Adhesive vinyl makes it easy to create patterned card backgrounds with intricate and delicate designs. The possibilities are endless! Keep reading to see how you can create your own.

Supplies Needed:

Step One: Create the Front of the Card

1. Use the Draw a Rectangle tool to make a rectangle the size of the card front. In this case, it’s an A2 sized card, so the rectangle is 4.25 inches wide by 5.5 inches tall.

2. Open the leaf cut file and ungroup the shapes (Control + U or Command + U). Then open the Transform panel, click on the Resize tab (the diagonal, double-sided arrow icon) and, in the Scale section, type in 75% and press the Apply button.

3. Copy the two leaf cut files (Control + C or Command + C), and then click over to the document with the card front and paste the leaf cut files (Control + V or Command + V).

4. Open the Line Style panel and click the right tab (the one with the colored lines). Click to select the card front rectangle and change the line color to something other than red. I chose a shade of blue.

5. Open the Transform panel and click on the Rotate tab (the circle arrow icon). Use the rotate panel to rotate the leaf shapes and create a pattern. Copy (Control + C or Command + C) and paste (Control + V or Command + V) the leaves and change the orientation as you build the pattern.

Step Two: Cut the Leaf Pattern

1. When you’re finished creating your pattern, click the Send tab located on the top right-hand side, and then click the Action by: Line subtab.

2, Click to uncheck the box beside the blue square of color. We don’t want to cut the card front rectangle because we were just using it as a reference. So unchecking this box will signal to the Silhouette machine that we don’t want to cut it.

3. Choose “Vinyl, Glossy” as the material and, after you load your machine with the vinyl, press the Send button to cut the pattern file.

Step Three: Cut Out “Many Thanks”

1. While the pattern file is cutting, open the “Many Thanks” cut file in a separate document and ungroup the text and the outline (Control + U or Command + U).

2. We are going to cut the outline out of vellum and the text (3 copies that you’ll stack together) out of white cardstock. You can change the line color of the text or the outline so that you cut only one group at a time or you can put either the text or the outline in a separate document.

3. Go to the Send tab, specify the material you are using for each cut group, place the material on the cutting mat, and click “Send.”

4. Repeat with your remaining cut group.

Step Four: Transfer the Pattern

1. Weed the vinyl piece using the Silhouette hook tool to help you remove all of the small interior pieces of the vinyl.

2. Cut a piece of transfer tape to be a little bit larger than the vinyl piece. Place the transfer tape over the vinyl and use a scraper tool to help transfer the vinyl to the transfer tape.

3. Peel the vinyl off of its protective backing, and then line the transfer tape up over a the card base (for an A2 sized card base, cut a piece of 8.5-inch-by-11-inch cardstock in half vertically and fold it in half). Use the scraper tool again to help transfer the vinyl to the cardstock, and then slowly remove the transfer tape.

4. Use a pair of scissors to cut off any pieces of the vinyl that go over the edge of the card.

Step Five: Add the “Many Thanks” Sentiment

1. Use a glue pen to glue the 3 layers of the “Many Thanks” cardstock pieces together. This will give the sentiment dimension and will make the whole piece more stable. Next, use the glue pen to add glue to the back of the Many Thanks piece, line it up over the Many Thanks outline piece that we cut earlier from vellum, and press in place to adhere.

2. Use the glue pen to add glue to the back of the vellum outline. I added glue just to the areas under the cardstock “Many Thanks” piece so that the glue wouldn’t show through after it dried. Line the piece up over the card base and adhere in place to finish the card.

And that’s all there is to it! Now you have a custom, patterned card that is truly impressive. There’s no better way to give thanks!