Cardinal Tunnel Card Tutorial

Happy New Year! Dorlene here and I’m excited to announce that I’m staying for another term on the Design Team! Since winter is still here, I decided to create a card using the Winter Cardinal on Branch E567 cut file for the focal image.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love that PCC cut files come with more than one way to cut them. For instance, with this one, you can either cut the pieces where it fits like a puzzle or they lay on top of each other. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure which one I preferred so I decided to cut both. I mean, if you’re making one card, you may as well make two!

After uploading the image into Cricut Design Space, I decided to create a base for my birds by duplicating the image (assembled) and then Uniting the entire image together.

I changed the red to white before cutting the pieces. By doing this, it allows me some guidance on where the pieces are to be placed. (This helps this woman’s old eyes but is not necessary to create the card
After placing all the pieces on my work surface, I used liquid glue to adhere the pieces together.

So pretty! To add some sparkle, I added some clear sparkly Nuvo drops to the snowy areas.

As I waited for this to dry, I went back to Cricut Design Space to make a frame for my cardinals to rest on. I decided to create a tunnel card effect for two reasons, one I love the look and two, I really couldn’t decide which patterned paper I liked for the card background so I was able to use all three!

I used the Shapes option in Design Space to create the tunnel frames. First, grab the square and unlock the size to create a 5.25 width by 4 height rectangle. You’ll want to duplicate the rectangle and change one to another color because we will be making two frames. Then insert an oval (also from Shapes) onto your canvas and play around with the size to fill most of the first rectangle as shown below. Change the color of the oval so you can see it more clearly in the rectangle. Once you decide on the size. Use the Align function at the top menu bar to center align the two. Now select Slice at the bottom right corner to remove the oval.

Change the color of the oval so you can see it more clearly in the rectangle. Once you decide on the size. Use the Align function at the top menu bar to center align the two. Now select Slice at the bottom right corner to remove the oval.
For the second rectangle, use the same oval but make it smaller than the first one then repeat the aligning and slicing process as above.
You’re tunnel frames will look like this:

I cut one solid piece of patterned paper at 5.25×4” and adhered it to the A2 card base. Then adhered the smaller oval frame to that solid piece. I added foam adhesive to the back of the larger oval frame to give it some height.

I also added foam adhesive to the cardinal & branch and liquid adhesive to the branch tips that will be resting on the frame. 

To finish the card, I added Nuvo drops to the center of the frame. It certainly gives a snowy appearance.

I love how this card turned out. The bird was so easy to put together and the card is so pretty. I’m so glad I decided to make two and both methods of cutting were easy so whichever one you choose, I’m sure you’ll be happy.

Happy crafting!
-Dorlene

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