Cricut Place Cards with a Free SVG

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Learn how to make Cricut place cards – beautiful table decor for any occasion! You can also learn more about how to write with Cricut here. This post contains affiliate links.

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Place cards are more than table decor; they are the solution for making your parties, get-togethers and family dinners go way smoother. Skip the hours of milling and have guests ready to find their own seats easily! It’s the ultimate party hack to enjoy yourself a little more as hostess.

Place cards can come in every shape and form – paint marker on acrylic, vinyl on ceramic tiles, small papers tied with some dried foliage… the possibilities are endless. But the point of this specific post is to teach you how to make a basic tent card with your Cricut, and how to make it special for your event.

Just to recap: I’ve been making place cards for pretty much every family event – even those as simple as holiday dinners for the four of us. I love table decor, and this is a great accessory. I also make it for larger events to seat people quickly. Today, I’m going to share with you some ideas as well as a general how-to guide for making place cards on your Cricut.

Table of Contents:

• Cricut Place Cards Tips
• How to make place cards with Cricut to match any occasion – Weddings, Thanksgiving, and more!
• Supplies needed to make these Cricut place cards
• How to Make Place Cards with Cricut
• Download the free SVG
• Design Space Setup
• How to make place cards with Cricut – step by step assembly

Cricut Place Cards Tips

While this Cricut place cards tutorial focuses on a very simple tent card, I do share some ideas to make it fancier. Here are some tips to help you decide how to go about making yours:

• Only embellish if you are making a few. If you’re making a lot, limit the different operations you use to save time (score, deboss, etc.)

• You can also write directly onto the main card stock tent – just make sure the marker color and type you’re using shows well on the base.

• I love Cricut’s adhesive backed card stock for these. It makes assembly so simple but still looks like card stock for that sweet layered look. Also, if you own an Explore or Maker 3, you don’t need a mat to use it!

• If you’re really making a lot: flatten your entire design excluding the score line. After you flatten, ATTACH the score line. Print then Cut. It’s not as nice but much quicker. A compromise can be: print and cut the names as rectangles and stick them onto the place card base.

• Save time and material by resizing it to the minimum size that’ll look good. You’ll fit more on a mat. Just make sure to resize all your placecards at once. A standard place card size is 2×3.5 inches (folded) but can go smaller if needed. The cool thing about making your own is that you can do what you want… Sometimes sizing it down just a few notches can fit a whole additional row..

• If you’re good at brush lettering, you might find it time saving to actually letter it by hand.
• If you’re making only a few, you can use any font, not just writing and set the line type to writing. It’ll outline it and then you can color it in by hand.

How to make place cards with Cricut to match any occasion – Weddings, Thanksgiving, and more!

Your materials are everything. When you’re making Cricut place cards to match an event, the first thing to work with is your color scheme. The simpler the design, the more important the paper is. Start by choosing which papers you’ll be using. The style and texture will make your design! Make sure the base paper is sturdy enough to stand when folded. And make sure your paper can hold whatever you plan to do with it. So the one you’re writing on, for example, shouldn’t have a glitter texture.

If you’d like, you can add a monogram to the back of your place card! Upload the event monogram, or simply type a letter in your favorite font, like I did for this event celebrating A’s birth. If you have an Access subscription, you’ll find loads of options for pre-made monogram letters.

To add the monogram to the back, you can use metallic markers on dark paper, deboss it like I did, or even cut it from vinyl or paper.

Add a paper embellishment. For Rosh Hashanah, I added a layered pomegranate to the top center of a simple tent that had the names written directly on them. You can do this with fall foliage or turkeys for Thanksgiving, rings or dresses for a wedding, ornaments or trees for Christmas… the possibilities are endless!

Supplies needed to make these Cricut place cards

This supplies list features the basic supplies to make the exact place cards I did. Of course, adjust your supplies according to how YOU plan to do it.

• Cricut Maker 3 (or other Cricut cutting machine)
• Blue LightGrip mat
• Fine Point Blade (included with your machine)
• Debossing tip with the QuickSwap Housing (optional – for Maker only)
• Scoring wheel (stylus if using an Explore machine)
• Base paper – here: gray card stock
• Name paper – here: SmartPaper Sticker Cardstock in white
• Cricut pen or marker

How to Make Place Cards with Cricut

Download the free SVG

I did create a very basic SVG of the main rectangle for the tent, the score line, and even a front rectangle for the name. You can easily replicate using basic shapes in Design Space (no subscription needed) but it can save you time and it’s good to have handy.

Download your SVG file here! File is in a zipped folder – learn how to unzip it here.

Design Space Setup

1. Upload your place card SVG. Ungroup. Select the plain line and set Operation to score. Alternatively, recreate this using items from the Shapes selection.

2. Select the larger vertical rectangle and the score line and hit “attach”.

3. To make it easier to work with, move your small rectangle off your place card base. With the text tool, write the first name. I recommend creating the first card with the longest name so that the others will automatically fit at the same font size. In fonts, filter by “writing” and choose a writing font. Make sure the “style” is writing after it’s typed in.

4. Resize your name to fit on the card. Select the rectangle and the name and “align” then center horizontally AND vertically.

5. Click the text and the text background and then “attach”. At some point, set your colors to close to the colors you’re using. While you can really load any color paper or pen, regardless of what you have it set to, it helps avoid confusion as you load your machine. It also helps you visualize how your project is coming out.

6. If you want, add an uploaded monogram, typed letter, or Access image monogram. Flip it upside down and center it on the back of the card. Change the operation to deboss (or whichever function you want. You can write or even foil this!)

7. When your monogram is ready, attach it to the background as well.

8. When you’re ready to roll, move your name back onto the background, just to make it easier to duplicate as needed. Select the whole card and duplicate as many times as you need. Go through each name, select it on the layers panel (so that you can select only that and not the background too) and change the name. You may need to fix the color as well as the position of the name each time. When you’re done, hit “make it” and proceed to make it!

How to make place cards with Cricut – step by step assembly

1. Load your paper as prompted onto the first mat, as prompted. If you’re using Smart Paper with the Maker 3 you don’t need a mat! Load the tools and cut as the app prompts you.

You’ll need to load separate tools for each operation – but check out those crisp score lines and that beautiful debossed A!

Cutting will always be the final step.

2. When you’re done cutting all your parts, you simply stick the name onto the base, fold it in half, and you’re done! All that machine work made for super quick assembly.

Which occasion will you be making Cricut place cards for? Comment below!

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