Crafting Nurses Hat Mini Pinata with Cricut for Beginners

This is a great beginner friendly project to make with your Cricut machine. Follow this step by step tutorial to create this cute Nurses Hat Mini pinata. Svg file is available.

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Craft up this adorable Nurses Hat mini pinata using your Cricut.

Hello magical crafters,today we are making this cute Nurses Hat mini pinata using your Cricut machine to help score and cut it out for us. Using our Cricut helps us to make multiplies of the same kind, all with the same sizes.

Now, you do have two options to this design. Option one is to assemble and leave it as more of a Favor box style, which is popular and gives it a more sleek design. The second option, is to finish the hat with fringe around it to give it the more pinata feel.

This Nurses Hat does open at the bottom. As always, you can find the SVG file inside our Etsy shop and the assembly guide and detail pieces are located in our Magical Crafting Library. Let’s get into crafting this cutie.

We will need the following materials:

• Cricut Machine (I have the Explore Air 2)
• light grip cutting mat
• score pen
• pen
• cardstock ( I used Pink, white, and Red)
• Beacon Advance 3in1 glue
• foam double sided tape
• crepe paper
• scissors or craft blade
• Nurse’s hat SVG file

Head on over to our Etsy Shop to purchase the Nurses Hat SVG file and start the download. To get the detail pieces, click on the library button below and find the Nurses Hat details. Click on it and download the file as well.

You can use another type of electronic cutting machine that accepts SVG files, but for this tutorial, it will be demonstrated using the Cricut Explore Air 2 machine. Once everything is downloaded and saved to your computer, let’s head over to Cricut Design Space.

Uploading into Cricut Design Space

Open up Design Space and click on “new project”. Head down the left side of your screen and click on “upload”, click on the “insert image” option and you can either drag and drop or browse for the Nurses hat mini pinata SVG file.

You will be taken to the save option screen. Rename the file if you wish and add a few tags to help you find it in the future. Since this is a mini pinata, I’ll use that as a tag. Click on save as a “cut file” and you should have the SVG file template in Design Space. Select on your new uploaded file and click on ” insert to canvas”.

Adding details to your Mini Pinata

Before you do anything to your mini pinata, go ahead and download your detail pieces if you haven’t already. You can find the file in the Magical Crafting Library or if you are already a subscriber, it’s also waiting in your inbox. Upload the file into Design Space following the instructions above. Change any colors you wish.

Changing cut lines into score lines

Once your file appears on your canvas, head over to the right side of the screen and click on “ungroup”. This will give you multiple groups that I kept together to make it easier for you. Unfortunately, Design Space does not keep each section labeled separately, but it does allow you to rename them, so you can rename them if you wish.

Let’s go over to the side panels and click on the inner rectangle. This is going to select all of them together, then head to the top of the screen and click on operations drop down menu then select the “score” option. It should show all the inside lines on the panels are now dashed lines, which means the machine will now score this area instead of cutting it. You can rename each one as score lines, then click on “ungroup”.

If you have been around for a bit, you will notice I added something new to the file. I’ve decided to add numbers to the side panels and to the base layer. You can hide this if you don’t want to use it. But if you do, we have three options for them. Once you click on the numbers, go up to operation and you can have it cut the numbers out, write the numbers out with the pen option, or score the numbers out. I will say, If you are making a Nurses hat favor box without the fringe, the pen option would be the best one to use. When you select your option, you will need to “ungroup” the numbers before moving on.

Attaching score lines to side panels

Now we need to attach each score line to it’s corresponding panel and number. Select the panel, score lines, and number together, then head down the right side menu and click on the “attach” button. (Looks like a paperclip) This will tell the machine that the score line and number goes with that panel. Repeat until all the panels are done. We also need to select the base layer and all of the numbers and attach them as well.

Resizing your Mini Pinata

When everything is attached together, click on “select all” at the top of the menu screen. Making sure the little lock icon is in the locked postion, click on the bottom square corner and drag it over to resize it to the size you’d like it to be. For reference, I made mine about 6 inches long and about 3 inches tall. The width is about 1.5 inches. This size will fit a gift card inside and maybe a few pieces of candy. I would suggest making it a bit bigger if you are wanting to put little bottles for adults inside.

Save your project, then it’s time to finally hit that “make it “button at the top.

Cutting our Nurses Hat out

Double check your settings in the cut preview screen. Arrange your cardstock colors in the order it gives you and make sure you have the right size paper selected. It defaults on 12×12 but if you have a 8.5×11, make sure you tell the machine that by selecting the right size in the drop down menu.

The cardstock weight I use is the 65lb, after adding the Crepe paper, it’s definitely sturdy enough to hold some goodies. If you are doing favor boxes you can use the 80lb weight if you wish. Once everything is good to go, click on the “continue” button.

Your machine will sync up, I’m using my Cricut Explore Air 2 machine. Align your cardstock on the mat and smooth it over, making sure it’s adhere to the mat. Insert the mat into the machine by pressing the blinking “arrow” button. Make sure you insert the score pen and check your cut settings. I move the dial to the dot in the middle of light cardstock and cardstock. Then press the blinking “C” button on the machine to start the cut.

Once it’s finsh, unload the mat by pressing the “arrow” button again, flip the mat over, and peel it away from the cardstock. This helps the cardstock to not curl up on you. Repeat this process until everything is scored, wrote, and cut.

Prep and Assemble Time

For easy assembly, put the side panels in order starting at number 1 and arrange them going around the base layer clockwise.

Then take each side panel and fold along the scored section. Once that is done, it’s time to glue everything together.

Start with the base of the hat on the table (the one with the numbers on it). Grab the first panel and add a few tiny drops of glue to each of the tabs on one side. Attach the panel to the base. Hold for a few seconds, then repeat with the other panels until all side panels are glued down. Be careful to only glue the small tab section of the door.

Add glue to the top tabs and align the top panel on to it. Making sure the sides are aligned. We now have a plain nurses hat. If you are making a favor box, add the detail pieces on top using the double sided foam tape in between each layer to give some dimension. Add the ribbon or string of choice to the door for easy access to your goodies inside.

Congrats crafter, you just made a Nurse’s hat favor box.

Completing our Nurses hat mini pinata

To finish our Hat, we need to add some Crepe paper to transform it into a pinata. Grab your Crepe paper and fold a few layers. Take your scissors and cut on one side about a fouth of the way in, repeat this all the way down. Then turn it around and repeat the cuts on that side.

Then make a cut down the middle of the paper to create two strands of fringes. We will use these to cover our hat.

Starting at the bottom of the hat, glue the fringe to it. Working from the bottom and adding layers going up. For this hat I did the front first, then the back. I then added the fringe to the side going up in one direction, then turning it around and going up the other direction to meet in the middle at the top.

Now, for the bottom of the pinata, which is also our door, I went in one long direction with the fringe paper. You could make it match the sides, it’s all up to you. Once all the fringe is on our pinata, we can add our detail pieces and ribbon. Just like above you can use the double sided foam tape to add the details onto your pinata.

Congrats Crafter, you just made your first Nurses Hat mini pinata using your Cricut machine.

What do you fill a Mini Pinata with?

You are now wondering what the heck do I put inside it. Well that all depends on who you are gifting it to. Some items to chose from can be…

• Stickers or temperory tattoos
• Candy
• Bubbles
• Jewerly
• Gift cards
• Mini toys
• Snap bracelets
• Mini pop its
• Nail strips or nail polish
• Mini liquor bottles (for the adults)
• Scratch off Tickets

Want to make more mini pinatas with your Cricut? Here’s a few fun ones to create.

• Watermelon Mini Pinata
• Trex Mini Pinata
• Horse Mini Pinata