Tutorial: Quick & Easy Print Then Cut Christmas Banner
It’s that time of the year again! What better way to announce the Christmas season with a quick and easy banner using Cricut Design Space’s Print Then Cut.
Download, Unzip and Install
The font – Christmas Memories – really makes designing super simple, as it comes with two font styles and frame dingbats. No need to hunt down a font and frame that matches when you have a font like this. Make sure to install all 3 font files included.
The banner pennants are from this graphics set – Banner Bunting Birthday Party Bundle SVG. Yes the title says Birthday Party, but a blank pennant is a pennant. Unzip the zip file and make sure you know where to find the unzipped folder on your device.
Don’t know how to download and unzip files? Here’s how:
– MAC user
Finding the Pennant SVG File
The banner bunting graphics set has several different formats of pennants. You want the SVG version. They are located in the folder labeled Bunting-SVG-AN8Design. You won’t see images of the pennants while in that folder, just the name of each pennant, and they will all have an icon of the browser you use.
The pennant used in this tutorial is the rectangle pennant named A-Bunting-01. Upload the SVG file of the rectangle pennant. Once uploaded insert to canvas.
Let the tutorial begin!
Step #1 – Resize the pennant to 3” width under Size in the top menu bar.
Step #2 – Ungroup the pennant and click on the tan pennant piece.
**Note: The reason for Ungrouping is so that it is easier for the tan piece to change its color.
Step #3 – While the tan piece is still selected, in the top menu bar look for Operation. To the right and click on the tiny tan-colored box. In the pop up choose white. because your printer will print any other color, but the color white.
**Note: Home printers do not print in white, because there is no white ink.
Step #4 – Select both pennant pieces. In the Layers panel select Group.
Step #5 – The menu bar to the left side of the screen click on Text. Change the font in the top menu bar to Christmas Memories Dingbats One.
**Note** Each letter is a different frame. To see all of the frames type out the alphabet in uppercase and lowercase or use a character map like Creative Fabrica’s FontCloud, which is 100% FREE. There are also split frames included, but a single frame line is easiest and is what is used in this tutorial.
Step #6 – In the text box type in the letter C (capital).
Step #7 – Resize the frame to 3” width. Then in the Layers panel close the eye on the black pennant piece.
Step #8 – Place the frame on the pennant and place it just below the bottom of the pennant holes. Select both the frame and pennant. In the top menu bar click on Align and select Center Horizontally.
Step #9 – Select the frame only. Click on Duplicate in the Layers panel. While the duplicate is still selected, in the top menu bar, click on Flip and select Flip Vertical. Place the frame near the bottom of the pennant.
Step #10 – Select all. Then in the top menu bar click on Align and select Center Horizontally.
Step #11 – Select both frame pieces. In the Layers panel click on Group.
**Note: Using group helps keep pieces together and aligning.
Step #12 – Select both the frame and pennant. In the Layers panel click on Group.
**Note: Should be a group within a group. Grouping everything helps to make moving pieces easier.
Step #13 – Select the group. In the Layers panel click on Duplicate 5 times.
**Note: This is where grouping really comes in handy. Instead of selecting each piece of a pennant and moving it, now it can be moved all at once.
Step #14 – Spread the pennants out in a line. Then Select all of them. In the top menu bar click on Align and select Center Vertically. Then Ungroup the frames from the pennants.
**Note: Spreading the pennants out in a line and vertical centering helps make sure the text looks centered on each pennant. If each pennant were staggered it would be hard to tell if any of the text is out of place, and since this is a Print Then Cut project, you don’t want the text to not be centered, it would be noticeable.
Step #15 – In the menu bar to the left of the screen click on Text. Then in the top menu bar change the font to Christmas Memories.
**Note: This is where it gets a little tricky. Since the words are split up into sets of 3 letters each pennant, you’ll need to figure out which set of 3 letters is longer. For this tutorial “mas” is because the “m” is a wider letter than “r” or “h”, a close 2nd is “rry” and “me” is the shortest. Now that you know which is the longest, use that set of letters to help determine the height of each set of letters.
Step #16 – Select the frames and text. Then in the top menu bar click on Align and select Center Horizontally.
Repeat STEP 16 until Merry Christmas is spelled out.
Step #17 – Changing text color.
Click on the text in the first pennant to select. In the top menu bar look for Operation and click on the tiny colored box to the right. In the pop up select red.
Step #18 – Click on the frames in the first pennant to select. In the top menu bar look for Operation and click on the tiny colored box to the right. In the pop up select green.
**Note: Since the frame’s lining is so thin, it will be hard to tell when it changes color, as compared to the text. The color change will be visible when they are Flattened.
Repeat Steps 17 & 18 for each pennant alternating colors.
Step #19 – Select the white pennant. In the Layers panel click Ungroup. Repeat for each pennant.
**Note: The reason for Ungrouping is because the black layer pennant pieces are going to be cut from colored card stock. If the black pennant pieces are still grouped to the white pennant pieces when Flattening, they will be Flattened as well.
**Note: Print Then Cut has a maximum image size of 6.75″ X 9.25″. The white pennants are around 4″ wide and 6″ tall. At this size, TWO pennants can fit on ONE sheet of 8.5” x 11” card stock.
Step #20 – Select ALL of the first two pennants. In the Layers panel click on Flatten. Flattening the two pennants together will put them on the same cutting mat. Repeat for the next two pennants. The last single pennant select all of that pennant and click Flatten.
Step #21 – In the Layers panel click on the eye of each black pennant piece to make them visible again.
Step #22 – Press “Make It'”. The pennants will show only the text with a black lined box. Don’t worry, it will cut the pennants.
Some Assembly Tips
- When adhering the text pennants to their bottom pennant layer, put a line of glue between both holes. Then line up the pieces using the holes. Once you have good placement you can lift up the top pennant layer and add more glue.
- When stringing the ribbon through the holes, thread through the left hole from the backside of each pennant.
Thank you for reading my article and happy crafting!
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