Did you know your Cricut can draw out your own custom coloring pages? Well, it can! In today’s tutorial I’m going to show you how to make your own coloring page on Cricut. It’s a really simple method that can turn any SVG file into a coloring page that you can use for tons of different crafts. I used mine to make adorable little Valentine’s Day cards for my niece’s Daycare class.
Like so many of my other tutorials, you’ll need Inkscape for this to work. Inkscape is a totally free download, you can grab it here. I absolutely LOVE my Cricut and the possibilities of what all I can make with it are endless. However, I do find that most of what I want to do can’t be done in Design Space. But no worries because Inkscape is free and you have me to walk you through it…so let’s get started.
Step 1: Pull in your SVG file
Once you’ve downloaded Inkscape and opened it on your computer you’ll want to pull in the SVG file that you want to make your own coloring page with. This can be any SVG file AT ALL! But it does have to be SVG. JPG and PNG will not work for this project. Just go to “File” and “Import”, select the file you want and click “Open”. Once you have the SVG in Inkscape you’ll want to lock your screen (see pic below). This just makes sure nothing gets scaled all weird.
Step 2: Delete unwanted parts
Once your SVG is in Inkscape you’ll need to delete any parts of the file you don’t want. In the video my SVG has writing at the bottom that I didn’t want to keep. If there’s nothing you want to erase on your file then you can skip this step. To delete the unwanted parts simply ungroup the image. Select your SVG file and then go to “Object” and “Ungroup” (you may have to do this twice). The image should now be ungrouped and you can easily delete any parts you don’t want. Once you’re done you need to group everything back together. Drag a square around your entire image and the go to “Object” and “Group”.
Step 3: Time to make your own coloring page
With your image all grouped back together it’s time to take out the colored parts to make your own coloring page. With your image selected head up to the top menu bar and click the “Fill and stroke” menu (see pic below). When your fill and stroke menu comes up you want to click the “Stroke Paint” tap and then click the first solid box. This will turn the on the stroke of your image. Design Space reads the stroke lines as cut lines. If your stroke line is super thick you’ll want to make is smaller. You need it to be no more than .5mm. If you need to alter your stroke size just click the “Stroke Style” tab and reduce the size of the stroke (see pic below).
Step 4: Delete the existing colors
Okay, so your stroke is on, this is your outline for the coloring page. Now you just need to get rid of all the colors. While you’re still in your “Fill and Stroke” menu click on the “Fill” tab and then click the X at the beginning of the row of boxes. This will delete all the colors from your SVG file. Once the colors are gone if your image looks like a coloring page, then you’re good to go. You can skip down to step 6 for how to save and import it to Design Space. If it doesn’t look quite right yet, keep reading.
Step 5: Deleting overlapping lines
If your SVG file had overlapping lines you’ll want to delete them. This process will be a bit tedious but you’re basically repeating the same steps over and over again so it’s not difficult at all. Each SVG file will be completely different so it’s hard to say where you’ll want to start (watch the video) but usually you’ll want to start with the main body of your character. You’ll first need to go back and ungroup your whole image. You can ungroup from the menu bar like before or you can use the shortcut keys “Ctrl+shift+G”. Ungroup as many times as needed to get your entire image ungrouped.
Select the main body of your image and duplicate it (Ctrl+D). Drag your duplicated part off to the side. Then select your main body again and hold shift and select one of the outside elements like an arm or leg. While you have 2 parts selected you can go to “Path” and “Difference”. This will cut the body part exactly where the main body was. It will also delete the main body which is why you made a duplicate of it. Now that you have your body part cut you can slide your main body back in and they will no longer be overlapped.
Just continue this process all the way around until you have all the body parts sliced and nothing overlaps anymore. MAKE SURE YOU DUPLICATE YOUR MAIN BODY PART EACH TIME. And if you mess up or forget to make a duplicate, just hit “Edit” “Undo” and go back to where you made the mistake.
Step 6: Export your file
Okay, so you’ve gone through all the steps to make your own coloring page and now you need to export the image so you can upload it into Design Space. For this you’ll want to export the image as a PNG, not SVG. First, resize your image so that it fits on the page in Inkscape if it doesn’t’ already and then go up to “File” and “Export PNG Image”. The Export menu will come up and you will select “Drawing” from the top menu. Click the “Export As” tab and name your project then decide where you want to save it. Then click “Export” and it will save your PNG where you selected.
Step 7: Upload your coloring page to Cricut
Now all you need to do is upload the PNG you just saved into Cricut Design Space. Head over to Design Space however you normally get there and open a new project. Pull in your PNG and size it however you’d like in Design Space. Make sure you turn the image from a “Cut” to a “Draw” (see pic below) and then hit “Make It”. That’s it, you’re all done.
