Make Your Own Card Inserts for Cricut Joy

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One of my favorite things about my Cricut Joy is how easy it is to make cards. I was never a big card maker before, or a paper crafter of any kind. I hated trying to glue little pieces on an not having it look messy. So when I first saw the Cricut Joy Insert Cards I thought they were great. 

It is so easy to make a quick card, that is really cute. And they have tons of different card designs available and you can get inserts in lots of different colors. 

But what if you have other cards you want to use? Or don't have any of the cards and inserts specifically made for the Cricut Joy on hand when you need a quick card?

You can totally make your own! I had a big stack of cute cards, so I decided to try making my own inserts. The cards are a pretty standard A2 size (4.25"x 5.5"), so you can use other cards that are that size and cut cardstock to make the inserts, which is what I did. Or you can cut and score the card yourself and cut out the insert.  

Since I already had the cards that I wanted to use I just needed to cut out the inserts. I measured the inserts that came with the Cricut cards and used my paper cutter to cut the inserts to the same size. 

Then I used the card mat to cut the card just like I would with the Cricut cards. The cards I had had designs on them, rather than solid colors, so I chose some that were fairly plain with more subtle patterns because I didn't want any thing too busy that would distract from the cut out design. I added the inserts that I had cut out, and I think they turned out great. 

How to Make Your Own Card Inserts for Cricut Joy

You will need:

• Cricut Joy
• Cricut Joy Card Mat
• Pre-cut A2 cards (4.25"x5.5") or extra cardstock to make your own
• cardstock
• paper cutter 

Instructions:

I had a set of A2 cards that came with envelopes, they were just blank cards with nothing on them. You can find sets of these cards lots of places and sometimes they are pretty cheap, these ones came from a local bookstore. I had a big variety of prints and colors but because I wanted to have the inserts show up really well I chose cards that were a little bit more subtle prints, not really busy florals and other multicolor prints. I went with a couple of weathered wood designs, polkadots, and a subtle geometric design. 

If you don't want to use pre-cut cards another option would be to cut them yourself out of cardstock. To do this you would need to cut a rectangle that is 8.5" x 5.5". Then score down the center and fold in half. Your finished card will be 4.25"x 5.5". You can use a paper cutter with a scoring tip, or a separate scoring tool to do this, or you can cut it out with a Cricut machine other than the Joy (the Joy will not cut that big). 

Once you have your cards chosen or cut out you need to make your inserts. Choose cardstock colors that will contrast well with the card you are using, you want to be able to see the design clearly. 

I used my Cricut paper cutter to cut out the inserts since they are just simple rectangles, again, you could use a Cricut machine to cut them out if you want, but the paper cutter was super quick and easy. 

Cut your inserts 4"x 5.25"

Choose the insert card designs that you want to use. I found that the designs were easiest to see and look through in the Cricut Joy App, if you are using design space on a computer make sure you are set to Cricut Joy as your machine and look in the projects to find a variety of designs. 

Cut out your designs using the card mat, to do this remove the plastic cover sheet, place the card so the back is slipped in the plastic pocket and the top is on the top of the mat. Then load into the Joy and cut. 

Remove the card from the mat and pop out any pieces that may be left stuck to the card, most of them will stay stuck to the mat. 

Stick the insert into the corner slots to finish the card. 

Repeat to make as many cards as you want.