6/23/2022 0 Comments

Cricut Tutorial: Learn how to create Leaves and Flowers in Cricut Design Space using basic shapes

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Will you believe me if I told you that these leaf and flowers were made entirely in Cricut design space using basic shapes? I mean no external software or apps used. Nada! Well guess what! I betcha did! Whaaat??? But how? you ask my friend? Well that is why I am here to show you just that.
Now you may be wondering why even bother knowing how to make these when you can just find free ones from the internet you can use?
My answer to that is while it is true you can find free ones from the internet, but knowing the basics of Design space and being able to use the tools Cricut has made available within design space, will open doors to a higher level of creativity which then leads to mastery of it's use, it's functions and actions. You won’t believe the designs you can create, the ways you can modify or edit in design space until you get a good grasp of it's full functionality.
That makes learning how to use, edit and apply shapes in Cricut design space just as important as knowing how to cut a vinyl.
Another reason to point out why it is important to learn basic shapes is because sometimes you just need a design you can't find on the internet or even if you do, you have to pay for. This is where having the knowledge of using shapes in design space will come in handy.
Besides it's always nice to learn a new skill and become self sufficient with what is already readily available.

So I hope the reasons I have pointed out above is enough to convince and motivate you to want to learn more and the tutorials I provide here gives you the helping hand you need on your learning journey.
If you’re ready to dive in to this wonderful world of creativity, let's begin by making these flowers and leaf just in time for spring. As we progress along this tutorial, don't be scared to modify and experiment. Try and see how your designs turn out if you rotate, move or resize your shapes a little differently. After all I'm only here to provide you the necessary foundation so the rest of the creativity is really up to you ;)
So lets begin!

Cricut Tutorial: Learn how to create Leaves and Flowers in Cricut Design Space using basic shapes

Lets begin with making the leaf.
First, create a heart then duplicate it.

Rotate one of the hearts 180 degrees. To do this enter 180 in the rotate box in the Edit bar.
Place this rotated heart on top of the other heart so that they are overlapping.
Make sure both hearts are aligned centrally. To do this Select both shapes and align center Horizontally (you can find align in Edit bar).

With both shapes selected, hit weld.
Now unlock the aspect ratio by clicking on the lock icon at the bottom left of the newly created shape. Drag the shape down until you get the desired shape for your leaf. Take your time and play around.

Great We got the base of our leaf now. See? That was quite easy! Just by using hearts you get to create a leaf!
Okay on to the Midrib and veins of our leaf.
First, create a line. You can do this by creating a square, unlocking the aspect ratio and dragging this shape down until you get a thick long line. You can place this line on your leaf to get the right length. This is going to be the midrib of the leaf.

Go ahead and change the color of your leaf for better contrast.

Now let's make the veins. Create another line but smaller.
Rotate this line 45 degrees to create a slanted line and place it on the outer edge of the longer line (see image below).
Make a few copies of this slanted line. Arrange each copy higher than the other leaving some space in between. We want to make sure these lines are distributed equally and vertically. You can do this by selecting the slanted lines, then going to Align -> Distribute -> Distribute Vertically in the Edit bar.

Next, we want our lines to get shorter and shorter as we go further up to the tip of our leaf. To achieve this, move each line a little bit to the right as you go up higher.

Take a close look at the veins. You will see some poking out to the other side of the midrib as a result of moving some of the slanted lines to the right. We need to get rid of these excess parts.
To do this, create a square and overlap it with the excess part of the slanted line. Select both of these shapes (slanted line and the square) and slice. Remove the small pieces that have resulted from slicing. Repeat for each slanted line until nothing is poking out on the other side of the midrib.

Next, select all lines and weld them together. We now need to duplicate this to create the right side veins.
This can be easily done by making a duplicate of the shape and flipping it horizontally. Select both shapes and align them to the top.
Weld both shapes.

Our Midrib and vein is now complete!
Our leaf looks pretty good at this stage but let's add a leaf stalk.
To create a stalk, simply make a rectangle and weld it to the bottom of your leaf.

You can slice out the midrib and veins out from the leaf or leave it as is. It's really up to you.
I went ahead and Sliced out the midrib and veins out from my leaf.
(Images below)

Our leaf is now complete and we can move on to making our flower.How exciting!
Making the flower is much easier than the leaf so hooray if you have made it this far!
To make our flower, we first need a petal.
To create a petal, make a heart and a circle.

Place the circle on top of the heart so that they are overlapping.
Try to achieve something similar to the image below.

Make sure both shapes are aligned center horizontally.

Select both and weld.

Have a look at your petal, if your petal isn't curved smoothly on the sides, just undo the steps and move the circle a little bit higher or lower on your heart. Continue doing until your petal is smooth all around after welding.

Once you’re happy with that, go ahead and unlock the aspect ratio and drag the shape down to achieve the shape you want for your petal. Again this step is up to you. You can make your petal round and plum or thin and long. Just play around.

Next we just have to make multiple copies of our petal making sure they are rotated equally along the same point (center of the flower).
Let me explain what I mean.
Make a copy of your petal then rotate it 30 or 40 or 50 degrees by entering a value in the rotate box located in the edit bar. (Again the angle is up to you. The wider the angle, the bigger the distance between your petals).
Make the pointy side of each petals touch at the center.
Now duplicate THIS new petal (very important) and enter the angle value by adding it up to the previous angle value. So for example, if you entered 40 degrees for your second petal, you need to add another 40 for the third copy. That means for the third petal you enter 80 degrees (40 (second petal)+ 40 (third petal)) in the rotate box and 120 (80 (third petal) + 40 (fourth petal)) for the fourth petal and so on until the last petal reaches the first petal.

Select all petals and weld.

You can now add a center to your flower and it's done!

Get creative! play around with the shape of the petal and the degrees of your angle to get a different flower each time.
See the example below. I made my petal long and thin which resulted to a different flower.

And that's it! I hope you had fun making these flowers and leaves because I sure did!
Let me know how you go with making them and share your thoughts in the comments.

Watch the video as a reference for each step: