Build-Down Background Cards ⭐ Card Making Countdown 2026

Make intricate backgrounds with a stencil effect that build downwards with different colours of cardstock.

Welcome to Day 4 of the 2026 Card Making Countdown. In this tutorial, we are making beautiful backgrounds made up of cutout shapes in the front of the card.

In the first half of this tutorial, I’ll show how you can make the included pre-designed card with the lovely flowers around the edge and an ornate gold frame in the middle.

The centre of the frame is left blank, so you can add whatever greeting or picture you want into the space.

In the second part of this tutorial, I’ll show how you can use your own images to make card fronts in the same build-down style.

That way, you’re not just limited to the one pre-made one that I’ve created for you, but you can make similar cards for any occasion or theme.

This project is part of the 2026 Card Making Countdown

Find out more

Build-down background cards materials supply list

Here is a list of the materials that are used to make this project.

Please note that some of the links included in this article are affiliate links, which means that if you click through and make a purchase I may receive a commission (at no additional cost to you). You can read my full disclosure at the bottom of the page.

This project is suitable for the following types of Cricut machines: Explore series, Maker series, Joy Xtra, Joy and Joy 2. You will need to make the pre-designed card front smaller to cut with a Joy or Joy 2.

Build down background cards with a Cricut

Foundation learning

If you're new to making papercrafts with your cutting machine, check out these links to get you started.

They include videos on topics such as: which file to use with your type of cutting machine, how to load the files into your cutting machine's software, how to cut cardstock with your type of cutting machine, how to recolor and modify/customize the cut files and tips for displaying your projects.

The following tutorials are Cricut-specific, but many of the ideas will work similarly with a Silhouette or ScanNCut machine and any cut files that are shared in them are compatible with all types of cutting machine.

Build-down background cards video tutorial

Watch the video below to see how to make this project. Keep scrolling for a written tutorial.

Want to share your thoughts on this project? Click here to visit the video on YouTube

PART 1: Flower Frame Card Tutorial

First, we will start with how to make the predesigned flower and gold frame card.

Want to design your own? Keep scrolling for the tutorial!

Step 1) Download the cutting file & upload to Design Space

Get the files using the box below.

Purchase the File(s)

This cut file is available as part of the Instant Access Bundle.

Find out more

Or, purchase this design individually here

Before you upload the SVGs to Design Space, you need to unzip the download folder that they come in.

After unzipping, upload the SVG file(s) into your cutting machine software.

Not sure how to use cut files with your type of machine? The following links lead to videos on how to open cut files in:

The download folder also contains printable PDF versions of the templates for hand cutting.

If you are using Cricut Design Space, start a new project and then click the “Upload” button on the left of the screen.

You can then either click “Browse” to find the file on your computer, or drag-and-drop it.

Select the file in the “01 Cricut Version” subfolder called svg-01-flower-frame-card-craftwithsarah.svg

Press “Upload” on the next screen.

After uploading, the design should be automatically inserted onto your Canvas.

To hide the left sidebar (to give you more space for designing!), click the arrow that’s about half way down the page.

If the design doesn’t get inserted onto your Canvas, it will show under “Uploads” in your “Recently Uploaded Images”. Click on it and then press “Add to Canvas” to put it onto your Project.

Need help uploading SVGs? Get step-by-step instructions here in our detailed help guides for Cricut, Silhouette and ScanNCut.

Step 2) Check the size and add the score lines

The card should load in at 7 inches wide and 10 inches tall. If not, adjust it to match those dimensions.

This will make a 5×7 inch card once the base card is folded in half.

Note: If you are using a Cricut Joy or Joy 2 then you’ll need to delete the base card (and hand-cut a sheet of card to size), then change the card front to a maximum of 4.5 inches tall).

Click the design and press the “Ungroup” button at the top of the layers panel.

This separates out all of the pieces.

Move the base card over to the side so it’s easier to work with.

Click “Shapes” and select a score line.

Size it to 7 inches and rotate 90 degrees.

Select the score line and the base card and press “Align > Center” to put the score line exactly in the middle.

With both layers still selected, click “Attach”. That tells the Cricut to do the scoring on the base card.

Step 3) Customise the design

Don’t want so many colours? You can simplify the design by hiding or deleting some of the layers.

You can customise the card by adding a greeting, image or printable picture into the middle of the frame.

Or, cut it empty and decorate it with your existing craft supplies once the rest of the card is made.

Step 4) Cut out all the pieces

When you’re happy with how the project is looking in Design Space, click “Make” and follow the instructions on-screen to cut out all the pieces.

To change the paper size, go into the dropdowns over on the left side of the screen and choose the paper size that you want to use. You need to change it for every single colour.

To save space on your cardstock, you can move things around by clicking and dragging. Make sure when you’re moving things about that nothing overlaps because otherwise, it won’t cut out properly.

TIP: New to using cardstock with your cutting machine? Check out these machine help guides for Cricut, Silhouette and ScanNCut that go through every step of the process, including tips for getting the best quality cuts from your machine.

Step 5) Glue the layers together

My favourite glues to use on papercraft projects are Bearly Art Glue and Collall All Purpose Glue.

These are great because they don’t “warp” or bend the cardstock like some glues do. You can use as much of it as you want and the card stays perfect – and it dries perfectly clear too!

Bearly Art Glue comes with a tiny nozzle to make it easy to apply glue to small areas of card. The Collall glue doesn’t come with this, so it’s easiest to decant it into needle tip applicator bottles so that you have more control.

Place all the pieces of the card in order, following the assembly guide below.

Make sure you have all the pieces the correct way around.

All the little butterflies, hearts and flowers should line up exactly, as shown below.

If you have accidentally put any pieces the wrong way around then the pictures won’t line up:

If that’s the case, flip the wrong pieces around so that everything lines up.

Glue the pieces together, starting at the bottom.

Fold the base card in half, then glue your build-down background to the front of the card.

Glue the pieces of the frame on top, then any extra embellishments you have added into the middle of the frame.

PART 2: Design your own build-down backgrounds

Here is how to design your own build-down background cards using Cricut Design Space.

Step 1) Choose your card size, frame and main image

Add a rectangle that’s the size of the card you wish to make.

Choose a big image to go in the middle, and a frame design.

Most of the images I’m using for this card are from Cricut Access, apart from the cute dinosaur SVG which is from my shop.

Step 2) Add silhouette pictures

Add simple, one-colour images around the edge of the card.

In Design Space, I filtered the image selection by “Single Layer” images and “Simple” complexity so that it showed more suitable images.

These pictures will be cut very small on the card front, so the images need to be quite easy to cut, without any complex lines.

They should all be “silhouette” style images without any detailing in the middles.

Place your images all the way around the front of the card.

It is ok to use different colours – this will be built as separate pieces of card when we finalise the background in the next step.

Likewise, it’s fine to overlap images over the side of the card.

Save your project before moving into the next step.

As soon as you save, press Save > Save As again and save it with a different name.

That way, if you ever want to come back to this point in time with all your pieces separate, you have a backup project saved.

Step 3) Create the card layers

Hide your frame and the layered picture in the middle of the card.

Select everything that’s left and press “Combine > Subtract”.

That will cut the pictures out of the bottom rectangle.

If you want to, you can open up the “Subtract” group in the layers panel to move individual pieces around.

This is helpful if you have accidentally placed the shapes in places that wouldn’t quite cut right.

When you’re happy with how all the pictures are looking, Duplicate the group to make a backup and hide that one.

Click the original and press “Combine > Merge Layers”.

This joins everything into one layer.

Duplicate the layer in place. To do this, place your mouse over the layer (on the main canvas, not in the layers panel).

Press Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows) on your keyboard and then left-click with the mouse.

That will make a copy of the layer in the same place.

Hide the top layer and change the colour of the next one down.

Select that layer, then press “Contour”.

This allows you to “hide” cutouts in the layer.

I’m hiding the little circles for my first layer as I don’t want the Cricut to have to cut them more than once as they are small.

To hide a cutout, click into it or scroll down the list on the right-side and click in there.

Note: you cannot hide pieces that have cut out of the edges of the rectangle. We’ll colour these at the end.

Press “Apply” when you’re happy.

Your layer will then update to hide those cutouts.

Turn the top layer back on to see the effect you have made.

Repeat these steps for all the colours you want to add to the card.

When you get to the last colour, instead of using Contour, create a shape that’s the same size as your card front.

Drag it to the bottom.

This will fill in the rest of the pieces, including any that are cutting off the edge.

If you want to make the cut-off pieces different colours then this can be achieved, but it takes a little bit of time.

For example, I could do grey AND black dinosaurs.

It might be easier to understand the next steps by watching the video near the top of the page.

Make a new rectangle the same size as the card front. Change it to a “Guide” layer in the Operations dropdown.

Align it with the card front layers, then hide all the card layers apart from the bottom one that you want to fill in the shapes for, and the Guide.

Duplicate the Guide layer in place a few times so that you have some copies.

Hide all apart from one.

Drag that guide smaller so that it covers one of the pictures you are trying to fill.

Do NOT move it out of place with the edges of the card.

Repeat for the other Guide layers, with each Guide covering a different picture.

I’ve covered the t-rex on the top-let and the middle dinosaur on the right.

Change the Guides you have used back to “Basic Cut” in the Operations dropdown and match the colour to the layer you are creating.

Select the rectangles and the main card layer and press “Combine > Weld” to join them into one single layer.

Now those dinosaurs have been filled in grey, leaving the others as cutouts that will show through my card in a different colour.

I also hide the stegosaurus in the bottom-left, but that one could be done with Contour as it doesn’t go over the edge of the card.

Here is how it looks with all the colours visible:

Step 4) Final touches

Turn your frame and other pictures back on, then get all the colours to your liking.

Create a base card and add a score line down the middle. Attach the score line to the base card.

Save your project, then get it cut out and assemble the card.

I love how my custom dinosaur card turned out!

Stencilled background cards to make with a Cricut

And there you have it – your premade flower background card AND bespoke build-down background card in your chosen theme are both complete.

These cards have so much possibility, for all different themes and occasions.

I really enjoy sticking these cards together and seeing the pictures appear as the colours are built up.

Put your cards in a custom envelope or 3D presentation box to make them even more special.

Happy crafting,
Sarah x