Digital Gems Butterfly Card with the Cricut Joy

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my disclosures here.

I just love all of the great designs from Digital Gems, and Gemma recently released a card that, with a few small changes, can be cut with the Cricut Joy.

This card file is available from DesignBundles.

Supplies I used:

Setting Up the Card

After downloading the file from the Digital Gems site, upload the file to Design Space like you normally would. Insert the image on the design screen.

The card will need to be resized once it’s brought onto the design screen. I’m making an A6 size (4.5″x 6.25″), which is the largest size you can make with the Joy card mat. With all the layers selected, open the padlock and set the width 6.25″ and the height to 9″. Close the padlock.

Don’t worry about the yellow warning triangle. We’ll deal with that in a minute.

Normally, the card’s orientation wouldn’t matter, but since we’re using the card mat, it does. You can rotate in the mat preview screen, but I think this is a little easier. Go to the “Rotate” box and enter “270”.

Next, ungroup and click “Contour.”

Since I’m using a piece of cardstock with the card mat that I cut on the paper trimmer, I need to hide the outside cut line of the card. Click on the top rectangle image to do this. (If I was making this card on a Maker or Explore, I would have the machine cut the card outline.)

The Cricut Joy doesn’t score, and so the score line needs to be hidden.

Cutting the Card

Cut a piece of cardstock to 6.25″x 9″ with the paper trimmer. You can cut a 4.5″ piece of glitter cardstock for the insert and leave the length since the Cricut is going to cut it.

I used my Scor-Buddy score board to make a good score line. You don’t need a scoring board to make this project, but it’s nice to have. If you have a bone folder, that will help you get a crisp fold.

You can also buy pre-folded A6 size cards on Amazon.

When using the card mat, don’t forget to take off the protective plastic! It’s hard to see, and lots of folks have had cards sliding all over the mat because they haven’t taken the plastic off. Set the plastic aside to put back on the mat after you are finished.

Lift the top layer of the card mat gently and slide the card insert in. Make sure the top layer edge of the mat is snug against the fold.

Smooth the card stock down on the mat to make sure it sticks well.

After hitting “Make It,” Design Space will ask you to choose if you want to use a mat, and if so, which one you’ll use. This is a big difference from the Explore and Maker machines. This project uses the regular mat and the Card Mat, and so I’ll choose “Multiple Ways.” This means I will select if I’m using a mat and the type of mat for each layer I’m cutting.

Select “On Mat” for the card insert (glitter), and “On Card Mat” for the card base.

Before hitting “Continue,” make sure mat 1 is selected.

On the Prepare screen, choose your material setting. I chose “Glitter Cardstock” for the first mat, since that’s the material I’m using for the card insert. When you put the mat up against the rollers, the mat will feed automatically. Design Space will prompt you to click “Go.” There are no buttons on the Cricut Joy, and this is a big change for those of us who are used to the Explore Series and the Maker.