Free cardinal SVG files

What makes it a cardinal

Three things turn a songbird outline into a cardinal: the pointed crest, the short thick beak and the long tail. These files keep all three in the outline itself, so even the plain silhouette reads correctly. The male also has a black mask round the base of his beak. A one-colour cut cannot print black on red, so the mask is drawn as a curved cut behind the beak, with the eye inside it. Put black card behind a red bird and the mask line and the eye show dark, as they should.

Each file is 100 mm on its longer side. The legs are a little over 2 mm wide at that size, which is fine in vinyl down to about 60 mm tall and in card at 80 mm or more. The cardinal on a pine branch has the finest parts, its needles, so keep that one at 100 mm or larger.

Cardinals for Christmas and for remembrance

A red cardinal against snow is a winter picture, so the holly branch, the pine branch and the ornament are the ones for Christmas cards and tree decorations. Many people also keep a cardinal as a sign that someone they have lost is near. The cardinal in a heart is drawn with that in mind: it is a single piece, with open space under the branch for a name or a date added in your cutting software.

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