Free birthday card SVG files

How the cards are made

Each file is the whole card as one flat sheet: the back panel, the front panel and the spine between them. The spine is a row of short slits that the blade cuts along with everything else, so there is no scoring tool to fit and the card folds cleanly on the line. The slits stop short of both edges, which keeps the card in one piece.

The art is cut out of the front panel, and nothing is left loose inside a cut-out, so the front stays one piece too. Glue a liner of coloured or patterned paper inside the front, a little smaller than the panel, and the balloons or the cake show in that colour. The liner also gives you a clean place to write.

Sizes and card

The files are 100 mm on their longer side, like the rest of the library, so scale each one up to the size its note gives. The A6 cards are cut 210 mm long and use half a sheet of A4; the A2 card is half a sheet of Letter. The square cards are 280 mm long opened out, which fits A4 but is just too long for Letter, so cut those at 270 mm there.

Use card of 200 to 270 gsm. Lighter paper sags where the art is cut away, and board over 300 gsm cracks along the slits. Fold with the slits on the outside of the bend and run a bone folder or the back of a spoon down the spine.

How to open the files

• Cricut Design Space: choose Upload, pick the SVG, and add it to the canvas. Set the width you want; the shape is already welded.
• Silhouette Studio: Designer Edition and above open the SVG. The free Basic Edition does not, so open the DXF instead.
• LightBurn, xTool Creative Space and Glowforge: import the SVG, then set the layer to cut, score or engrave.
• Inkscape, Illustrator and Affinity: open the SVG. It is a plain filled path, so you can recolour it, add a stroke or combine it with your own work.
• Printing or sublimation: use the PNG, which has a transparent background.

Each design page lists the file’s narrowest part at seven sizes, so you can tell whether it will survive at the size you plan to cut.

Questions