DIY Winter Cardinal Craft | Layered Cardinal SVG for Christmas

Looking for a traditional winter cardinal craft for Christmas? Look no further than this layered cardinal SVG!

This layered cutting file is perfect for Christmas as the cardinal bird is sat on a branch covered in snow, holly leaves and berries.

See how to stick all the layers together (and the order they go in!) in this tutorial.

Winter cardinal craft video tutorial

Watch the video below to see how to make the layered cardinal SVG. Or, keep scrolling for a written tutorial.

Materials list to make a cardinal bird paper craft

Here is a list of the materials that I used to make this project:

Please note that some of the links included in this article are affiliate links, which means that if you click through and make a purchase I may receive a commission (at no additional cost to you). You can read my full disclosure at the bottom of the page.

• Cricut Maker
• Light blue Cricut cutting mat
• Coloured Card (I used 160-240gsm weight of card)
• Gold glitter card
• Collall All Purpose Glue
• Needle Tip Applicator Bottle
• 3D foam pads
• A4 photo frame
• Holly embellishments (optional)

Layered cardinal SVG assembly instructions

Here’s how to make your very own cardinal wall art using a Cricut machine!

Step 1) Download the file & unzip the downloaded folder

Use the box below to download the cutting files for this project. Please note that this is not a free file.

It is part of the Christmas Craft Countdown which is a collection of 20 exclusive Christmas themed craft projects.

Before you upload the SVG to Design Space, you need to unzip the download folder that it comes in.

• How to unzip a folder on Windows computer
• How to unzip a folder on a Mac
• How to unzip a folder on an iPad/iPhone
• How to unzip a folder on an Android device

Step 2) Upload the SVG file into Design Space

Open up Cricut Design Space and upload the file called SVG_Cardinal_CraftWithSarah.svg

Make sure you upload the file which starts SVG_ in the filename!!

This is how it should look after you have uploaded the file:

After uploading, the cardinal design will show in your “Recently Uploaded Images”. Click on it and then press “Add to Canvas” to put it onto your Project.

Click the cardinal on your canvas and use the width/height boxes near the top of the screen to make it the size that you want to cut it.

I made mine 9 inches tall to fit inside my shadow box. I definitely wouldn’t recommend going much smaller than about 7 inches in height as some of the details are quite delicate, so if you make the design much smaller it may be difficult to cut.

When you’re happy with the size of the cardinal SVG in Design Space, click “Make It” and follow the instructions on-screen to cut out all the layers.

Step 3) Stick the layered cardinal together

Use 3D foam pads and glue to stick the layers together.

Use this guide to see the order to stick the layers together in. A high quality printable version of this assembly guide (without the watermark pattern!) is included in the folder when you download the SVG.

My favourite glue to use on papercraft projects is Collall All Purpose Glue.

It’s SO good because it doesn’t “warp” or bend the cardstock like some glues do. You can use as much of it as you want and the card stays perfect – and it dries perfectly clear too!

To make it even easier to apply glue to layered card projects, I highly recommend getting some of these needle tip applicator bottles to put the glue into.

The nozzles are REALLY tiny which makes them perfect for putting glue in the pieces of cardstock that make up this cardinal.

Some of the layers will be stuck together with 3D foam pads to give more dimension and create the “3D” appearance.

When adding the foam pads to the relevant layers, make sure you add some in the middle of the pieces of card so it give stability to the middles. If you don’t add any foam pads in the middles then it can “sag” under the weight of the other layers which doesn’t look as good.

Step 4) Frame your layered winter cardinal craft project

The final step is to frame your cardinal craft!

I layered together two shades of red card and some gold glitter card which I cut to the size of my frame.

Get my top tips for framing layered designs by watching the video below…

Finally, I added some felt holly embellishments to the corners of the frame to complement the holly in the cardinal design.

And here is the finished project…

I hope that you enjoy this layered cardinal SVG!

Happy crafting,
Sarah x