can see in the image above!
Once you hit continue you are taken to a screen that looks like the image below. And because this is a print and cut there is nothing we need to do here except hit that green/aqua continue button.
Which takes us to a screen that looks like the image below. We have two options here and we are going to choose the print-n-cut option. Then hit that upload button located in the bottom right hand corner.
It’s officially uploaded now, so lets select it and head down to that aqua button and hit insert images. It’s now on our canvas.. The size is really going to be up to you, but my final size for this image was 1.403 (W) x 2.263 (H).
Duplicating and changing one to a basic cut
One more step- Take that image and duplicate it. Now let us head up to the operations icon located at the top by the undo and redo arrows. Click on it and change it to basic under the cut icon. Which will give it a nice backing so it is not so flimsy. (see image below)
Let’s make sure our picture is in front and line them up, then we can group them together. We now have the outside of the card done. Remember you can add things here and get creative. 🙂
The Inside left panel of the card
Even though we can’t see the inside of our card, I usually use the back of the card to size it for the inside. I hope I do not confuse you here. I do want to decorate the inside left side of the card.
The three items I grab and their numbers
- Fixer of all things- #M16713F9E
- King of the Grill- #M268C3635
- Grill- #M46AC3
Again I am using the back to size, but it is going on the inside of the left panel if you were holding it.
- Fixer of all things final size is 3.356 (W) x 3.009 (H)
- King of the Grill final size is 1.312 (W) x 1.885 (H)
- Grill final size is 1.17 (W) x 2.04 (H)
I arranged my card like so
NOTE: If you do not want to glue all these pieces to the card I completely understand! Trust me! You can always change the words to a draw line like we did for the you’re the greatest text. Then attach it to the card!
For example, let’s take the King of the Grill. That’s pretty small so lets ungroup it and select the words. Next we are going to head up to operation and under draw there is the pen option. Choose that. It changes to an outline.
Next we need to select the King of the Grill words, hold your shift key down, and also select the light blue panel it’s on so our cricut cutting machine knows where we want that drawn. Then head down and attach it.
We are now ready to start cutting this awesome DIY Father’s Day card that we have made from Scratch:) WOOHOO!
Color Sync icon
Real Fast- If you are one that doesn’t want to cut all 14 mats, while still on the screen above, right under the make it icon is the color sync.
Let’s click on that and start moving items around to sync some of the colors that are almost the same. HOW COOL IS THAT?
Below shows you how I combined my colors on the right hand side. Which also takes away from the number of mats we need to cut.
Now we are ready to hit that Make It Icon.
Make it Icon
Let’s check our mats and make sure they all look good, which they do, and we are now ready to cut this AMAZING DIY Father’s Day card that we have made from Scratch!
NOTE: If your score-line is not on the blue base, then you forgot to attach it. If your words are all over you also forgot to weld it.
If you would like to move things around on your cutting mat you can also do that now.
Now let us hit that continue icon which will take us to our machine and material screen.
Machine and Material Screen
Select the machine you are working with, which in my case is the Maker. Then we will be prompted to select the material in which we are working with.
Since this is a DIY Father’s Day Card we are going to cut this out of cardstock. I selected medium cardstock because that is what I am working with. So let’s select the cardstock you are using and continue on with the prompts in cricut design space.
Getting our Material ready to cut
So we have selected cardstock and our machine is ready to go.
Lets grab our green or blue cutting mat and get our materials in the order, in which design space has laid out our mats.
Want more information on Cricut Cutting Mats? Head on over to All about Cricut Cutting Mats- All you need to know.
Make sure the Fine Point Blade is loaded in your cutting machine.
More help with cricut blades? I got you covered. Check out Cricut Blades- All you need to know about the different cricut blades.
Cutting our Cardstock
The First mat should be your print and cut! So send that to your printer.
Some use the Use System Dialog which then another screen appears that you have to hit print on. You can choose to do this or not. I tend to use it most times because it’s a cleaner print!
Once that is done printing, put it on your blue cutting mat (if you used printer paper ) and let your cricut machine do the cut.
Load it into your machine by pressing the flashing arrows. It will load the mat. Next let us hit that cricut icon and watch your machine go to town:)
Your Cricut cutting machine will scan it first so it knows what it’s doing.
Once it is done take the item off your cutting mat and move on to the next mat.
The Second mat should be your white cardstock. Place the white cardstock on your mat, load it into your machine (flashing arrows) and then cricut icon to start cutting.
Keep cutting and following the prompts that design space gives you!
Mat 6- you are going to need to insert the pen into clamp A and continue on.
Mat 7- You are going to need your scoring wheel which cricut will prompt you when you get to that mat!
Continue cutting until all the mats are cut and ready to be assembled.
Putting it all Together
Gluing the pieces that have more than one layer
The first thing I always do while piecing together a card is to group the pieces together that need glued.
Let us grab the two pieces for the route 66 sign and also the two pieces for the print and cut. Glue those both together. (left picture) Then add the letters and numbers to the sign. (right picture)
Now let’s grab all the pieces for the grill and glue those together. You should have six pieces for that.
The black is the back piece, then the next piece is the blue that fits right inside the black piece. Glue those together.
Then let’s take our red piece (the grill and fire combined) and glue that to the blue piece, then take our yellow fire and glue that to the red fire.
Now we have a light blue and dark blue piece, glue those together with the grates on top. Then glue that to the red piece under the fire.
Laying out the front of our DIY father’s Day Card
Before I start gluing anything, I always lay out the card so I know where everything is going. So let’s lay out the card as we want it. Then start gluing those pieces down to the light blue panel.
Laying out the inside panel of our DIY Father’s Day Card
Next, we are going to lay out the inside left panel of the card. Place the pieces and get spacing down here. Once you are happy with the layout start gluing those down!
You may not have so many if you chose to draw most of it. It would already be done for you! Thank you cutting machine. LOL
Gluing the panels down for Our DIY Father’s Day card that we just made from scratch
Next we are ready to glue all the panels we have cut to the card like the images below show
🥳CONGRATULATIONS!!!! You just made your very own DIY Father’s Day Card from Scratch with your Cricut🥳
I sure hope this article taught you some things and that you enjoyed our time together! Please share the love! I spend many many hours on these tutorials so please share if you enjoyed this!
I would love to see your creations so please drop a comment with a picture once you share this article.
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