DIY 3D Ornaments: Make Any Design!

Step 2) Upload the SVG file into Design Space

Open up Cricut Design Space and start a new Project.

Click “Upload” and then find your unzipped version of the downloaded files for this project.

Go into the “SVG Files” subfolder and select a design to upload.

There are two different shapes to choose from – a circular ornament and an oval ornament.

Each ornament shape comes in five different versions. These have different “slots” on the ornaments to give different effects.

Choose from a gothic triangle, heart, star, Christmas tree and a circle.

For this tutorial, I’m using the gothic triangle version of the circular ornament.

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

Make sure you upload the file which starts svg- in the filename!!

After uploading, the design will show in your “Recently Uploaded Images”.

Click on it and then press “Add to Canvas” to put it onto your Project.

The ornaments will load in at the correct size to make a finished decorations that’s approximately 4.5 inches tall from the top of the ribbon hold right to the bottom.

TIP: If you resize the ornaments, make sure the padlock icon above the width/height boxes is CLOSED before you resize. If it appears “open”, click it with your mouse to close it.

Step 3) Choose your images

Choose the images to add to the sides of your bauble. I used Cricut Access imagery, but you can upload your own SVGs/images if you prefer.

If you’re searching for images within Design Space, update the filters to “Cut Only” and “Single Layer”.

You’re looking for images that will cut nicely at small sizes.

Solid silhouettes work well, as do simple “stencil” style images which have big gaps between all the segments of the design.

Or, use simple images with thick cut lines so that they can be resized small. All the elements “inside” a shape should be joined to the outline, otherwise the details will fall out when the side of the bauble is cut.

Choose a selection of images and add them to your Canvas.

You may need to resize them smaller to fit them on the screen.

Step 4) Add the images to the window panels of the ornaments

Click the ornament and Ungroup the layers.

There are two different methods to add images into the window panels of the ornaments.

The first is by making a “stencil” out of the window panel.

To do this, click one of the window panels and then press “Contour” at the bottom of the layers panel.

Click “Hide all Contours” and then close the Contour window.

This will fill in the gap middle of the window panel.

Add your image onto the window panel, and add any other decorations that you wish to cut out.

When you’re happy with how it looks, select all the images/decorations (but NOT the window panel itself) and press “Combine” at the bottom of the layers panel and then “Weld”.

Weld will join the images/decorations into one single layer:

Select the Welded layer and the window panel and press “Slice”.

This cuts the images out of the window panel.

You’ll end up with several “Slice result” layers in the layers panel.

Delete all the Slice Result layers apart from the original window panel, which now has your images cut out of it.

The other style of window panels to make is where you “join” images to the cutout in the middle of the window panel to make a decorative design.

For example, here I am placing the Christmas tree in the middle of the window panel:

There is a slight problem here, which is that the bottom of the tree goes outside the outer edge of the window panel.

These need to be cut off, otherwise the window panel won’t fit into the ornament when you put it together.

Click on one of the pale blue shapes that will be glued inside the window panels and “Duplicate” it to make a copy.

Move this duplicated shape onto your window panel so that it fits inside the grey panel shape.

Select the pale blue shape and your image (i.e. the Christmas tree) and press “Slice”.

Once again, you’ll end up with several “Slice Results” in your layers panel.

Delete all Slice Result layers apart from the one which shows your original image with the pieces that were originally outside the window panel now removed.

Select the image and the window panel and click “Combine” and then “Weld” to join them together into one layer.

You may end up with some tiny gaps in the layer that the Cricut would not be able to cut, as shown above.

To correct this, click the layer and press “Contour”.

Click into the little shapes in the Contour window to remove them.

You can also combine multiple images into one window panel design for even more intricate and detailed sides to your ornaments.

If you do this, make sure all the pictures are touching either the edges of the window panel, or touching each other, in at least one place.

If the pictures aren’t touching anything then they will fall apart when you cut it out.

Here’s an example using several different Christmas trees and stars:

After adding the images, select them all (but don’t select the window panel yet) and press “Combine” and then “Weld”.

You may need to duplicate one of the pale blue shapes again to Slice off any excess image that goes outside the window panel.

When that’s done, select the image layer and the window panel and “Weld” them together.

Remove any small gaps using the Contour tool.

Step 5) Add colour to your ornament!

Once you’ve finished adding images to all the edges of the ornament, it’s time to change the colours!

This makes it easier to choose your cardstock as you’ll have a better idea of how it will look when finished.

I decided to use a green and yellow colour scheme.

I moved two of the (previously pale blue) shapes to appear below two of the window panels, to check I was happy with the contrast of the two colours.

Save your ornament project.

Press the “Make” button on the top-right of the screen and follow the on-screen instructions to get everything cut out from cardstock.

Step 6) Put the ornament together

Once your custom ornament is cut from cardstock, it’s time to put it together!

Here is a video which shows how:

If you would prefer a written version of the instructions, visit the separate tutorial on how to make 3D papercraft ornaments.

Here’s how my ornament looks when put together:

Custom 3D ornaments in Cricut Design Space

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial on how to make your own custom 3D ornaments in Cricut Design Space.

Here are some examples of other ornaments I have created using Cricut Access images.

You will need the Cricut Access subscription to be able to cut them for free.

• Snowflake design
• Festive images design
• Santa and reindeer design
• Cardinals design
• Nativity design
• Penguins design
• Blank design to add your own images to (Cricut Access version that you can share on your DS profile)

Happy crafting,
Sarah x