FCC 2024 Day 03: Flower Bookmarks

Step 2) Format the pen layers

When you upload SVGs where you want to draw with the pen, Design Space doesn’t understand by default that we want it to draw some of these layers instead of cutting them.

You need to need to specifically tell Design Space which layers to be drawn with the pens.

For each bookmark design, you can click on it and open up the layers panel by clicking the little arrow. You’ll see there are different layers – some for the base pieces of card that we will be cutting out, but some that need to be switched to “Draw” layers.

Click one of the decoration layers. I’m doing the butterfly design first.

Change the layer to “Pen” under the Operations dropdown menu.

Make sure you’ve got the correct Cricut machine selected on the top-right of the screen because different types of Cricut machine need different types of pen.

You can then click the little colour box next to where it says pen and choose the type of pen and the colour you want to use.

The designs are quite thin and delicate so out of all the choices I do recommend either the fine point or the extra fine point pens. If you are using a thicker pen, the lines will merge together and it might not quite look right.

I changed the colour of my pen layer to purple and kept the white so that it’s nice and easy to see. You can change the backing layer by clicking the bottom layer in the group and changing the colour. I changed mine to a dark purple.

Click on the bookmark design and separate the layers by pressing the “Ungroup” button at the top of the layers panel.

We need to tell the Cricut to do the drawing on the bookmark shape underneath.

Select the pen layer and the bookmark shape underneath (only the one directly underneath – not the base bookmark in the other colour) and press “Attach” at the bottom of the layers panel.

Don’t worry that some of the drawings look like the go over the edge. This is intentional, so that you don’t end up with a little gap where the drawings stop before the edge of the cut.

The dandelion bookmark will work in the same way, so you will need to repeat the same formatting steps for that one. Change the draw layer to Pen, change the colours and attach it to the white layer underneath.

The multicolor flower bookmark works a little differently. At the moment, the flowers appear to be filled in, but when we change them to be a Pen layer they will turn into outlines.

Ungroup the layers to reveal another little group that contains all the layers that need to be changed to Pen.

Change all the layers to Pen and choose a suitable colour for each.

This is how it ends up:

Finally, Attach all those Pen layers to the white bookmark shape underneath.

There are a few other things you could do with these bookmarks, for example, you could use the Cricut opaque pens to draw them onto really dark cardstock.

You can also use the Cricut foiling tool. To do this, you will need to change the operation type to Foil.

Using watercolour pens would be another lovely option.

For the image below, the dandelion bookmark on the right has been set up to use Cricut opaque pens and the dark blue butterfly bookmark is set up to use the Foil tool.

Step 3) Cut out the bookmarks

When you’re happy with how your bookmarks are looking, press Make to get everything drawn and cut out.

Pay very close attention to what pen the Cricut is asking you to put in, especially if you are using more than one colour or have multiple designs on one sheet. The Cricut doesn’t know what colour pen you are putting in, so it’s up to you to get it right!

If you get it in the wrong order, it means your image is going to end up in the wrong colours.

You also need to make sure that you are using the correct pens for your machine.

See the difference between the same colour pen for the larger machines and then the Cricut Joy in the image below.

Place the correct pen colour in clamp A and push till it clicks into place. Then close the clamp.

If you are using one of the Cricut Joy machines then you will need to swap the blade out for a pen.

If you are making the multicolour bookmark design, once your Cricut has done the first colour, don’t eject the mat but look at the screen in Design Space and it will tell you what pen to put in next.

If you accidentally eject the mat then you will have to start the whole process again.

When your pen is in the machine and the clamp is closed, you can then press the Go button to begin drawing again.

Once it’s finished drawing, it will automatically start doing the cutting around the edge.

Step 4) Put the bookmark together

Here are my bookmarks all cut out. Three of them I’ve stuck together and I’ll show you how to put together the final one.

All you have to do is glue the smaller piece to the bigger one. Take care when lining up the holes to make sure they sit perfectly on top of one another.

You can then add a tassel to the top.

Floral Cricut bookmarks, drawn with pens

Now your bookmarks are finished and ready to be used!

If you wanted to make them a bit sturdier you could try laminating them (if you have a laminator), or you could get some of the holographic overlays that are often used to make stickers waterproof.

I can’t wait to use these bookmarks! I think the dandelion one is my favourite, the flowers look so delicate and pretty against the cardstock backgrounds, especially the one that I used a yellow opaque pen for.

Happy crafting,
Sarah x