Surprise your loved ones with a Cricut-made puzzle featuring a favorite photo!
This holiday season, gift a unique custom puzzle created with love and your Cricut machine! In this guide, I’ll walk you through the simple steps to use your Cricut machine and provide four puzzle size SVG templates (4×6, 5×7, 8.5×11, and 12×12) for your choice of puzzle size.
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Materials You Will Need:
- Cricut machine
- Puzzle SVG Template from the Gilded Stork Library
- Printed Photo or Art
- Poster Board
- Double-Sided Adhesive
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Step 1: Prepare Materials
Begin by cutting a piece of double-sided adhesive sheet to fit the size of your chosen photo. Also, cut a piece of poster board or heavy-weight cardstock. Adhere the adhesive sheet to the back of your photo and then stick it down onto the poster board.
Step 2: Secure on Cricut Mat
Place the prepared photo onto your Cricut mat, securing it with scotch tape on the edges if needed (you may not need to if the mat has sufficient stickiness to hold the photo in place).
Step 3: Choose Puzzle Size and Cut
Download the appropriate puzzle size SVG design from the Gilded Stork design files library, matching the dimensions of your photo. These designs are purposely slightly smaller than 4×6, 5×7, 8.5×11, and 12×12.
Upload the design to Cricut Design Space and place it on your canvas. Attach the puzzle pieces together in the layers panel.
After selecting “make it,” position the design on the mat so that it cuts your photo, ideally leaving a border on either side. Consider your machine’s capabilities and refer to previous projects you have cut with similar thickness for guidance. For example, using the “Foil Poster Board” setting with the black Deep Cut Knife blade and increased pressure worked well in my case. The setting “Illustration board” might also work well.
Step 4: Complete with a Custom-Made Box
To enhance the gifting experience, why not create a beautiful gift box to store the puzzle in? The Diamond Box Template from the Gilded Stork archives might complement the custom puzzle well.
