Making Intricate Butterfly Wedding Invitations on the Cricut Maker

I made this file because I could see that a lot of people were running into problems cutting their wedding invites.

This is an intricate and elegant butterfly design – and the front ‘locks’ together, so you don’t need to bother with ribbon or anything. And, despite being quite complex, the risks of ripping are far more minimal. Also –  the cutting time is relatively swift, which means you can turn your attention to…you know, the guests! The dress! OK…even the groom! You can also modify it by adding a colour behind the cut-out. (We’ve shown you how it looks with a bit of glitter vinyl behind it but really…the options are endless!)

Again, the file and the Cricut do most of the hard work – all you need is to put the paper on the mat and do a bit of folding. Even preparing the pattern for this one is easy!

You will need:

Good quality cardstock (I used A4 White Felt 270gsm Embossed Card from Papermilldirect)

Contrasting card for behind wings (optional) – for example I used glitter card from B&M

Our SVG file

Preparing the pattern:

1. Import the file into a new project. It’ll look like this:
   
2. Select all of the items (as shown) and click on Ungroup
3. Now, you need to identify the score lines, so that your machine knows where to score (as opposed to cut!) files. These are the two horizontal lines that fold across the card piece, and the square in the centre of the envelope but ALSO the square in the centre of the envelope interior (the brown piece and the yellow piece will be cut separately, but need to be scored separately too. Pick them out in the list in the right hand margin, and click on the Scissors item next to the listing. The Layers Attribute will appear, and you need to select ‘Score’ (the stylus icon). Once changed, they will appear as dotted lines (if they don’t, they may be obscured by other pieces – you will see them if you choose those pieces (that are blocking your view of the lines!) and ‘Send Backward):
4. Add text to your invitation as required – we created a simple message in Cochin, using 0.3 fine point Cricut pen. Do this by adding a text box and then selection that and the invitation card piece and then clicking on ‘Align > Centre’.
5. Now, drag and click over all the main card piece and click on Attach.
6. Using the same method, Attach the yellow envelope interior with its scored square, and do the same for the brown piece and its scored square.

You’re now ready to start cutting!

Cutting the pattern:

So many factors are involved that I really recommend you choose settings, mats etc on a case-by-case basis. All I will say, is that I’m getting great results with my very high-quality (270gsm) card on…Cereal Box (+More) setting on the Cricut Maker! It means using the deep-cut blade, but the results are impressive! (I used normal paper and cardstock settings for the envelope pieces and glitter cardstock pieces).Anyway – Click on ‘Make It!’. I’m never sure how the Cricut decides what order to print things in, but in my case, the backing colour for the butterfly wings came through first:

Followed by the envelope interior:

Then the exterior:

And, finally, the card itself:

 

What you’ll end up with will look something like this:

Assembling the pieces:

If you’ve decided to add a colour behind the cut-out part of the wings, simply apply glue behind them and apply the contrasting paper to the back.

Now you have a long piece with glitter backing:

…and all you need to do is fold over the scored lines:

For the envelope, you simply need to fold over the score lines, and – once you’ve applied glue liberally to the back of the larger piece –  position the smaller piece on top of the larger piece:

 

Then, glue the sides as shown.

And here you have a completed invitation and envelope!

 We’ve tried it in a few versions – we can’t decide on a favourite!

Want to make these invitations? Get your butterfly wedding invitation (and envelope!) file here!