DIY Pillow Box Tutorial

For this project, I created this DIY Pillow box to hold a bracelet that I was giving as a gift. In this post, I will go through how to make the actual box (without the design and bow). I will then make a separate post on how to create the design and bow.

Disclaimer – Please note that all information provided here is editorial. I am a participant in the Cricut Affiliate Program. Although this post may contain affiliate links and ads, this post solely based on my experiences. I have not received any free items for this post. This post is for informational guidance and furthering education only and is based solely on my experience and research. Read more

Materials

For the pillow box alone, you will just need standard card-stock in the color you would like (a medium thickness it good). Along with your Cricut machine and Scoring Stylus.

I originally wanted to use the Cricut Poster Board but didn’t get very far into this plan before I realized I needed to rethink my choice of materials. The poster board, when folded, cracks and does not have an even fold. So, I switched to normal card-stock that I had on hand. I used this card-stock for the matching card as well. Alternately, I did use the pink poster board for the bow (pictured above) and later for the matching card. As an added bonus, I found matching vinyl that I ended up using later for the design, after a few other things that didn’t work as I wanted.

Pillow Box Template:

I found this FREE SVG File/Template by Bird’s Cards. You can upload it straight to your Cricut Design Space. It even turns the dashed lines into a separate cut layer. You can easily change that layer to a ‘score’ line under attributes. You will need to make sure to attach the two layers as well. Otherwise, the layers will be seen as two different elements and the score lines will not match the cut lines (read more below).

 

To Cut the Pillow Box:

1. First, you need to upload your SVG Template (link above).
2. Go to the Cricut Design Space (I am currently using the updated version).
3. Start a new project and Save as (You don’t want to lose all your work).
4. On the left-hand side, choose the ‘Upload’ tab (bottommost tab on the left).
5. Choose ‘Upload Image’.

Uploading Image

1. Drag your template from where ever you saved it (usually it would end up in the Downloads Folder).
2. Click Upload.
3. It should look like the image below. You can now name and tag your image. I usually upload so many things, that I forget to do that. It is helpful later on though. This one I named ‘Pillow Box.’
4. Click Save.

Next, you will want to prepare your file to cut and score at the same time.

• Click the image – The title (in my case, “Pillow Box”) or the title line of the layers on the right-hand side of the screen. All three of the lines should be a grey color (shown below).

• You will see that there are 2 layers- both having symbols that look like scissors. These symbols signify that they currently are both seen as ‘cut’ files. You will need to change this.

• To change a ‘cut‘ file to a ‘score‘ file, click the individual line (shown above).

  1. Layer attributes will pop up to the left of the layers bar. You can see that the bar under ‘Cut’ is in bold.
  2. This is where you can change what is going on with each layer:
     • Cut: will cut your layer where ever there are lines on that layer.
     • Write: will draw with a marker (that you add) where ever the lines are for that layer.
     • Score: will draw ‘score lines’ (little dashes on your layer that just indent your surface) which is basically a fold line. This is actually amazing.
     • Print: will print the selected layer. I have never used the function successfully. The old version of Design Space wasn’t really good for this.
  3. You are going to want to chose ‘score‘- Once it is selected, it should look like the image below.

• Now that you have done a few things in the Design Space, you probably have realized that when you move the image, the ‘score’ lines (dashes) stay in place with the ‘cut’ lines (solid lines). This is because they were automatically put into a ‘group’. You can recognize this when you click the title line of “Pillow Box” (or whichever name you chose) and all three of the lines are grey. Right above the lines for the layers, you can see 4 buttons: ‘Group’, ‘Ungroup’, ‘Duplicate’, and ‘Delete’. As pictured below, the option to ‘group’ is not available. However, ‘ungroup’ is a usable option- leading to the conclusion that they must be grouped if you can ‘ungroup’ them.
• You will also want to ‘Attach‘ them.

• What is a ‘Group’ on Cricut Design Space? When you use this function, you can select multiple layers and select the option ‘Group’.
  • What this does is essential tells the design space, that you want these layers to stay together, for design purposes.
  • You can move them around and resize them as you want altogether.
  • This is an awesome feature if you want to make something like this where you would want everything to stay the same ratio to the other layers.
  • *However, this is just for design purposes! When you go to make your project, they will be cut in separate layers. So you will have 2 separate sheets, one with the cut project layer and the other with the score layer.
    • **Now you may think, okay, I will just put the same paper through after it is cut and it will just score over it. Wrong! The Design Space is designed to conserve as much of your paper as possible, so it will move the layers accordingly. This is problematic because the two layers are not the same, so they will not be scored and cut in the correct places.
  • To cut and score them all together, you will need to use the ‘Attach’ function (which we will use with this project).
• What is the ‘Attach’ function on Cricut Design Space? Attach is very similar to the Group function (as discussed above).
  • The main difference is that it tells the design space that these need to be made as they are shown in the space.
  • This is useful for many reasons:
    • For this current project, it tells the software that you want to cut this image on the cut lines exactly as shown. Then it will score the project in the exact places that the score lines are.
    • If you wanted a specific design with multiple layers and you want it exactly in a certain spot, you can ‘attach’ the layers and they will be cut exactly as you set them up.
    • With previous versions of the Design Space, I would use this function to arrange the layers to fit on one sheet. My issue was that I had oddly shaped layers- I could fit 2 cuts on one sheet if I positioned them angled. The old Design Space wouldn’t allow you to rearrange how the file would be cut. So the workaround was to use this ‘Attach’ function. However, the new version actually allows you to rotate, move and rearrange how everything is situated on your mat. It is pretty awesome!

Okay- Back to the project on hand.

• To ‘attach‘ layers, it is pretty simple.
• On the bottom of the Layers bar, you will see 5 options:
  • Slice: when you have 2 layers highlighted, this function will slice the two, into 3 separate pieces.
  • Weld: will join the layers into a single layer.
  • Attach: (becomes ‘Detach‘ when the layer is already ‘attached’)- See explanation above.
  • Flatten: will flatten all the layers into one flat, printable layer.
  • Contour: This is an interesting feature. It hides parts of an individual layer. The hidden parts or elements are just not seen when the project is made.

• For this project, you will want to select ‘Attach‘. After you attach, your space should look like the picture below. You should see your layers listed in an ‘Attach’ drop down. At the bottom of the Layers bar, you should see the middle button highlighted reading ‘Detach’.

To Cut Your Box:

• BEFORE proceeding, change your material on your actual Cricut dial. If you are using card-stock, as I suggest, set the dial to the middle option of ‘Card-stock.‘
• Click the ‘Make It‘ green button on the top right section of the design space.
• You should be brought to a page like the one pictured below.
  • Because we only have one sheet, you will only see one mat on the right sidebar.
    • If you had more than one, they will be shown on the left-hand side and you could change each of them.
    • Each mat is designed to hold one sheet of paper, therefore they are separated based on colors.
    • Design Space will automatically arrange your layers to fit on each sheet.
    • For this project, you only have one- so it should look like the picture below.
  • One thing to make sure of, on the left-hand sidebar, you should see ‘Score‘ & ‘Cut‘ next to your mat.
    • If you do not see both ‘Score‘ & ‘Cut‘, then you have not set up the mats properly. You should go back to the ‘Attach’ section of this post. You can also see my post discussing the differences between ‘attach’ and ‘group’ here.

• In this section, you can do a couple of different things:

  • Choose how many copies of the project you would like.
    • If you would like more than one copy, you can adjust the number. Be sure to click apply after you changed the number of copies.
    • When you change the number of copies, Design Space will reload the mat preview and it could possibly change the number of mats or how they are organized on the mat.
  • Choose your Material Size – so if you aren’t using 12×12 paper, this is where you will need to change this.
    • Design Space automatically defaults to 12×12 Material Size.
    • This is not as important as other projects, seeing as you only have one layer that does not take up a lot of space.
    • Material Size because an important factor when you have numerous cuts. If you are using a normal letter sized sheet and have multiple copies or designs, you need to change the Material Size. Otherwise, it will cut based on the 12×12 and you will lose anything beyond your paper size.
    • You can also choose if you want it to print a mirror of the project.
      • The mirror function is designed for when you are applying certain things, such as iron-on materials. Because you will be cutting from the bottom side, if you do not mirror the cut, when you go to apply it, it will be backward.

• For this project, the defaults are okay- so I wouldn’t change anything on this page.
• Click ‘Continue.‘
• *** This is important*** On the next screen- There will be several things you need to look at:
  • Check the ‘Connect Machine‘ button at the top of the lighter colored section- make sure it is connected to your Cricut device. If you can’t get the Bluetooth connection, plugging your Cricut in via USB cable should work.
  • Second- because we only have one sheet, you will only see one mat on the right sidebar. If you had more than one, they will be shown on the left-hand side and you could change each of them. For this project, you only have one- so it should look like the picture below.
    • When you are making one box and see more than one mat, you should go back and check that the layers are attached.

1. Your material needs to be set. I used normal card-stock paper for this project.
   • You need to pay attention to the Material Section- it will automatically choose what you set on your dial. If you set the wrong thing, you need to fix it, otherwise, the cut will be too deep and will damage your mat, or it will be too shallow and your project will not fully cut through the paper.
   • You can leave the Pressure at ‘Default‘
2. Load tools and mat. In this section, it will walk you through the tools you will need.
   • For this project, you will need to load the ‘Scoring Stylus‘ into Clamp A.
   • Your standard blade should be fine to keep in Clamp B.

• • Before you ‘Load mat and Press Load/Unload Button’: You will want to put your material on your mat.
    • • If you are using any other sheet beside the 12×12, make sure the position of the sheet matches the one shown in the left-hand column.
    • You can now arrange the placement of the items on the mat itself.
      • To do this, click the ‘Edit‘ button in the left-hand sidebar, near the info for that mat.
• Now you are ready to cut.
  • Insert the mat into the machine, pressing the ‘Load/Unload Button‘ and wait for the ‘Cricut’ button on your machine to blink green.
    • If you are using Bluetooth, it may take more time than if you were using the USB cord.

• Once cut, you can fold along the scored (dashed) lines and glue the long ends together from the inside.

Stay tuned for my next post on designing the pillow box.