Spring Wedding fever is about to be upon us, but for all of my ghoulish gals out there, I suspect you’re just now planning for that beautiful Halloween wedding!! I’m here to help! Learn how to create your own Laser Cut Style Halloween Wedding Escort Cards with your Cricut Machine!
Last week I spoke about resolutions. One of mine was to learn new skill sets in the world of DIY, and I was excited to have kicked that resolution off with those amazing Paper Clay Mold Skull Sconces! In keeping with my resolution theme… another business resolution I made this year was to work on more wedding related blog posts as well as items for my Etsy shop. I admit, I made like 50+ resolutions… I don’t know what I was thinking… but it’s still early enough in the year that I’m dedicated to the cause!!
Wedding planning has always been a huge passion of mine, and I love the idea of mixing dark elements with an occasion that is definitely known for the opposite. Aaah… the element of surprise! Lately I’ve been getting a lot of requests from girls who are planning their Halloween or Gothic themed weddings. So, this week I got to work on some Halloween inspired Escort Cards.
While I use CAD software to design and develop my designs, I thought I’d share a quick way for those of you without specialty software to create your own laser cut style escort cards! All you need is some cardstock and your cricut machine! No drawing skills required!! 🙂
UPDATE… I now offer Escort Card Templates in my Etsy Shop… Just purchase the template, load into your Cricut or Silhouette, and cut as many Escort Cards as you need!
Keep in mind…. these escort cards are not just for weddings! If you have read my blog in the past, you’ll know what a huge fan of seating cards I am when hosting dinners… no matter how big or small! These would make a perfect accessory for your place settings… or even as place cards for your buffet!! Tons of possibilities!
Before we get started…. This post contains some affiliate links. If you buy something through one of those links, you won’t pay a penny more, but we’ll get a small commission, which helps keep the lights on. Thanks! Click HERE for more details.
Here’s what you’ll need to create these cards:
- Image File
- Black Cardstock
- Cricut Machine
(I used the original Cricut Explore, but there are new & improved versions out since I purchased mine years ago)
- 12×12 Cutting Mat
- Cricut Tools
- Off White Cardstock
(optional)
- Tacky Glue
(optional)
(I used the original Cricut Explore, but there are new & improved versions out since I purchased mine years ago)
(optional)
(optional)1. If you’re able to draw your own image… great! But there’s no need to be an artist for this project…. simply find a silhouette image you like and save it onto your drive! The easiest way to find a silhouette image, is to search within google for free images using keyword silhouette (ie: Skull Silhouette, Spider Silhouette, Pumpkin Silhouette, etc) or purchase an image from the limitless choices of Etsy Digital Files.
UPDATE… and don’t forget… now you can skip all of the work and purchase these Cricut Ready Card Templates from my Etsy Shop!
2. Open a new canvas in Cricut Design space
3. Click Upload from the side Toolbar
4. Click Upload Image
5. Click Browse and open the image you saved
6. Select Image Type. If you chose a solid color image on a solid color background, then “Simple” will work just fine. Then click Continue.
7. The first step in preparing this image is to crop it. The silhouette needs to blend into the escort card, so crop the base of the image off where you would want the fold line to be. To do this, Click the Crop Icon, and drag your mouse over the image to create a blue box for what will be cropped.
8. Next, you need to be able to tell Cricut where to cut. Since Cricut cuts in closed shapes, you need to create a shape around your silhouette for it to cut. For this part of the process, you will actually be erasing whatever part of your image is going to be attached to your card, and leaving the cut area visible.
9. Click on the Select and Erase icon and Advanced Settings. Set the Color Tolerance to 100. You can adjust this number as needed. The higher the number, the more shades of a color it will select and erase. If too much of your image is erased, hit the back button, and readjust the tolerance to a lower number.
10. Click on the Select and Erase icon and then click inside the body of your image silhouette. If it is a solid color image, it will be erased, leaving only the back ground. The checkerboard pattern indicates the areas that have been erased. If you do not have a solid color image, you will need to use the Eraser tool to remove the image. See the next few steps for using the Eraser.
11. Now click on the Erase Icon, and choose your eraser size. Slide the size bar to the far left to choose the smallest size if you need to erase inside of detailed areas.
12. Start to draw around your silhouette with the Eraser, leaving a space between the silhouette and the eraser. That space will be the area cut. Continue to erase a line entirely around the image.
13. Click on the Select and Erase Icon and click inside the white areas outside of the eraser line you just drew.
14. Click the Preview Button to have a look at the cut lines you created. You can always click the Back button at any time during the process if you need to redo any step. In the preview, the checkerboard area will be the cut image and the card.
15. If you’re happy with your cut lines, Click continue.
16. Choose the Save as a Cut Image box, name your image, and click Save
17. Under Recently Uploaded Images, click on the image and click Insert Images
18. Click on the Shapes Icon from the side Toolbar, and select Square
19. Unlock the dimension constraint, and either use the icon in the bottom right corner to resize or type your size into the top toolbar. I sized mine to 3.75″ wide by 5″ high. This will give a finished card size of 3.75″ x 2.5″.
20. To move the silhouette on top of the rectangle, highlight the layer in the layer toolbar, and drag to the top.
21. Resize the silhouette image, and set the bottom edge at the center of the rectangle. I use the grid lines on the canvas to judge.
22. In the layers panel, use either the CTRL or Shift key to select both layers and Click Attach. This will let Cricut know to cut one image instead of two separate images.
23. To print multiples, right click on the image, and select duplicate. If you are working with a standard letter size cardstock, four of these will fit on one page, so click duplicate 3 times. There is no need to rearrange your canvas.. Cricut will do that for you.
24. Click Make It
25. Select your Material Size
26. Place your cardstock onto your cutting mat
26. Click Continue. Design Space will walk you thru each step as soon as you click Go.
27. Separate the cut image from the mat carefully
28. Fold each card in half
29. Repeat as needed
If you have beautiful penmanship, grab a paint pen and go for it. If not, it’s easy to add names to your cards by printing them out from your computer. Simply type each Name and Table #, print on off-white cardstock, and cut out in rectangles measuring 1/2″ less in width and length than your escort card. Glue the name card onto the front of the escort card with tacky glue.
As I mentioned earlier… I’m excited to bring you lots more great Halloween and Gothic themed Wedding ideas this year, so if you or someone you know are planning that special day, stay tuned! Looking for something in particular? Drop me a line! I take DIY requests!
You’re killing me! I had just put my “I must have a Cricut!” to rest and you’ve revived it again.
HaHa! I’m glad! I bought that thing, and stared at it for two years. I finally got determined to make use of it for some cool stuff. Now I love using it!!
These are wonderful! And I love that you used Penny Dreadful characters! Well done you!
Thanks Candace! Glad you caught that!! 😉 I miss that show! And all of those characters! How cool of a wedding would that be if they all attended!!
This makes me want to get married again!
You’re too cute!