Step 1: Create the Design

1: In order to be able to start our Design, we are going to access our Design Space application and in there we are going to click on the + New Project Green button located on the top Right corner of our screen.

2: After we clicked in there, we are going to be able to access our Blank Canvas, in where we are going to start creating our Design:

3: We are going to use the Shapes functionality to add a square to our canvas.

4: We are going to resize our square with the following size: W: 10” and H: 5.5”

💡Tip:  If you want the W and H not to be tight together, click on the lock that is showing, so you can add the different dimensions separately.

5: We are going to change the color to the desired one for our card base, this is just to help us to see how the design is looking, but the final color is going to be the cardstock that is going to be cut.

6: Using the shapes functionalities, we are going to add 2 scoring lines to our canvas:

7: We are going to resize the scoring lines to the same High as the card, in our case 5.5”. 

We are going to dive our card in 3 sections, 2 small ones on each side, and one bigger in the middle, from each side, we are going to place the score lines 2.5” to the center of the card:

8: We are going to upload our Mermaid Scale file. We are going to use the Upload button in the left vertical menu and we are going to follow the process in there to add the design to our canvas.

9: We are going to add another square with the following measurements: W: 2.25” and H: 5.25”, and we are going to place it over the mermaid scales:

Once we placed it over the scales, using the Slice functionality we are going to slice them:

From the slice result, we are going to use the following pattern, and you can delete the rest.

💡Tip: You can use the other patterns if you prefer, this is based on what you like better.

10: You are going to duplicate the scale pattern: 

11: We are going to place each scale on each side of the card and we are going to slice them:

Before the slice:

After the slice:

12: Now, we can attach the score lines to our base card.

13: We are going to proceed and upload our Mermaid design, the same way that we did with our mermaid scales.

💡Tip: You can keep all the components of the mermaid or like in our case, we are going to delete and change some of the elements.

OPTIONAL: if you want to change some elements, continue with the following steps, if not proceed to STEP 19:

14: First, we are going to ungroup all the elements, by selecting the mermaid and right click over it and clicking on Ungroup: 

After click on the ungroup:

15: In our case we are going to delete the face, the detail over the hair. Also, we are going to delete the chicks and replace the top of the suit. 

In order to replace the top, we are going to place a square over the design and we are going to slice it:

Before the slice:

After the slice:

At this point we have the following:

💡Tip: You can change the color of the hair or any of the other elements using the same process as changing colors for shapes.

16: Using the shape functionality, we are going to add a star and resize it to add it to the hair.

17: For the top, we are going to use images functionalities and we are going to search for: 

Since the shell has 3 lines inside, that means that those lines are going to be cut, so we need to use a shape over them and weld them in order to avoid the cut:

After the weld:

We are going to resize it and place it over the mermaid:

18: Now we are going to group all the elements related to the mermaid:

19: Once that you group the elements, we are going to create an offset for the mermaid:

After applying the offset: 

20: Now, we are going to resize the mermaid and the offset to fit our card. The mermaid is going to be on one of the sides in where we added the mermaid scales:

21: We are going to align the mermaid, the offset and the card:

22: Now, we are going to move our colorful mermaid to a side, and we are going to select the offset and the card and we are going to weld them together:

After applying the weld functionality:

23: Now we are going to do the insert of our card. We are going to add a square with the following dimensions W: 4.5” and H: 5.1” and we are going to change the color to white or any light color of your preference.

24: Using the text functionality we are going to write our phrase/sentiment. In our case we are going to use: Happy Birthday little Mermaid.

25: We are going to change the font, by selecting the text and clicking on the Font field, and in there inside the cricut fonts, we are going to search for Flower:

After you changed the font, you should have something like:

💡Tip: You can use any other font that you like!.

26:  We are going to draw our sentiment on the card, so we are going to change the operation from Cut to Draw:

27: We are going to place the text over our insert square and we are going to attach them together, so our machine knows where it needs to draw/write.

💡Tip: Do not forget to resize your sentiment and align them in the place that you want it to be written.

28: Our design is READY and we can start cutting!