Learn how to make a 3d pop up box card with the Cricut scoring wheel! This cute card folds flat to fit in a standard envelope and takes less than a half hour to complete – you’ll love it!
If you like to make greeting cards with your Cricut, you will LOVE this fancy folded pop up box card! It folds down flat to fit in a regular envelope, but when you open it, it pops up into a 3D box with a message inside. The entire box card base can be made from a single sheet of cardstock (8.5” x 11”), so you don’t need any fancy materials. Every single piece can be cut on your Cricut Maker, so all you need to do is glue the pieces together and you have a really cool handmade pop up box card!
A few weeks ago Cricut launched their newest product: the Cricut Scoring Wheel! The Cricut scoring wheel is an interchangeable tool that works with the Cricut Maker. You can learn all about it here, but today I’m going to share an awesome project with you that I made using the single scoring wheel.
And if you’re still on the fence or still have questions about the Maker, check out my post answering all the common questions about the Maker!
How To Make A Pop Up Box Card With The Cricut Scoring Wheel
- Time spent doing stuff: 15 minutes
- Time spent waiting around: 5 minutes
- Total project time: 20 minutes
Tools
Materials
- 8.5” x 11” sheet of cardstock for the card base
- up to 6 additional cardstock colors or different materials for the decorations
- glue stick
Instructions
Check out the video below to see the whole project from start to finish! (You can also find written instructions below the video.)
Start by opening up Cricut Design Space. You can grab the free SVG cut file at the bottom of this post, then upload it into Design Space. (This tutorial will show you how to upload your own images or SVG files to Design Space.)
You can resize the project if you wish, or change the message inside from Happy Birthday to something else, but if you want to make the card as-is, just click the green Make It button.
In Design Space, review the mats and then choose your material for the first mat. The software will walk you through everything else you need to do to get the pieces cut out.
The first mat is the card base, so the software will tell you to install the Cricut Scoring Wheel in clamp B. You install the scoring wheel the same way you would install any blade: open the clamp, place the scoring wheel into the clamp, making sure the open gears face towards the back of the machine, then close the clamp to tighten.
Once you have done that, load your mat into the machine and press the flashing Go button.
When the Cricut finishes scoring the card base it will pause and tell you to put the fine-point blade into clamp B to finish cutting the first mat.
The software will walk you through the rest of the mats the same way, but the card base is the only thing that needs to be scored, so you shouldn’t need to switch out the blade in clamp B a second time. (It will ask you to add a pen to accessory clamp A at some point so it can draw out the Happy Birthday message before cutting out the circle.)
Once all your pieces are cut out, you’re ready to start assembling!
Start by folding the white card base along all of the score lines (shown in red below). You’ll see just how easy it is with the scoring lines made by the Cricut Scoring Wheel!
Once the card base is folded, set it aside along with the mint green rectangles for later.
You can use the photos of the finished card as a guideline for layering the decoration pieces while you assemble the card.
Start by gluing the Happy Birthday message onto the circle with scalloped borders, and gluing the ivory oval background piece on top of the oval piece with scalloped borders. Build the hot air balloon on top of the oval background, gluing down every layer as you go.
Next, glue the largest mint green rectangle onto the white card base, in the very center. Then glue the Happy Birthday circle on top of that. Glue the other two mint rectangles onto the card base as shown in the diagram above (the light grey rectangles).
To actually assemble the card, start by folding the top and bottom pieces (where the triangles are) in towards the middle of the card. Then fold the ends of those pieces backwards along the angled score line so that the very ends of the pieces (marked with “Adhesive” in the diagram above) are pointing out away from the card.
Fold the left edge of the card all the way over the middle of the card, then add glue to the Adhesive tabs. Fold the glued tabs up over the left edge of the card so they attach to the “outside” of the 3D box. Then fold the very end segment of the left edge backwards on itself to cover up the glued tabs.
Repeat for the right side and the final two Adhesive tabs.
Once all four tabs are glued down, the card is fully formed! You should be able to lay it down completely flat when closed and then pop it open into a 3D box.
Glue the hot air balloon onto the very front of the card, but only onto the left edge. This way the card can still pop open.
And you’re done!
Grab the free card base template in a printable PDF or cuttable SVG format below!
And don’t forget to check out my other Cricut tutorials and project ideas!
I hope this list helps inspire you to make some new projects with your Cricut! If you’re brand new to Cricut, check out some of my beginner tutorials:
- What Is A Cricut Machine & What Can I Do With It?
- How To Set Up A Brand New Cricut Maker & Do Your First Project!
- What Materials Can A Cricut Machine Cut? Here Are Over 100!
- How To Cut Vinyl With A Cricut Machine: A Step By Step Guide
How To Make A 3D Pop Up Box Card
Equipment
- Cricut Single Scoring Wheel
- Cricut LightGrip Mat
Materials
- 1 sheet 8.5" x 11" cardstock white
- 6 pieces cardstock varying colors
- 1 glue stick
Instructions
- Open the free design file in Cricut Design Space and click the green Make It button.
- Install the scoring wheel as directed.
- Load the cardstock on the LightGrip cutting mat and load into your machine. Repeat for each additional mat.
- Switch out the blade to the fine point blade when the software tells you to.
- Glue the hot air balloon pieces and the framed writing pieces together with a glue stick.
- Fold the card base as instructed in the design file.
- Attach the hot air balloon, background, and framed writing pieces to the cardstock base using a glue stick, and you're done!
Notes
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Disclosure: I received compensation from Cricut in exchange for my participation in this campaign, and my honest discussion of their new products. But the Cricut scoring wheel is seriously amazing and all opinions in this post are 100% my own. I would never write a post about something I didn’t think was useful or interesting for you guys, and Practically Functional will only publish sponsored posts for companies or products I love and believe in! 🙂
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.
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