Halloween Suncatcher with A Cricut
Hey to my Cricut friends, this one’s for you! I love seeing all the cute suncatcher shape cutouts and have tried using an Exacto knife to make them but ugh, it’s time consuming, it never turns out, and it’s tedious!
Whether you know all the ins and outs of your Cricut or have had it sitting looking cute on your craft table for a while, I hope this tutorial will help you make some cute suncatchers with the littles in your care!!
Supplies
- Cricut (I use my Explore Air 2)
- blue light grip mat
- Cricut design space
- black cardstock (I used 65lb Essentials cardstock paper from Hobby Lobby)
- clear contact paper
- tissue paper 2in x 2in squares
- masking tape
Finding A Template
For this tutorial you will need Cricut Design Space. If you do not have the Cricut Access, you can purchase templates for about $.99 each.
Other options would be to use the trial period to get free templates or sign up for approximately $10/month.
First you want to open your Cricut Design Space and click the search bar.
Type suncatcher spider into the searchbar.
Take your time looking through all the amazing templates you can choose from!
This is the one I chose, now you will click the plus sign in the corner to add it to your project. If you have the trial or paid version of Cricut Access it will be free, otherwise you will need to purchase the template. $.99 is pretty affordable though for these adorable templates!
Once you have added the template to your project page, use the little corner square to adjust the size. I made mine as large as possible but would still fit on my mat.
Now it’s time to cut it out!!
Cutting Your Suncatcher Template
Be sure you have your blue light grip mat for this project or your paper will most likely stick to the mat and it won’t work out.
This is coming from experience. I’m pretty sure I still have a standard grip mat covered in black cardstock.
**These are all the settings I chose that worked for my cut. If your template is not cutting out properly, look for the ** for options to try.
Turn your Cricut dial to the cardstock setting. While this is for 80lb cardstock I found it cut very nice.
**If your paper is tearing as it’s cut, turn this dial down between cardstock and light cardstock.
Now that base material is set, check that you are using your fine-point blade and the default cut setting.
Now it’s time to cut your project!
After you have loaded your mat with the black cardstock lined up in the corner, hit those flashing buttons and watch the magic!!
Be sure to peel up a corner to make sure your project cut all the way through. If it didn’t, you can hit the center C button on your Cricut, just be sure NOT to unload your mat first.
Carefully peel your template off the mat. The legs can be a little tricky so take your time!!
Don’t forget to keep the tiny circles inside the eyes. We will stick these on the finished project!!
Setting Up Your Space
As with all my projects, I like to have everything set up before kids come to the table. Set up would have been a bit tricky with them all eagerly waiting for me to finish.
This project can go pretty quickly and not everyone is always super patient.
The contact paper I purchased off of Amazon came in a large roll so keeping it flat on the table was tricky! I started by rolling tape behind the clear sticky paper but found that wasn’t quite enough.
I added an extra piece of masking tape to each corner and that worked perfect!
I then set pieces of 2in x 2in tissue paper around the contact paper so they could choose the colors they wanted or use them all. I also separated the squares as that can be tricky for some littles and they end up slapping on a whole pile that doesn’t end up sticking.
Time To Create!
I made this project with kids ranging from 1-5. All the images are of the 1-year-olds project. I think they all had a blast.
Some will cover the whole page, some will tear the pieces off.
Once they’ve covered as much as they’d like, set your template on top and glue those little eyes into place.
Next you will roll another piece of contact paper over the top.
If you are running low on contact paper like I was, glue your template over the top and leave it as is! It works just as well.
Use your scissors to cut around the edges of the template to cut off all the excess.
Hang your littles creation in the window!!
Ways To Learn
I love when we can add a little extra to our projects.
This art creation has tons of options for ways to add learning into our day.
- Say the color every time they stick one on
- Count each square
- Cut out different shapes
Looking for more ideas to practice counting with your littles? Check out this link to our fun and effective ways to teach toddlers to count!