Create Insert Cards on the Maker & Air

Some thing that crops up time and time again is how to use the Cricut Joy Pre Cut Insert Cards in the Maker or Explore / Air models. Believe it or not, it's alot easier than you would expect. First thing first, you will of course need some Cricut Joy Insert Cards - https://amzn.to/38kfpoH .

Open up Design Space and make sure your machine is set to Maker / Explore Family.

Open up images and use the search function to type in "Insert" or "Insert Card". You will find lots of images, Phrases and Insert Cared Templates. Select one and Insert to the canvas.

Make sure the card is selected and use the "ungroup" tool to remove the envelope, Score line and the card insert template unless you want to cut your own but i advise hiding this using the little eye next to the template in the layers panel. This will leave you with just tha card template. Use the coloured box next to the operation selection to change the template to a lighter colour, this will make it easier to work with.

Duplicate the card and with the duplicate selected, go to the bottom of the layers panel and select the contour tool. Once the contour tool opens, select the rectangle shape. Close the contour down and you will be left with the corner cuts. These are essential to lining everything up and creating the insert card holders.

You will, at this point, have one card template with corner cuts and corner cuts on their own. They should come in, sized correctly with a width of 8.5" and a height of 5.5".

Go back into Images and find the Image you want to use. You will need to select Images that do not have a solid outline. Each cut area must be seperate. If you have cuts inside of an outline you will loose those cuts. The same with text. If you are not using images, text or fonts with seperate cut paths you will need to create these. Just as you would when creating mylar stencils. With the image I have chosen, I will loose the centre of the letters and the centre area of the ears unless I create gaps in the cut path.

The first thing I need to do is weld my image. Please save before you weld. You can not unweld an item if you save after and then close design space down. It's like superglue. But on this occassion its all cutting out together and it will make creating our gaps easier. You then need to go to shapes and create a line spacer. Depending on the cut lines and if they are staight or curved will depend on if I use a rectangle or a circle. You then need to place these everywhere on your design where you want to create cut spacers to prevent inner detail from being lost.

Once they are all placed, use the eye tool next to design in the layers panel to hide the design. This will ensure it stays in the correct place when you unhide it. You then need to weld all your lines together. You can only lice 2 items at a time and in the app you can only slice 10 times. So rather than doing individual slices if you weld them together then design space turns them into one layer and so you only need to slice once. Bring back the design and and draw around your two layers. Select Slice and remove all the sliced elements to reveal your path gaps.

Place the design between the corner cuts and select Align & Centre, Attach them together.

You need to ensure both your design and template are the same colour. Go to the top of your layers panel and select colour sync. You can then move one into the other to make them the same colour. This will ensure they go on the same mat. Go to Make it.

This is where we need to line everything up. Place the card template at gridlines 1&1. You can place them anywhere on your mat between gridlines 1 & 11 and I reccomend you change your positioning regulary to prevent the same area of your mat being used over and over.

You then want to line up your corner cuts. They will sit perfectly ontop of each other and this is the position your design will be cut into the Cricut Pre Cut Insert Card. Once lined up select the blue circle with 3 white dots and choose "Hide selected". This will remove the card cut and leave just your design and corner cuts. You can then continue to the cut Screen. The average setting for the insert cards is either Medium Cardstock or Intricate Cardstock. However my machine likes to cut heavy and so neither of these settings work for me. I infact have to use the Kraftboard cut setting.

When Placing the insert card on your mat, it needs to go in the same potition as you placed it on the Design Space Mat. So in this case at gridlines - 1&1. Use your Cricut Brayer to ensure the card is fully secured to the mat. You can then start cutting.

When you remove your cut card from your mat, always turn your mat over. Do not over bend your mat but gently roll it to remove your card without tearing or creasing your card.

If you want to be able to write using your Cricut in the card then it's a very similar process. Once your card is cut, go back into design space and your canvas. Detach your design and cut corners and remove the design from the canvas.

Open up a text box. To create single line text, select filter and writing font. Choose your Font and write your text. Duplicate it. With the original text place it between your cut corners, align and centre and attach them.

Make sure you change your card template to draw, along with your attached text and cut corners and your duplicated text. Go to operation and select Pen.

You can then select "Make it". It's exactly the same process, place the card template using your grid lines then place your attached text and corner marks. Then place your text on top. You can then remove the card template and attached corner marks and text. This will then leave just your text.

You can then select continue and choose the cut setting that works for you. Again place your Insert Card on the mat as you did in Design Space. Add a pen into the "A" clamp and draw.

There we go. As long as you use your gridlines virtually and on your mat you will get perfect Insert cards on your maker and Air using the Pre Cut Insert Cards.