These 3D Paper Easter Eggs are so much fun to make and add a soft warm glow to your home decor in the evenings. Lately, I’ve been freshening up my home by mixing seasonal Spring and Easter decor items together. These paper eggs work nicely with many styles since they can be customized with color-coordinated card stock. For Easter, you can use pretty spring colors to brighten up your space. Add a unique handmade touch to a tablescape or Spring vignette with these paper eggs.
To keep this paper craft easy, I’ve created Six 3D Easter Egg SVG files and step-by-step instructions for you. These templates are designed to be cut on an electronic cutting machine like a Cricut Maker or Silhouette Cameo and the Easter Egg SVG files are available as an SVG, DXF, EPS, PNG, and a PDF template to accommodate most cutting machine types.
Each paper egg measures approximately four and a half inches tall and three and a half inches wide. Add an LED light under the paper eggs to highlight the beautiful patterns in the evening. This adult Easter craft adds an elegant touch to your home décor, table setting, or seasonal party decorations.
HOW TO PURCHASE THE SIX EASTER EGG SVG DESIGNS
If you’d like to purchase these 3D Easter Egg SVG files and have them delivered directly to your email inbox as an instant digital download, you can do that here. This is an instant download (digital product) and no physical product is included.
These digital files can be created using cutting machines like a Cricut or Silhouette Cameo. If you have any questions about your purchase, you can email me at laura@heartfilledspaces.com.
HOW TO ACCESS THE FREE RESOURCE LIBRARY
For more fun Easter crafts, home decor projects, and SVG cut files with free templates, visit the library. You’ll find all types of seasonal crafts, including free Easter Egg SVG files like the (Layered Mandala Easter Egg) design pictured below. To access my free library (over 60 files) and receive my latest craft project newsletter straight to your inbox, just subscribe on the top right sidebar or at the bottom of this post.
Once you subscribe, you’ll receive an email confirmation. Just confirm your subscription and you will be sent a (Welcome Email) with the password and instructions for using the free library. Then, click on the Library tab on the top menu bar and enter the password in the empty box at the bottom of the library page. Once you are in the library, please watch the video to learn how to download the files to your computer. Most of the free library SVG file designs are also available in the following file formats: DXF, EPS, PNG, and PDF.
VIDEO TUTORIAL: 3D PAPER EASTER EGG DESIGNS
There are three separate videos for this project. The first video is an assembly video that shows you how to put the project together. There are two separate videos that cover the tech side of Cricut Design Space and Silhouette Studio. These videos teach you tips for creating intricate cuts on your machine, how to open the files in your cutting machine’s software, prepare the files to cut, and the correct cut settings for this project.
This short video is a step-by-step tutorial for assembling the 3D Paper Egg Designs. It includes the supplies you will need to create the three-dimensional easter eggs and the assembly process.
This video is a tech tutorial that includes tips for cutting intricate designs from cardstock and preparing the files to cut in Cricut Design Space.
This video is a tech tutorial that includes tips for cutting intricate designs from cardstock and preparing the files to cut in Silhouette Studio.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure statement here.
SUPPLIES FOR THE 3D PAPER EASTER EGG DESIGNS
- Cricut or Silhouette Cameo
- Light Grip Cricut Mat or Light Grip Silhouette Mat
- Cricut Scoring Tool (If Using a Cricut)
- Brayer
- Weeding Tools
- Scraper Tool
- 65 lb. Card-stock
- Vellum
- Precision Craft Glue
- Glue Stick
- LED Lights
TIPS FOR CUTTING CARDSTOCK (INTRICATE CUTS) ON A CRICUT OR SILHOUETTE CAMEO
I want to take some time to discuss some important tips for working with card-stock and intricate cuts on your Cricut or Silhouette Cameo cutting machine.
USE HIGH-QUALITY SMOOTH CARDSTOCK
The first thing you’ll want to consider is your material. You’ll want to start with a high-quality, smooth cardstock. For this project, we are using 12 X 12-inch light-weight cardstock. My favorite thickness for intricate cuts is 65 lb. cardstock.
Using a consistent weight of cardstock for my projects eliminates the guesswork for my cut settings and helps with organizing the paper in my craft room. A few of my favorite cardstock brands for detailed cut designs are Neenah, Recollections, and Clear Path. I always look at price, availability, and color selection when choosing cardstock for my papercrafts.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR CUTTING MAT
The second thing you’ll want to consider is your cutting mat. I always use a light grip mat when cutting paper. It reduces the potential for tearing a design when lifting the paper from the adhesive. You can get by in a pinch with a regular mat that has lost some of its stickiness.
It’s also important that your mat has enough tack to hold on to the small bits of paper that have been cut. Having enough tack on your mat will prevent small bits of paper from coming up and getting stuck under your blade, preventing other areas of your paper from cutting all the way through.
The light grip mat for Cricut worked perfectly. It has just the right amount of tack for these paper projects. The light grip mat for Silhouette did not have enough tack to hang on to the small bits of paper. This left me removing them by hand. Next time I cut delicate patterns on my Cameo 4, I will try a clean, standard grip Silhouette Mat that has lost some of its tack.
Make sure your mat is clean. Small bits of paper, vinyl, or fabric can raise your cardstock from the mat, creating bumps that will cause your paper to tear instead of cutting when the blade comes in contact with them.
Once you place your cardstock on your mat. Go over it with a brayer. The brayer will press the cardstock evenly to your mat and help it to stay put while cutting. This step also helps the small bits from raising off of the mat while cutting.
USE A NEW BLADE
The last tip to consider is using a new, sharp, clean blade. Over time, the blade on your electronic cutting machine can become dull and needs to be replaced. I keep a separate blade that I only use for intricate cut projects. Once it begins to tear the cardstock or doesn’t cut cleanly, I replace it with a new blade.
Occasionally, you will get a little bit of adhesive build-up on your blade. You can clean it by pressing the blade repeatedly into a ball of aluminum foil.
Now let’s head over to your cutting machine software for step-by-step instructions to cut the paper eggs. Below is a tutorial for Cricut Design Space or you can scroll down a little further for the Silhouette Studio tutorial.
CRICUT DESIGN SPACE: INSTRUCTIONS FOR CUTTING THE 3D PAPER EASTER EGGS
HOW TO OPEN THE EASTER EGG SVG FILES IN CRICUT DESIGN SPACE
Open Cricut Design Space and start on a blank canvas. Working on the left side menu at the bottom, choose Upload. Then choose Upload Image. Select browse and choose the SVG version of the paper egg designs. These patterns will be in the location that you downloaded them to on your computer at the time of purchase or from your email receipt. If you’re unsure of where you saved them, check your Downloads folder.
Once you’ve selected the Paper Egg Designs (SVG), choose open. Ensure there is a green box around it and choose Upload (lower right corner). Your most recent uploads will show on the far left side. Click on the image until the green box forms around it and then click the Add To Canvas button (bottom right).
Now that the egg designs are on your canvas, you’ll need to make the canvas smaller to see all six panels. You can do this by clicking on the (-100%+) button in the lower-left corner. Choose the minus key until you are zoomed out enough to see all of the egg templates. The (50%) size is usually good for viewing everything.
HOW TO CHANGE THE CUT LINES TO SCORE LINES IN CRICUT DESIGN SPACE
The egg panels will be grouped together when they are brought into Cricut Design Space. The first step is to ungroup them. Click on the UnGroup button at the top of the Layers panel on the right. Now you can access each individual egg.
At this point, we need to change all of the black lines to score lines. These will be located on the top layer of each of the six egg designs. Working in the layers panel, hold your Command Key (Mac) or Control Key (PC) down and then select all of the black lines. With all of your black lines selected, choose the Operation dropdown menu (located in the top-left menu). Now change the Basic Cut setting to Score. You can see that all of the solid black lines turned into dashed lines.
To connect the score lines to the egg panels, we need to attach the score lines and the eggs together. To do this, click and drag your mouse over each egg pattern, so the egg and the score lines are both selected. Then choose Attach at the bottom of the Layers panel. Repeat this process for each of the six eggs. Now select all of the yellow (vellum) pieces and attach them together.
CUTTING THE 3D PAPER EGG DESIGNS IN CRICUT DESIGN SPACE
At this point, select Make It in the upper right corner of your screen. You should see a total of 7 mats in the Prepare menu. Set the yellow or velum mat to the correct size for your vellum. My vellum is 8.5 X 11, so I changed the mat size. The next six mats will be the egg designs and they should all be set to a 12 X 12 size. If everything looks correct in the prepare menu click continue.
Make sure your Cricut Machine is turned on and connected to your computer. Now load a sheet of 8.5 X 11 vellum on a light grip mat and load it into your machine. Ensure the fine point blade is loaded in the machine and press the go button. When your vellum is done cutting, unload it from your machine.
Now load your 12-inch 65 lb. card-stock on a light-grip Cricut mat and load it into your machine. Then insert the scoring wheel into the tool carriage on your machine. Under materials choose Cardstock (for intricate cuts). If you can’t find this material setting, you can go to browse all materials and type cardstock. Then click search and you see Cardstock (for intricate cuts) as an option. Select it and click done. The next important step is to increase your pressure to more.
When you press the Go button on your machine it will begin with the scoring wheel. Once it is completed, load your Fine Point Blade and press Go on your machine again. Do not unload your mat in between scoring and cutting. Wait until both steps are complete before you unload it. You’ll repeat these steps for each of the six egg designs.
Once all of your egg panels are scored and cut, scroll down to the Assembling The 3D Paper Egg Designs section below.
SILHOUETTE STUDIO: INSTRUCTIONS FOR CUTTING THE 3D PAPER EASTER EGG DESIGNS
SILHOUETTE STUDIO: OPENING THE FILES
Open Silhouette Studio on your computer. I am working with the business edition of the software in case you’re wondering why my screen looks a little different. Let me show you how to bring the 3D Paper Easter Egg Designs into Silhouette Studio and prepare them to score and cut.
Begin at the top menu bar and click on File and then we’re going to choose Open. Now select the file that you purchased earlier. It will be located in the place you saved it from your email. You will need to save the file to your computer and unzip it. If you are working in the basic version (free version) of Silhouette Studio, you will need to open the DXF file. It will look a little different, but you should be able to figure it out by following along. If you are working in the Designer or Business Edition of Silhouette Studio, you can choose the SVG file version and it will look just like the one I am using.
SILHOUETTE STUDIO: PREPARING THE 3D PAPER EGG DESIGNS TO CUT
Once the file is on your canvas, you may need to zoom out to view all of it. For reference, I am using a light grip mat and 65 lb. card stock and one sheet of vellum to create each egg. All of the settings I reference are for 65 lb card stock and vellum. If you are using a heavier or lighter card stock you will need to adjust your cut settings.
To begin, let’s set our line colors so we can cut by color. Start by clicking on the (Select by Color) icon at the top, center tool bar. This will open up a box that says (Select by Color). At the top of that box, click on the (By Fill) tab and you will see all the colors in your project. Now uncheck the (Only Shapes On Media) box in the bottom of the (Select by Color) box. This will allow you to select the items off of your canvas by color. Now select the yellow line in the (Select by Color) box and it will select all of the items in the project with the color yellow.
Next move your mouse to the color selection area (upper left corner). There’s a Fill Drop-down Menu and a Line Drop-Down menu. We are focusing on the Line Drop-down Menu. Select the dropdown arrow next to the line color and the color palette box will appear. Select the dropper tool and then click on the yellow color in the vellum panel. This will change your line color from red to yellow to match the fill color.
Repeat this process for teal panels in the project. The end goal is to have all of the line colors for the eggs be teal, the line color for the vellum to be yellow and the score lines to be black.
Now, make sure that the egg design (with black score lines and polygons) you want to cut first is moved on to your canvas. Then click on the send panel in the upper right corner of your screen. There are four menus under the Send Panel. They are Simple, Line, Fill, and Layer. Click on the Line Menu. In this menu, you should see the colors that are represented in your cut file. For this project, it will just be teal, yellow, and black.
Now we can cut by the color of the object. The color that has a checkmark next to it will be the color you are cutting. Deselect colors you are not cutting. Now working under the material column, click on the downward arrow to open the materials menu. Scroll down to select the material you are working with (i.e. cardstock). At this point, you can see the cut settings at the bottom of the Send Menu for cardstock. But, you will need to set your score settings for the color black. I’ll show you that in the next section below (Custom Cut Settings).
SILHOUETTE STUDIO: HOW TO SET UP CUSTOM CUT SETTINGS
For a long time, I would just guess at my cut settings for the materials I was using. After much frustration, I decided to go the extra mile and set up custom settings for the materials I use regularly. This was a game-changer for me and saved me so much time in the long run. Let me show you how to do this.
We are working under the Send menu. There are a few ways to do this, but for this tutorial, we will work in the Line Menu (located under the Send tab). Click on the Line menu. Next click on the drop-down menu under Material. At the bottom of this menu is a blue button that says Add New Material Type. Click on that blue button. Now you will see a User-Defined area shows up at the very bottom of your Materials panel. If you click on the dark grey bar that says New Material, you can name your material. I’m calling my material (Intricate Cuts).
Once you have named the material setting, you can change the Force, Speed, Passes, etc., and then Save your settings. There is a Legacy column for older machines and a Carriage 1 column for the Cameo 4 and Portrait 3. In my software, if I save the Carriage 1 settings, it automatically asks if I want to update the Legacy settings. I always say yes. If you’re using different machines, you will need to consider if this works for you.
Silhouette Cameo settings to score or create a kiss cut on card stock:
Score Settings (Kiss Cut) For A Cameo 4 Using 65 lb. Card-stock
Force=6, Speed=5, Passes=1, Blade Depth=1
Now let’s create a custom setting for cutting 65 lb. card stock. Working in the User Defined area under materials, click on the plus button in the bottom right corner. Now name your material. I called mine, Intricate Cuts Card-stock.
Then change the settings as follows:
Silhouette Cameo settings to cut 65 lb. Card-stock:
Force=20, Speed=5, Passes-1, Blade Depth=6, Line Segment Overcut turned on and set to .35 for the Start and End.
Don’t forget to save your settings before you close the panel.
***Important: If you are working with a Bluetooth connection, I would switch to a USB cord. This cut takes a long time and you don’t want to have your Bluetooth connection drop on you mid-cut. Also, Because of the detailed nature of this cut, I also recommend using a brand new blade.
Once you have saved your custom settings, close the Materials box. If you have an Auto blade on a Cameo 4, your machine will adjust your blade depth for you when you send the cut job. If you are working on an older machine, you will need to manually adjust the blade depth before you send the project.
Change the Material for both the teal and black colors. Using the score settings for black lines and the intricate cut settings for teal lines. Send your Score (kiss-cut) to the machine first. When it’s done scoring deselect the black line color and select the teal line color. Then send the teal cut lines to your machine.
When cutting your vellum, use the vellum setting under your materials panel.
ASSEMBLING THE 3D PAPER EGG DESIGNS
Now that your 3D SVG file has been cut, let’s get started with the assembly process. We’re going to start by removing the extra cardstock from our light grip mat. Then we’re going to lift each of the 10 panel sections from the mat, one at a time, leaving the extra bits behind on the mat. If the extra pieces didn’t remain on your mat, it’s probably because your mat is not sticky enough. It could also be because your cardstock didn’t cut all the way through. Once you’ve lifted all of the individual pieces, you can remove the egg pattern from the mat.
Now go back and remove the two bottom polygon pieces. Next, use a scraper tool to remove all of the extra bits from your mat. You may want to examine your egg patterns and remove any extra bits that are still in the pattern.
Now we’re going to fold along the score lines on each of the edges of the 10 panels. This is the part of the project that will attach to the bottom polygon pieces to form the 3D shape. Now we’re going to fold on the inside circle along the scoreline. This top score line helps form the top of the egg shape.
Next, use your glue stick and add some adhesive to the back of the vellum. Then press it into place over the intricate cut designs. Use the bottom score line on each section to start the vellum and then finish placing it towards the center of the design. Once you’re done attaching the vellum, you can flip the design over to see how it looks.
Now, flip it back so the backside of the vellum is facing upward. Next, we’re going to take our bottom pieces and slowly glue them to the polygon. Work with one section at a time, line up the scoreline with each section on the polygon and glue it into place with your Precision Craft Glue. Repeat this process until all of the side pieces are attached.
Once all the side pieces are attached, we’re going to take another polygon and attach it to the bottom for a clean finish. First, add the glue and then line up the polygon and press it into place.
Once the 3D Egg Design is fully assembled, give it a gentle press to open up the shape of the egg and give it form. At this point, add an LED light underneath the paper egg to illuminate the elegant pattern.
That completes our 3d Paper Egg Design.
FOLLOW ALONG ON PINTEREST
If you like budget-friendly decor and papercrafts, follow me on PINTEREST. Did you know that you can hover over any of the images below, click on the red Pinterest button and save it for later? Add these Pins to your Spring or Easter Crafts board. It’s helpful to Pin It now and save it for later when you’re ready to start your project.
Do you have questions about this project? Let me know in the comments down below. I hope you enjoyed this 3D Paper Easter Egg craft!
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