Draw on a Gift Bag with your Cricut

Did you know that you can draw with Cricut pens on items, like a gift bag, with your Cricut? I have shown you how to use the Cricut pens to write on things like cards. Now let’s look at how we can draw with Cricut pens. We will also look at how to place that drawn image so that it the Cricut will draw on a gift bag.

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Choose your image

First, choose your image that you want to draw with the Cricut. I suggest choosing a simple image to start with. I found this image of a heart in Cricut Design Space. When I click on this image in Design Space you can see that the linetype is set to cut. If we use the pull down, indicated by the blue arrow in the image below, we can change that from Cut to Draw.

When we do this, you can see that the entire image changes so that all that is visible is the thin outline of the heart image. This is because the Cricut will follow the same path for the blade as it will for the pen. It will not fill in or color the heart, just draw the outline of the heart design. Keep reading to the end of this tutorial because I do have a hack you can use to fill the image in and make it appear colored in.

I can also change the pen color using the pull down right next to the linetype.

Setting up your mat

Because I know I want this heart drawn on a gift bag, I want to place that gift bag on my Cricut cutting mat. I recommend using a gift bag that does not have a glossy finish otherwise your pen might smear.

I am going to center the gift bag on the cutting mat. If you are worried about it moving, you can tape it down with painter’s tape to hold it in place. I also placed the gift bag so the handles will not have to go under the rollers of the Cricut. This means that it is upside down on the cutting mat, but we will address that when we position the image in the next step. Make sure that your pen is in the Cricut. If you need to purchase pens you can find them on Amazon by clicking HERE.

Position your image

In Cricut Design Space, when you click Make It, the Cricut will automatically force all of the items to the upper left corner of the cutting mat. It is trying to save you material. You would not want to waste a whole sheet of paper by putting your design right in the middle of the paper, right?

For this project, we want to position the image we are going to draw with the Cricut exactly in the same place on the mat where we taped the gift bag. If we click on the image preview on the cutting mat, you will see that we can move it around on the mat. I am going to move the heart image to be centered over the same location that I centered the gift bag. Make sure you also use the arrow in the upper right corner of the image to rotate the heart. Remember, the gift bag is taped on to the mat upside down, so our drawn image also needs to be upside down.

Below is a video so you can see how the whole process of how to draw with Cricut pens comes together.

Draw with Cricut Pens . . . and color

So now you know how to draw with Cricut Pens, and I bet the next question you will ask is how do you get the Cricut pens to color or fill in that drawn image. For that, you will have to read my article on using a hatch fill, or inset fill, in order to trick the Cricut into filling small little lines through the entire image making it appear to be colored in. You can read that article HERE.

If you found this helpful, you should join my Teach Me Cricut Design Space Facebook Group. You can ask me questions and I will share all of my best tips and tricks with you. Or if you want a more personal experience, you can join my Patreon group.

I also have a lot of great resources on my Classes page of this website including my Teach Me Cricut Design Space Online Course. In this course I take you step by step through how to use every button and function in Design Space. I have compiled the most frequently asked Cricut questions along with the answers to those questions into one online course. This is my most in depth and detailed Cricut resource ever! It contains over two years worth of Cricut knowledge and research in one course!