Never Ending Cards ⭐ Card Making Countdown 2026

Make a never ending card where the decorations go on forever!

Welcome to Day 9 of the 2026 Card Making Countdown.

Today we are making these fun never ending cards. I first made a never ending card back in around 2009, and really enjoyed the process.

I’ve never tried making one with a Cricut before, so I took this Countdown as a good opportunity to try!

They get their name because you can keep opening up the card with the flaps to progress through the different layouts, then when you end up back at the beginning you can start all over again!

It really is never ending because you can just sit there and play with this card for ages and keep going through all the pretty pictures.

I’ve included a blank never ending card design with today’s project.

I’ll show you how you can customize it with the patterned papers, pictures, photos and messages of your choice.

Never ending card 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.

• Cricut machine
• Light blue Cricut cutting mat
• Cricut scoring wheel or stylus
• Coloured cardstock (any thickness)
• Patterned paper
• Glue (I like Bearly Art Glue and Collall)
• Flat embellishments such as stickers or printed images (optional)
• Masking tape, washi tape or similar to aid with assembly (optional)

This project is suitable for the following types of Cricut machines: Explore series, Maker series, Joy Xtra, Joy and Joy 2.

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.

• Help guides for Cricut machines
• Help guides for Silhouette machines
• Help guides for ScanNCut machines

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.

• How to score with a Cricut (even without scoring tools)
• Print then cut tutorial
• Design Space tools (Combine, Attach, Slice, Weld, Flatten, etc.)
• Pattern fill tutorial (for making backgrounds & cutting images to a specific shape/size)
• Free envelope SVGs that can be sized to fit any card
• Presentation boxes for handmade cards
• How to write inside cards with Cricut pens
• How to cut layered designs at a small size
• Design Space tips & tricks
• Cricut pens tutorial
• How to mount multiple designs in the same frame with magic guides

Never ending card video tutorial

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

How to make never ending cards

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

Get the files using the box below.

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

• How to unzip a folder on Windows computer
• How to unzip a folder on a Mac
• How to unzip a folder on an iPad/iPhone
• How to unzip a folder on an Android device

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:

• Cricut Design Space
• Silhouette Studio
• CanvasWorkspace (for ScanNCut machines)

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 files on your computer, or drag-and-drop them in.

For Cricut machines, choose the file in the “Cutting Machine Version” folder called svg-never-ending-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.

Here is what the design looks like loaded into Design Space.

Note – your version will have some of the arrow/shapes on the base card pieces in different locations to mine. I realised after filming the video tutorial that some of my shapes remained visible, so I changed the design for the one you receive to fix the problem.

Step 2) Paper selection and project setup

Check that the SVG has loaded in at 14 inches wide and 20 inches tall. If not, change it to match.

Click the design and “Ungroup” the layers to separate out the pieces.

Delete the green size guide box.

Open one of the Groups for the base card pieces by clicking the chevron arrow that appears next to it in the layers panel.

Click on the top layer within that group, which will look like either horizontal or vertical lines.

Change that layer to “Score” in the Operations dropdown.

Select the Group that contains that score layer and press “Attach” to join the score line to the base card piece underneath.

Repeat for the other three base pieces.

The coloured squares below have been arranged according to how they are displayed on the final card.

I mixed up the colours among each layout so that you will see a range of different patterns on each side of the card.

My card doesn’t have any space for a written message, as I preferred to keep it all decorated.

If you would like to write in yours, change the two square pieces on the second layout to white.

Choose the papers to use on your card.

Tip: For the pink and orange pieces, choose a patterned paper that doesn’t have a “right way up” to make the assembly process easier. The other colours can be cut from patterned paper that does have a distinct “right way up”.

Write a small letter in one of the corners to remind you which colour this corresponds to on the Design space project.

This one is “Y” for “Yellow”.

I wanted to use different colours of card for my backing shapes, so I changed the layer colours in Design Space to have three colours.

You can “print then cut” elements for your card instead of only using patterned paper.

A full print then cut tutorial, including how to upload images to Design Space, is included in the Foundation Learning section at the top of this page.

Upload your images if you are choosing to use them.

First, here is how to cut images to the correct size when the image in question would cover the entire shape – like the dog photo shown above.

Select the shape that you want to use an image for and change it to a “Guide” in the Operations dropdown.

This changes it to a pink outline with a transparent middle.

Position this over your image.

Resize the image so that you can see the part you want to show on your card within the Guide.

IMPORTANT – do not change the size of the guide layer!!

Select the image layer and the shape and press “Slice”.

This cuts the shape out of the image.

Delete the excess pieces so that you are left with the image cut in the perfect size.

For images without backgrounds, like the dog carrying presents in my example above, instead of changing the shape from the never ending card to a guide layer, keep it as a basic cut and change it to white.

Resize the image to fit on the shape from the card.

Select the image and the shape and press “Flatten”. This joins them together, so now the Cricut will cut around the edge of the square.

Note that when you “Flatten”, it removes the black border from around the edge of the square. Don’t worry – it is still there. You can see it better if you move the square back over to its matching backer in the card templates.

Finish decorating your card, then save the project.

Step 3) Cut the project

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.

However, be careful NOT to rotate any patterned paper pieces, otherwise they will not cut with the pattern the correct way up when you put the card together.

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 4) Build the card structure

For all four base pieces, fold the score lines forwards and back, and go down them with a brayer tool or similar for a crisper fold.

Select the pieces with the star cutouts and the square cutout and position them as shown below so that they touch up against each other perfectly.

Use masking tape, washi tape or similar along the top and bottom part (stay within the vertical score lines) to hold them to your work surface.

Fold the four sides inwards.

The base piece with the circle cutouts will go on the left of the card.

The base piece with the triangle cutouts will go on the right of the card.

Add glue to the top and bottom of the left pieces, as shown below.

Glue the piece with the circle cutouts on top.

Repeat for the other side, using the piece with the triangle cutouts.

Make sure the card closes neatly in the middle.

Open the card to show each of the four scenes.

Press down against the folds each time to get them trained in place.

Step 5) Decorate the card

Put the card into the first position, so that the arrows point upwards and you can see the circle and triangle cutouts.

Place the matching backers and decoration pieces around the edge.

Important – there are multiple shapes that show the same cutouts, so if you used multiple colours for the backing pieces then check against your screen in Design Space to make sure you are selecting the correct colour.

Glue the backers into place. Don’t worry about lining the cutout shapes up – focus on having an even amount of background showing around the edge.

Glue the matching patterned paper pieces on top.

Open the card to the next layout and position the pieces around the edge.

Glue on all the pieces.

Open the card to the third layout and position the pieces around the edge.

This time, only stick on the left and right squares.

Note that the arrow and shapes on the backer pieces will be the opposite way around on your cutouts than the base card.

That’s fine – it’s because of how the card has been folded around.

Stick the pieces on so that the shapes are on the left and the arrows on the right, with the arrows facing upwards.

Glue the four small squares onto their backers.

Glue onto each corner.

This is the part on my card where I realised that the arrows were still visible after gluing the squares on, which is why you can see them in the below image.

Yours will not have this problem, as I have corrected the file for you.

Open the card to the final layout.

The arrows will be appearing upside down at this point. Do NOT turn the card around!! You want them to be upside down.

Glue on the four squares.

Then add the larger squares. If you’ve chosen a pattern with a “right way up” for this part, it should be glued on so that you see it the right way up (i.e. the opposite direction to the arrows).

At this point, you can add other flat decorations if you like.

My patterned paper pack came with some die-cut animal shapes, so I glued some of them onto the card.

Do not add any decorations with dimension/height to them, otherwise the card will not work correctly.

Your never ending card is now finished!

Here’s how mine looks on all the different setups:

Infinity cards made easy

I hope that you enjoy making these never ending cards with your Cricut machine.

The cards themselves are simple to put together – it’s the figuring out of which pattern of paper goes where that takes the time!

Happy crafting,
Sarah x