How to Score on your Cricut

Do you need the cut and score instructions for working with the card template in Silhouette Studio instead? I've got those here...

What if I Don't Have a Scoring Tool for my Cricut?

If you don't have a scoring wheel or a scoring stylus for your Cricut, it's not a complete disaster, you can still make score lines but you'll just need to make them manually.

I find the best way to do this is with a metal ruler (which I recommend anyway, even with the scoring stylus or scoring wheel) plus a slightly sharp point - a knitting needle would be an excellent choice or a scissor point.

• You will need to remember to delete the score lines from the design when you cut it in Cricut Design Space

• You may need to re-draw the scorelines in lightly in pencil to get them in the right place when you manually score them - sometimes you don't need to, as the location for the scoreline is quite obviously positioned between two corner points, other times it's not so easy to do. (You shouldn't have too much difficulty with my greeting card SVGs).

So simply:

• Draw a light guideline in the correct position (very lightly in pencil is best)

• Line up your metal ruler along this line, and hold it down firmly

• Score along the ruler with your sharp point (like a knitting needle)

• Keeping your ruler in place, fold your card up against your ruler

• Then turn over your card, and fold again the other way, you can grip all along the folded edge between finger and thumb to improve the fold.

1) Upload the greeting card SVG into Cricut Design Space and open it on your 'Canvas' - if you need help with that, you can find that here...

2) On the right-hand side of the screen you will be able to see all the layers. You will see that I've positioned:

• the score line for the outer part of the card just above the cutting shape for the outer part of the card
• the score line for the inner card just above the cutting shape for the inner card
• the FOUR score lines for the envelope just above the cutting shape for the envelope (this is right at the bottom of the pile)

Make a mental note as we'll need to be able to identify and select these in a minute!

Note how the score lines are positioned right above the part that they're to score into/onto

3) Click 'Ungroup'...

'Ungroup' everything to start...

4) Next, we're going to select each of the lines that we want to be score lines - you can do this individually if you want, but it's much quicker to select them all together. You can do this by holding down the 'Shift' key on your keyboard and clicking on the ones you want to select...

Click on each of the lines that need to be set to score lines - TIP - hold the shift key as you click to select them all in one go

5) With the lines to be scored selected, look in the top left corner of Cricut Design Space, where it says 'Operation' and 'Cut' in the drop-down menu, click the little arrow by the side to access other options and select 'Score' in the section marked 'Draw'. Your lines are now all set to score and not cut. 

For 'Operation' select 'Score'

6) Now, we need to tell Cricut Design Space which score lines we want to associate with each cutting shape, we need to link them correctly so that we're not having the envelope score lines on the card and the card score lines on the envelope - what a mess! So we just need to work down the layers, associating each score line (or group of score lines) with the cut shape underneath it.

• Select the score line and the card outer (using the 'Shift' key, as before) - then press 'Attach' (bottom of the screen)

Select the top score line and associate it with the card outer, just beneath it

Click 'Attach'

You can now see, in the layers panel, that these are now 'attached' - note how the attached layers are indented a little beneath the 'attach' line

MARCH 2024 - after the Cricut update, this image above will look slightly different with the contents of the 'attach' nested under the arrow but hidden. If you want to see it looking like this, just click on the arrow next to the 'Attach' to see what's in the group.

• Repeat this, selecting and attaching the score line with the inner card...

• And then the FOUR score lines all together with the envelope at the bottom.

• Finally, check that the layers look okay with everything attached where it should be - the order may be rearranged, with the envelope on top - this doesn't matter. (On Cricut Design Space, you may need to scroll down the layers panel to see the final layer or layers). New from March '24 - click on the arrows if you want to see what's in each 'Attach' grouping so it looks like the images below.

Time for a final check of the layers panel

7) Now, we are ready to 'Make it' (top right, as usual)

8) Prepare your first mat - check it says 'Score' and 'Basic Cut' for each mat

There should be three mats, each with a score and a basic cut

9) When you're ready, press 'Continue' (bottom right) as usual.

10) Select your paper type as usual (such as light cardstock)

11) Make sure the correct tools are selected - for the Explore or Joy the scoring stylus should appear with the cutting blade, for the Maker, it defaults to the scoring wheel - if you want to use the scoring stylus with the Maker, just click on 'Edit Tools' and then select the scoring stylus and press 'apply'. 

Don't forget to also insert the correct tool in the correct slot in the machine too!

If you need to Edit your scoring tool type, do it here

The Maker is all set up for the Scoring Stylus now

​12) The correct tools should now be ready to go, so just insert your prepared mat, set the machine off and follow the same process for the other layers.

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