Penguins in the Explosion Box Center

Use this free SVG to make the Holiday Explosion Box with adorable penguins just chillin’ in the center!

I have to admit…. penguins are my favorite animal. I love how they waddle kinda clumsily over the ice, then hop into the water and zoom around so speedily and gracefully.

My friend Amy (the Cricut earring queen) created adorable penguin earrings last year, and kindly let me modify her design to fit perfectly in the Holiday Explosion Box. (She teaches you how to make faux leather earrings for every occasion. Seriously. Go check her out.)

Two cardstock penguins with red glitter scarves in the middle of a red, black and white explosion box craft.

Ready to create these cute little things??

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of materials and supplies needed
to make an amazing explosion box. 💜

Materials needed to create the penguin explosion box center

The free SVG – it’s design #62 – Mini-Penguins (download instructions are below)
Heavy black cardstock or posterboard
White cardstock
Cricut Maker or Explore cutting machine
Blue LightGrip mat (for the card stock or posterboard)
Green Standard Grip Mat (for the HTV)
Scoring wheel or scoring stylus
Iron-On Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV) – Orange for the nose & feet, and glitter or holographic for the scarves
Cricut Easy-Press Mini
Parchment paper
Glue such as Aleene’s Tacky Glue or Art Glitter Glue or Beacon’s 3-in-1 Craft Glue

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How to make the cardstock penguins

Download design # 62 – mini-penguins_minorDIY.zip.

Unzip the file. Upload the SVG file “62-mini-penguins_minorDIY.svg” to Cricut Design Space and insert it onto the canvas.

Ungroup.

Select the two cut lines as shown in the screenshot below.

From the Operation menu, choose Score.

Score operation selected in Cricut Design Space, with a pair of penguins SVG on the canvas.

Now, Attach those two score lines to the base piece below them, as shown in the screenshot below.

Click the green Make It button.

Cut the black base from heavy cardstock or poster board. Posterboard is stiffer, so I prefer to use it.

Cut the bodies from white cardstock.

Use HTV for the nose, feet, and scarves.

Tip: It’s especially helpful to use iron-on vinyl when you have small, fine designs. It’s hard to weed the small bits out; cardstock would probably rip when it was being cut out and would be impossible to glue in place.

After everything is cut out, glue the white bodies onto the black cardstock.

Next, place the orange HTV (with the clear plastic sheet side up) on top of the cardstock. Align it so the feet are on the tab, under the score line.

Place parchment paper over the HTV.

Next, press the Cricut EasyPress Mini straight down on the HTV for about five seconds using the lowest heat setting.

Tip: Test the HTV on a scrap piece of cardboard first. I found that the lowest heat setting worked best while pressing for a very short amount of time.

If the heat is too high, or it’s pressed too long, the melted adhesive leaks out from underneath the piece of HTV.

Now, layer the scarf HTV on the bodies.

I found that foil HTV didn’t look great for the scarves. It wasn’t smooth due to the layer of white card stock over the black. The glitter HTV looked much better.