Line Up Vinyl Using a Paper Template: Easter Wreath
Are you looking for a fun and easy Easter craft project to spruce up your home décor this season? Look no further than this adorable Easter wreath design that you can create using Cricut Design Space! This project features a whimsical wreath design with cute little bunnies and colorful flowers arranged just so. But how do you cut out all those little vinyl pieces without wasting a lot of material? This blog post has the solution - a paper template to help you line up all the pieces perfectly!
In this step-by-step tutorial, you'll learn how to create your wreath design in Cricut Design Space, slice the foreground shapes from the background to create a template, and use the template to apply the vinyl pieces to your wreath base. With helpful photos and detailed instructions, this project is perfect for beginners and experienced Cricut users alike. And if you're looking for more ideas on how to line up your vinyl and iron-on, this post also includes links to other articles with options for aligning Cricut cuts.
Materials:
- Cricut vinyl, 5 colors (I’m using the Sweet Candy Bundle - perfect colors for the season!)
- Transfer tape
- Wood round for wreath base (mine is 14 inches in diameter)
- Cardstock
Directions:
Design the Wreath
Create your wreath design in Cricut Design Space. I designed my digital wreath on a base 14 inches in diameter to match the size of wood round that I had available. My center circle design (Happy Easter) is 7 inches in diameter. I am using the following cut designs (available free with Cricut Access!) arranged around the perimeter of the wreath.
- Happy Easter - #M409C9
- Flowers - #M8236DA2
- Flower - #MB53486D
- Folk Art Flower - #M8100D31
- Heart - #M8B6A734
- Bunny Set - #MAE3ECFD
Create the Template in Design Space
Make a copy of your completed design in Design Space.
On the copy, slice the bunny and floral foreground shapes from the background. Design Space will only allow you to slice 2 elements at one time, so you will need to select the background shape (purple circle) and one foreground shape to slice. Delete the results of the slice, leaving only the background with the shape cut out.
Repeat for each of the foreground shapes, one at a time, until they have all been cut from the background object.
Because my wreath design was larger than 12 inches, I had to slice the template cut design into parts before making the project. This will be my stencil - the pattern that I will use to help me apply my cut vinyl designs to my wreath.
Make the Project
Make the project, cutting the bunny and flower pieces from vinyl. I also cut a number of small vinyl circles in each color because I knew I wanted to use them as “fillers” on the wreath. Weed the vinyl.
Cut the template from any cardstock weight paper. Join the pattern pieces with tape.
Prep the Wreath Base
Prep your wood round to make a smooth background for the little vinyl bunnies and flowers. One option is to paint and varnish the wood round. Another option (and what I did) is to cover the wood with a couple sheets of permanent vinyl. If you do go this route, you’ll want to take a few precautions to make sure the vinyl sheet adheres well to the wood. One way to accomplish this is to give the wood a thin coat of varnish in preparation and allow to dry. Or you can warm the vinyl with a heat gun after applying it and burnish it well to the bare wood.
Use the Template to Apply Vinyl
Place the paper template or pattern over the prepped wood. First apply any vinyl pieces that you can place with your hands (without transfer tape) using the paper stencil as your guide.
For those vinyl designs where you need to use transfer tape, cut the paper template in half through that particular design. You can see below where I have cut through this flower design, leaving enough of a paper edge to help me align the vinyl.
Touch down just the edge of the vinyl aligned to the edge of the paper template. Then remove the paper guide to finish transferring the vinyl.
Finish the Wreath
Fill in any empty spots in your wreath with vinyl circles. Finish the edges of the wood round with a bit of craft paint, trim, or leave it natural. Attach a hanger to the back and enjoy!
Looking for more ideas for lining up Cricut cuts?
Check out Love My Peeps Easter Charger for another project that uses a template to help align vinyl, as well as some other low tech options for sizing and aligning iron-on in the article, How to Align Heat Transfer Vinyl here on our blog. Interested in how to use registration marks to line up cuts? Learn all about the registration mark technique in these posts - Decorative 4th of July Pails and Glass Jar with Wipe Off Labels.
HOW TO ALIGN AND SIZE IRON-ON HEAT TRANSFER VINYL (HTV) DESIGNS
BEGINNER CRICUT PROJECT - DECORATIVE 4TH OF JULY PAILS
BEGINNER CRICUT PROJECT - GLASS JAR WITH WIPE-OFF LABELS
FEATURED SALES
