This post may contain affiliate links. All prices quoted are accurate as of the time this post was published. You can read my full disclosure policy here.
Homemade gifts are one of my favorite things to make and receive for Christmas. Give me your friendship teas (ever make this?), festive bakes, and DIY ornaments! I enjoy it so much because you can just tell when someone gifts you something from the heart and see how much effort they put in. Sharing on the blog today how I made these easy DIY vinyl monogram ornaments with my cutting machine and are less than 3 dollars to make!
How to start this project in Cricut Design Space
I am using my Cricut Explore Air 2 for this design. Open Cricut Design Space and start a new project. Click the text button and choose the font “Cricut Sans”. Make sure the text is bold and then duplicate your text. Color code each text design so you can easily see how each will overlap with each other to create the two-tone effect. I didn’t see a cream or tan color, so chose grey in its place.
To create the shadow, I moved the grey text over a smidge and aligned both texts center-vertically so they are both perfectly in line with each other. To do this select all and hit the align button and choose center-vertically.
You will now need to “slice” the grey text to neatly layer the blue vinyl. To do this you will need to select all and hit the slice button in the bottom right corner. Once you slice your text you will see four new slice results. Make sure you weld your two blue sliced results together again as you want to keep this text intact, but keep one grey slice result that is the “shadow text” and delete the other grey slice. You will not need the last slice result as it falls behind the top blue vinyl anyway. You are really looking for the shadow effect that the grey vinyl will portray.
Since you have two color coded designs, you will have the color coded mats to help you differentiate between the two cut designs and help you remember the correct color combo you are using. Grey is for the text shadow and blue is the dominant color of the monogram. I am using ORACAL 651 Intermediate Cal Vinyl in beige and royal blue. I used the single $2 12×12 sheets from Michaels, but you can use any vinyl you wish to create this design.
How to layer your vinyl
Remove excess vinyl and weed out any vinyl left behind so you have both designs ready for layering. I like to work in small sections when layering and cut out the cream vinyl used for shadowing so I can precisely choose where to place each piece. I like to use my Cricut weeder from my Cricut Basic Tool Set to weed out small vinyl cuts, and well as the Cricut transfer tape.
TIP: Make sure to keep your dominant color exactly where it is on it’s own sheet, and only use transfer tape on the cream vinyl used for shadowing. You only need two pieces of transfer tape, one to layer your cream vinyl, and one to transfer the finished design to your ornament.
Clear plastic ball ornaments can be found at Dollar Tree stores. I found a few at my local store 2 for $1. You can also find these clear ball ornaments at Michaels stores.
Want to try this vinyl DIY? Make sure and tag me on Instagram @meganboydblog so I can see your creations!
