After I shared my DIY iron-on vinyl shirt for chicken lovers, I received so many questions about my new Cricut Joy so I wanted to share another project – this DIY driftwood wreath with Cricut Joy welcome sign. Hopefully this fun summer wreath project idea will help demonstrate just how easy it is to make beautiful things with the Cricut Joy. (This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Cricut. All opinions are 100% mine.)
Is it Difficult to Use a Cricut Joy?
I’ve been asked if a Cricut Joy is like a sewing machine – if it’s that tricky to set up and use. Definitely not!! Sewing machines can be such a nightmare, but the Cricut Joy takes five minutes to set up out of the box, and then you can immediately start crafting and making things. There are lots of cool advanced things you can do with Cricut, but right out of the box you can basically click and “cut” and create your first project in minutes. When I first received my Cricut Joy, I used the sample vinyl included to experiment a little, to get the hang of it, but then I immediately dove into my first Smart Iron-On project, so this is only my second official project. And both of my projects have turned out really cute, if I do say so myself! I promise you, the Cricut Joy is super easy to set up and with Design Space, creating beautiful designs is super easy. Plus the Cricut Joy is small and light, and uses Bluetooth, so it’s super portable and works offline. You can even buy a little carrying case for it! Not sure where you’d bring it? Think customizing products at craft shows, bringing it into a classroom, or a weekend craft night with friends at the lake – making this DIY coastal wreath! Let me show you how…
Supplies:
- Cricut Joy
- Cricut Smart Vinyl (I used the Hydrangea Sampler pack, but the Mint is cute too)
- Cricut Weeder Tool and Scraper Tool
- Cricut Transfer Tape
- Cricut Design Space
- Driftwood
- Air Nailer and Compressor
- 1″ and 1.5″ nails
- Rope (for hanging)
- Sheet of Lexan, plexi-glass or scrap wood
- Screws and drill
How Do You Make a Driftwood Wreath?
- Collect smaller pieces of driftwood, approximately 3 – 6 inches long, ideally with a curved shape.
- Find a bucket with a diameter roughly the size you’d like the inside diameter of the driftwood wreath.
- Set the bucket on a flat work surface.
- Position driftwood pieces around the bucket to form the bottom of the wreath.
- Roughly layer on a second row of driftwood pieces, arranging them so they fit together nicely.
- Air nail the top layer to the bottom layer, securing each piece of driftwood at least two or three places.
- Then continue to add one driftwood piece at a time, air nailing into place.
- Periodically lift the driftwood wreath check stability and also balance.
- Return to the flat surface and keep nailing driftwood pieces in place until you are satisfied with the size and shape.
Detailed DIY Driftwood Wreath Tutorial:
The first thing I did was collect some driftwood! We get some driftwood washing up on our shore, but it’s mostly huge pieces, so we boated over to my favorite beach where I filled our boat with driftwood. I looked for smaller pieces, approximately 3 – 6 inches long, with a curve or interesting knot. Having lots of extra pieces and variety made it easier to piece together this driftwood wreath, so collect twice what you think you will need (here are some ideas for what to do with the excess).
To make the wreath, I found a bucket that was approximately the size I wanted the inside diameter of my DIY driftwood wreath to be. It’s important to work on a flat surface so your finished wood wreath can lay flush against a door or wall.
I positioned some driftwood pieces to form the “bottom”. Once I was happy with the layout, I arranged a second layer. The I air nailed the top layer to the bottom layer, securing each piece of driftwood two or three places, using a combination or 1″ and 1.5″ air nails as needed. In the beginning, it was helpful to have two sets of hands so I placed the pieces and hubby nailed them. But once the wreath was 50% done, I took over and continued placing and air nailing. I just worked around and around, adding each piece one at a time, and checking every now and then to make sure it stayed round. It was surprisingly easy – it only took me about an hour to assemble this driftwood wreath! You can see the air nails, but it’s really subtle and lost against the busy-ness of the weathered driftwood pieces.
The end result is really sturdy! To hang the driftwood wreath, we added some knots to a pretty piece of cord (for aesthetics) and tied it to the top, with a hidden loop at the back. Although I loved the finished driftwood wreath, I wanted to make it a bit more special. I had some leftover Lexan (like plexi-glass) from the cold frame garden beds we built (we also used it for winterizing the coop in Canada), so I cut a small rectangle out using the jigsaw. Then I added a fun little message using my Cricut.
Designing & Making My Welcome Sign with Cricut Joy
Here’s how I made the welcome sign for my driftwood wreath, using my Cricut Joy. I created my sign in Design Space (which is available for desktop or mobile), using a Cricut font called “Cricut Craft Room Basics”. I also found a pretty anchor within a circle, so I used it to replace the letter “O”. You can find and use my exact design here. But making your own is super simple! I just clicked the “Text” button, on the left side of the screen, typed in “WELCOME,” leaving 4 spaces for the new “O”. Then I added text again and typed in “to the lake”. I looked through images in Design Space and searched “anchor,” but filtered through Art Type for “cut only”. I found my perfect anchor design and then clicked it and clicked the “Insert Images” button. I positioned it where the “O” should be and centered the bottom text. I drew a box around the design to “group” it (then clicked “group” – top right hand), so I could move everything around as one design, not three elements, and then finally, clicked “attach: (bottom right) to make sure the design printed as one whole design and not individual pieces. I clicked “make it” and fed the vinyl into the Cricut Joy. Everything is laid out so perfectly in Design Space, it’s really easy to create something and set it printing.
All of the set up and design process took less than 10 minutes, and then the Cricut Joy did the work and cut out my design. I didn’t realize this at first, but you don’t even need a mat with the Smart Vinyl – you can feed it directly into the Cricut Joy!
When the design was printed, I peeled off the excess vinyl:
A weeder tool is helpful to help “weed” the design (remove the lingering bits of vinyl in some of the letters and around the anchor):
Next I applied my Cricut Transfer Tape to my vinyl design – this tape picks up the vinyl and helps transfer it so that everything stays perfectly in place and aligned. Once you apply the tape, rub each letter with the scraper tool to make sure the tape grabs all of the vinyl.
The I peeled off the Transfer Tape, which grabbed the vinyl design too, and positioned it on my piece of Lexan. To release the vinyl from the transfer tape and make sure it stay put on the Lexan, I used my scraper again and rubbed all of the letters.
The vinyl looks so good on the Lexan and the design is crisp and sharp! Plus this shade of teal is perfect for a DIY summer wreath.
To affix the Cricut Welcome sign to my driftwood wreath, we pre-drilled four holes into the Lexan and then used screws to anchor it to the back of the wreath:
I LOVE how my DIY driftwood wreath turned out, but the welcome sign made with my Cricut Joy just makes it so much more special! I love how the vinyl design looks like it’s floating and the end result is very beachy and coastal, with just a little bit of a modern edge.
The teal vinyl really pops against my dark grey/brown garage door (and the garage still boasts it’s beachy mural on the larger door too!):
But I also love it against the turquoise guest bunkie door: it becomes really subtle then, and you have to actually be a guest to see it!
If you’ve been nervous about getting into Cricut cutting machines, hopefully I’ve convinced you by showing you how easy it is to use my Cricut Joy! I am a total Cricut newbie and I am so thrilled with my first two projects and how beautifully they turned out. I can’t wait to try more ideas. In fewer than 15 minutes, I personalized my cute driftwood wreath and created a fun summer wreath for front door decor. Because the Cricut Joy is so compact (it’s the smallest smart cutting machine ever!), it’s easy to store and use. I keep it on a shelf in my closet and grab it when I want to craft – I don’t even need to plug it into my computer because it’s got Bluetooth! It sets up instantly and is ready-to-use, which makes working on projects like this so quick and easy.
Looking for more Cricut ideas? Click here to find all of my Cricut projects!
Don’t Forget to Pin for Later:
I’ve been collecting driftwood for a wreath so thanks for the tutorial. It hadn’t occurred to me to build it around a bucket – excellent idea!! Did you bleach or otherwise treat the driftwood before using it? Thanks!
Author
Thank you 🙂 I did not bleach or treat my driftwood. Because I used this wreath outside, I didn’t bother. I have, in the past, soaked driftwood in a bleach solution before bringing it indoors, but honestly didn’t notice a difference at all.