DIY Christmas Cards with the Cricut Explore Air 2

Making handmade Christmas cards with your Cricut machine can be a great holiday craft idea. I designed THREE cute and easy DIY Christmas Card Ideas using Cricut Design Space images that you can make with a Cricut machine.

This year, I’m making a ton of Christmas gifts and crafts with my Cricut machine. I love being able to give handmade holiday gifts, and Christmas cards are no exception. Last year, I made these Handmade Christmas cards with my Cricut Maker, but this year I really wanted to try to make equally as amazing holiday cards with my Cricut Explore Air 2.

I’ve also recently started using my laser machines for ALL the Christmas crafts – check out the powerful xTool P2 as well as the affordable xTool F1 for smaller Christmas gifts and crafts 🙂

And don’t miss my Best Christmas SVG Files – I’m gathered up some of my favorite SVG cut files that are perfect for making Christmas cards and other Cricut crafts!

DIY Cricut Christmas Cards

I made three different Christmas card ideas that you can choose from – all of which can be used throughout the holiday season! I chose non-traditional Christmas colors, and I’m really loving them!

Do you need to upgrade to a Cricut Maker 3? I’ll tell you exactly want I think!

Supplies Needed to Make Christmas Cards with Cricut

I used a large variety of materials to show the versatility of the Cricut Explore Air 2 machine – get creative and try different materials in your Christmas Cards!

• Cricut Explore Air Machine (or Maker)
• Cricut Cardstock (in shades of blue, green, and pink)
• Cricut Kraft Board (in white and natural)
• Cricut Felt (colors from both the Sky and Spring Rain sampler packs)
• Cricut Foil Iron On Vinyl – Light Gold
• Cricut EasyPress Mini (for applying iron on vinyl to paper)
• Cricut Pen in Black
• Cricut Scoring Stylus
• Cricut Acetate
• Cricut Shimmer Premium Vinyl, Permanent (in Blue and Fuchsia)
• Cricut StrongGrip Transfer Paper

Additional materials needed for constructing the DIY Christmas Cards:

• Glitter
• Xyron Creative Station or another method of adhesive – like glue sticks or a tape roller.
• Hot Glue Gun (it is helpful for crafting the snow globe effect in the “Let it Snow” card)

Christmas Card Ideas in Cricut Design Space

All of these cards can be made using designs available with Cricut Access. Don’t know what Cricut Access is? Now’s a great time to learn all about it – you get THOUSANDS of free designs included with a membership!

Here are the links to all of my designs in Cricut Design Space:

• Merry & Bright Felt Christmas Tree Card
• Let it Snow Shaker Card
• 3D Wreath Christmas Card with Hand Lettering Design by Natalie Malan

How to Make DIY Christmas Cards with Cricut

For each of these cards, the most important part is to lay out all of your supplies and make sure that you have a material that coordinates with each piece of the card. That way, as you are cutting, you know exactly what materials you need for your mats (and which material to switch the cut settings to!)

What Materials Can the Cricut Explore Air 2 cut?

The Cricut Explore Air 2 can cut 100s of materials – from vinyl, iron on vinyl, Kraft board, felt, card stock, and even LEATHER. Yes – with a deep cut blade, you can cut leather! You really do have a TON of crafting options with the Explore Air 2, which is why I find myself using mine so much!

Plus, with all of those materials, the Explore Air 2 machine has an easy to use dial on top of the machine that makes it easy to select some of the materials that I use most.

For these DIY Christmas cards, I used A LOT of different materials to show the variety of crafting materials you can use! For my Happy Holidays wreath card, I cut the base of the card out of sturdy Kraft board so it would support my 3d paper wreath. The fine point blade of the Explore Air 2 did an amazing job on that really thick paper! And I am always shocked at how well it cuts small details like the leaves on the 3D wreath.

Even on materials like felt – which I used for the pastel Christmas trees – the Explore Air 2 did a great job getting the details!

Speaking of the huge variety of materials that the Cricut Explore Air 2 can cut, that’s another thing I love about the Air 2 machine: that it can cut almost all of the craft projects I do on a regular basis. I make a lot of shirts, paper crafts, and vinyl Cricut projects. The Air 2 can cut them all! I use my laser for special projects, but the vast majority of craft projects I make can be easily made with my Explore Air 2 – which is why I keep it out on my Cricut craft station at all times!

In addition, when cutting simple pieces like the card shapes, I can set the Cricut Explore Air 2 to cut in Fast Mode! It will cut up to 2x faster than previous models! It saves lots of time if you’re making repeat cuts like the snowflakes for the shaker card, or multiple projects at once – like with Christmas cards!

How to Assemble Cricut Christmas Cards

After your machine has cut all of your pieces, make sure you weed away all of the extra vinyl and get ready to craft your Christmas cards.

I assembled each of the holiday cards with the help of my Xyron Creative Station – I used the permanent adhesive cartridge and the 9″ machine. In addition, I used craft glue and a hot glue gun. The hot glue gun is useful for creating some thickness in the pieces of the shaker card.

Each of the Christmas card designs comes with a white piece of card stock for the inside of the card, since each of the cards is made from colored card stock. This allows you to write on the inside of the cards easily.

Putting the cards together and folding them precisely would typically be difficult, but the Cricut creates a score line in the card! I love that the Explore Air 2 machine has a Double Tool Holder to hold the blade as well as a scoring stylus or pen – that way it can switch between the functions during the cutting process! I can insert the scoring stylus or pen at the beginning of the project and leave it in the whole time – saving me precious crafting time!

I like having the full piece covered in adhesive, which I why I use the Creative Station for DIY card crafts.

I assemble all the fronts of the cards before I attach them to the main card. For the Let it Snow shaker card, you will need to create a multi layered piece for the front of the card. First, apply the Shimmer vinyl designs to the acetate using the StrongGrip transfer tape.

First the snowflakes, and then the “Let it Snow” script.

To build the shaker piece, start with the light blue piece of card stock that goes on the front of the card. It will be your bottom layer. Attach a frame piece, then fill with your “snow” (I used both small circles cut out of card stock as well as some white fluffy glitter.) Attach the acetate, then the top frame piece. You are essentially “sandwiching” the acetate piece between the two frame pieces to hide the adhesive you use and create a gap for the snow to shake around in.

For the “Merry and Bright” card, run the felt Christmas trees through the Creative Station, then adhere to the card using the vinyl piece as your guide for spacing.

Then, using your Mini EasyPress (seriously, it’s SO good for small crafts like this), heat the iron on vinyl to the paper for a few seconds on the LOWEST setting. For more recommended settings based on the materials you’re using, check out the Cricut EasyPress Interactive Heating Guide.

Peel away the clear backing sheet while the iron on vinyl is still warm.

The 3D wreath card is quite easy – just layer the card stock pieces as shown in the card image – but the results are stunning! There is a ton of texture and detail using this design!

Once your cards are assembled, admire your work! Anyone would love to get one of your DIY Christmas Cards that you handmade with the help of your Cricut Explore Air 2!

If you’re contemplating getting a Cricut Machine this Christmas, definitely consider the Cricut Explore Air 2! Although the Maker offers the ability to cut a larger variety of materials, the Explore Air 2 is a great machine that I use ALL of the time. I also have a whole post dedicated to the differences between the Explore Air 2 vs. the Maker, if you want more information.

If you missed them above, here’s the top 5 reasons I love my Cricut Explore Air 2:

1. The rainbow of COLORS that are available. There’s so many options, and I love that I can have one in a color that coordinates perfectly with my craft room!
2. It cuts HUNDREDS of different materials including thick Kraft board and leather and you can easily select them with the dial on the machine.
3. The DOUBLE TOOL HOLDER keeps my pen or scoring stylus ready during project cutting.
4. It is perfect for use with my EVERYDAY CRAFTING. I only need my Maker for specialty craft projects.
5. FAST MODE – saves me precious crafting time when I’m making lots of projects, especially at the holidays, and is up to 2x faster than previous models.

HERE ARE SOME MORE AMAZING PROJECTS YOU CAN MAKE WITH YOUR CRICUT EXPLORE AIR 2:

• DIY Mimosa Bar
• DIY Personalized Gifts with the Cricut Explore Air 2
• DIY Holiday Party Decor
• DIY Dinosaur Party Ideas

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Pin How to Make your Own Christmas Cards with Cricut