Making a Card with the Cricut Foil Transfer Tool

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The new Foil Transfer Kit from Cricut expands the possibilities of your Cricut Explore or Maker machine and is easy to use by following the prompts in Design Space. I’ll show you how to make an easy Christmas card with the Foil Tool and images in Design Space. Before you get started, I highly recommend reading through Cricut’s Foil Transfer System FAQs.

Supplies I used:

Preparing the Design

Any image or text in Design Space that is set to “draw” can be converted to a foil Linetype. Remember: the Foil Transfer Tool can only be used with Design Space for Desktop. It cannot be used with the mobile apps (iOS and Android).

This image (#M11AE8376), from the Christmas Tree Magic image set, has two different drawn elements. Select each one and change the Linetype to “Foil.” I chose the Fine tip for the elements on the tree.

Repeat with the “Merry Christmas” sentiment. I chose “Medium” for that.

Although the Cricut doesn’t know what color foil you’re using, it’s easier to keep track if you change the color to match the color used on the project, especially if you are using multiple colors. I am using purple and emerald foil in this project. Select the foil color in the box next to the Linetype selection.

Insert a square and size to 8.5″ x 5.5″ to create the card base. (This will be a A2 size card.) Insert, position, and size the score line. Attach the score line to the card base. Insert a square to create a mat for the tree and size accordingly. Size the tree to fit on the mat. For more information on basic card design, check out this post.

Prepare Mats

I get a bit tired of traditional Christmas colors, and so I decided to make this card with jewel tones. I was able to use up some scraps since this card is small.

The foil needs to be taped on the cardstock so that it is taut. There is tape included with the foil transfer sheets, but I just used painter’s tape. Note: the foil needs to be only touching the cardstock. If the foil sheet gets on the mat, the foil will come off on the mat.

The emerald foil only needs to cover the area where the “Merry Christmas” words are going to go. The spots on the foil are where I accidentally dropped the foil sheet on the mat. (Try not to do that.)

I had enough room on this mat to cut the star out of foil cardstock. I put a bit of painter’s tape on the foil cardstock to make sure it stayed in place on this older mat. (See this post for more about how to arrange items on the mat.)

Foil and Cut

The above image from help.cricut.com show how to easily tell the size of each of the Foil Transfer Tool tips. I can tell them apart without reading glasses! Switching the tips is easy and similar to changing the blades in the Premium Fine-Point Housing.

After setting the material, Design Space will prompt you to load the Foil Transfer Tool and load the prepared mat. Where it says “Coming Up,” it tells you that you’ll need to Fine-Point Blade next.

After completing the foiling step, the mat will partially eject to allow you to remove the foil. It would have been a bit easier on this project if I had placed the image towards the bottom of the mat, but it wasn’t too hard to pull the tape and foil off. After loading the Fine-Point Blade, press the Go button to continue and cut the image.