Adding Written Text to an SVG Card

A center fold box card from Lori Whitlock featuring a mason jar with flowers

 

So–as you all have probably been made keenly aware via social media–it’s Valentine’s Day today.

And for a bunch of different reasons, I didn’t get to do ANY Valentine’s crafting this year…which makes me a little sad.  I had so many plans for Valentine’s Day this year that I think I may make some later this week and dub this Valentine’s Week.

So what does my Valentine’s Day crafting dilemma have to do with Cricut-ing and today’s topic?  Well, unfortunately, two wonderful friends lost loved ones this week and I put aside my VD crafting to make some sympathy cards.  Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find any good cards to make.  So instead I’ve decided to manipulate  My search has come up sort of slim, so I’ve decided to take one of the numerous SVG files I own and repurpose it as a sympathy card.

The card that I like the most (and am presenting today) is from Lori Whitlock’s design shop.  If you aren’t familiar with Lori’s work, I would encourage you to check her out!  Among other things, Lori makes the most unique card designs, which includes everyone’s favorite, the box card, which is a 3D marvel that also folds flat for mailing.  Lori is the designer of the Cricut cartridge   All Occasion Box Cards , which features these special box card designs.

Lori Whitlock’s Cricut files: All Occasion Box Cards

Note: This cartridge is available for digital purchase through the link above, which may result in a small commission paid to me because I am a Cricut affiliate.

 

Lori also has her own website where she sells her SVG files as well as other digital products.  Once a month or so, she offers a discount on her already affordable SVG files, which I have–on many occasion–taken advantage of.  Actually I now possess a very large collection of Lori’s designs, because she offers card designs in many different 3D variety, including her original box card design.

By the way…Lori’s monthly sale is currently running, so I encourage you to visit her store to take advantage of the savings:

Save 30% off of SVG files at Lori’s site

 

For today’s project, I decided to use this design because it is so cheery:

A center fold box card from Lori Whitlock featuring a mason jar with flowers

But, obviously, I need to change the text to make it more appropriate for the occasion.

As always, we start by purchasing and downloading the SVG file.  If you are unfamiliar with this process, you can learn about it from these previous blog posts: Up Your Christmas Ornament Game  and All About SVGs For Your Cricut

Also, I am will be using the writing feature, which I have previously explained in this post: Using Pens With Your Cricut

So step one is to insert the SVG file into Design Space like this:

Upload and insert your SVG to Design Space

 

Lori’s files always come grouped, so ungroup it.  Note that dashes take he place of score lines on uploaded SVGs, however the dash lines need to be attached to the piece they are appearing on so that they cut with the paper.  So for this example, you will need to attach the dash lines for both the card base and the center red piece.  Simply select these pieces and Attach them.

Now we want to Ungroup the text from the white background to replace it with our own text:

Ungroup the text from the background piece

 

 

Next we are going to replace the provided text with the text “Thinking of You”, so we select Text and–in the box provided–type in the text, as shown here:

Adding a new text box to your file

 

Notice that the entered text is not in a writing style and not formatted to fit the frame.  To correct this, go to the Fonts section and Filter your fonts by choosing Writing, which will give you all the fonts with a writing style:

Changing your text to a writing style

 

Choose a writing style text you like and see if you like it.  This is a personal preference situation, so choose what you like, of course:

Choose a Writing style text

 

Once you have decided on the best text for your situation, you still need to manipulate the text.  I like my text centered, so I choose the Center option under Alignment.

I also need to make the text fit in the frame, so I unlock the text box and shrink it down to fit:

Resizing your text to fit the frame

 

When you are happy with the changes you made, be sure to Attach the text to your frame!  Otherwise your Cricut won’t know that both elements are together:

Attach your resized text box to the frame

And finally, you can select and remove the old text box…or you can hide it if you think you might use it for a future use.

You are now ready to cut and assemble your card!

I hope this tutorial is helpful to you.  Feel free to share it or any other of my blog posts with others!

I’ll be back shortly with some Valentine’s Day/Week projects to show you! ❤