Spring is here - Create this DIY Sign with Cricut for some Spring Decor on a Budget!
*Disclaimer: Some of the links below my help earn me a commission*
If you are in the United States and near a Dollar Tree - I hope you have gone and looked at all the items you can grab and give a Cricut uplift to! They have truly stepped up their game in terms of craft supplies and blanks. I have started to collect their wood signs in hope to make some budget friendly home decor and today I have started that journey with this butterfly garden arrow sign.
This idea came to me after seeing a lot of people making welcome signs (which is also on my list of things to do!) and the fact that we have so many butterflies coming into our back yard! One of our favorite things to do as a family is to see the butterflies in full circle - we have milkweed plants that feed the caterpillars and we find cocoons all over our deck. It's amazing to see!
Cricut Dollar Tree projects are probably my favorite things to make because I feel like I am being so thrifty (and please don't burst my bubble with that). Even though the Dollar Tree is now the Dollar Twenty Five Tree, it is still an excellent place to shop without feeling like you're wasting money. The way I see it, if I get something from the store and it sits for a little while unused (or if I mess it up) I only spent $1.25 where as the same craft material or blank could have been $5 to $10 at your craft store. I gathered three items from the Dollar Tree this week to create a Garden Sign to hang in my home for Spring.
What materials will you need for your sign: You can find all of these at your Dollar Tree!
- Sign blank: I chose the arrow but you can look at all their options here.
- Acrylic paint - I am using black
- A brush or sponge brush - I opted for the sponge brushes because I also like to use these for some glue, like Mod Podge if I need to spread it out.
- Poster board to paint on - so you don't ruin your table! You can skip this one and use plastic bags, paper grocery bags, or a tarp.
- Paper - they even sell paper scrap packs!
- Glue - I love the Beacon glue (not the spray) from the Dollar Tree if you can find it! But they have a lot of options in terms of craft glue.
I am using paper and glue I already have at home so that was not included in my shopping this week but you can use construction paper or even felt from the Dollar Tree to create this project. If you want more choices of color you can grab some Spring colored paper from your favorite craft store. Always check for sales and coupons! Paper packs can be upwards of $5.99 and I always am looking for ways to save money on my crafting. Keep an eye out for discounts and sign up for your favorite stores email newsletters so you're always seeing those deals. Since this was a budget project, I used my scrap pile for all of my paper cuts. That way I was using paper I already had and not digging into my new stash. Over all the total cost to make this project is under $10.
Cricut Design Space Steps:
Step 1: Pick a font
I went to dafont.com and searched butterfly (original I know) - I ended up picking this font and downloaded it before I opened Cricut Design Space. There are so many fonts that you can download, make sure if you're downloading new fonts that Cricut Design Space isn't open. If it is, you'll have to save your project, close it out completely, and reopen the application. This way you can use the font you just downloaded. You can learn more about where to find some awesome free fonts here.
Step 2: Add my blank shape to my canvas
So, I don't pay for Cricut Access I make all my own SVG's- like I said I want to craft on a budget, which means I don't have an arrow as an option for a shape (You will if you have Cricut Access). If you are using a different shape like a circle make sure to size the circle to the size of your blank. Don't worry if it says it is larger than the mat option! We aren't cutting this piece, we are just using it as a guide to place our accent pieces and font.
Now, to make my arrow. I grabbed a triangle and a rectangle (square that I resized by unlocking) and then welded these together. BAM! I have an arrow. Then I resized to 12.375 x 4.25 to match the size of my actual blank. It doesn't have to be perfect, this is a guide only. If you have the general size you will be able to resize your butterfly SVGs and your text box so that it's the correct size to cut.
You can see above, I have three arrows. You only need one! I was testing out different variations of the sign to see which one I liked the best! This is a great way to design in my opinion, you are able to make changes on one and leave an original without having to move things back and forth. You can also use the hide feature!
Step 3: Add text
I went in and grabbed a text box, I added the words: Butterfly Garden but you can make this your unique sign so have fun with it! Then I changed the font to Butterfly that I had picked out before. I also changed the color to white so it pops on that black arrow.
Make sure to weld your font if you picked something script so that it cuts each word rather than each letter. You can find the weld button in the bottom right corner! From here you can resize your writing and put it onto your blank. If you're using something curved Cricut Design Space does give you an option to curve your text!
Step 4: Add Butterfly and Flower SVGs
I have some butterfly SVG's here for free for you to check out along with a free daisy SVG! If you are having any trouble - learn how to download and upload all of the free SVG files on my website here. Pop these into design space by uploading and we can resize and duplicate as needed. I started by using two daisies and two butterflies but I thought it looked too busy so I ended up switching to one flower. You can also play around with the colors of these files. Even with free SVG files you can always make them unique to your project. When changing colors, select the layer you want to change and then go to the color box on the top.
Step 5: Arrange the files to test your design
I started by uploading all my butterfly options to see which one I like the best. Play around with colors, amounts, and sizes to make the design you like the best. I ended up choosing the orange one! By having all three available to look at, I was able to poll on Instagram and ask my family which one they liked.
Remember: if you don't want to delete all your hard work you can always use the eye on the side of the images to hide them and they won't cut. This way if in the future I want to make the blue butterflies, I have this project ready to cut.
Step 6: Cut
Side note: I cut everything AFTER I painted my sign so it had some time to dry.
I hid the arrow and two designs I wasn't using before I cut and sent the rest to my maker. I am cutting everything out of paper!
Just remember: this sign probably won't survive the elements outside (rain, sun, humidity) so it's best to keep inside if you make your decor out of paper!
Let's Build our DIY Dollar Tree Home Decor:
Step 1: Paint our Blank
I did this prior to cutting my paper pieces so it had time to dry!
Be generous with your paint! I did about 3 coats of my black paint and it still wasn't super dark but I liked the look. They give you a good amount of paint in the tube for $1.25 so be liberal with it. I let my paint try for a good 30 minutes to an hour while I cut all of my other pieces out. I made sure to do the sides too but I left the back unpainted.
They have such a good variety of colors at the Dollar Tree - including chalkboard paint which I will definitely have to test out in the future. I also got a pack of sponge brushes and poster board at the dollar tree. Don't forget to pick these up!
Step 2: Assemble our butterflies and flowers
Now, the biggest thing about this sign is I want the accent pieces to look 3D. So I glued my flower in the center (excluding the vines) and then I curled the petals up with my bone tool.
There are a lot of free SVG flower templates and I hope to provide more soon so if there is something you like more from another craft website or want to have more flowers add them on, this is your sign!
You can find more SVG files for free by joining my community and grabbing the password in my newsletter!
For the vines, I hand scored the leaves using my bone tool (you can learn more about my favorite tools here) and then I glued those to the back of the flower.
This paper is a white core paper and I have to say - these are the WORST for paper-crafting (in my opinion). Everyone has their preference but something about them just doesn't look clean to me. (End rant)
For my Butterflies, I glued my black wings to the backing and then folded right along the line of the body to give it some dimension The bodies are thick enough to glue to the blank so don't worry about that!
Step 3: Glue down our pieces
My suggestion is to start with the words! (I actually did this prior to making my butterflies and flower. Line up your words and check that you like the positioning before gluing. You don't want to have to remake the whole sign because you glued your words down wonky. You can also cut your words out of vinyl so they are more like a sticker!
Then place your butterflies and flowers - you can use craft glue or hot glue for these. I opted for craft glue and it dried just fine!
If you wanted to get EXTRA crafty, you can buy magnet strips or magnet circles and place these on the back of the accent pieces. Then, you can change out the butterflies and flowers! Same for any home decor signs you plan on DIYing!
Note: The Dollar Tree also sells hot glue guns in case you need to get one!
Now we have a beautiful spring sign that we DIY'ed from the Dollar Tree!
I am going to hang mine up in the kitchen near our sliding glass door so it points to where we see most of our butterflies. It adds a cute bit of color! These are even a Cricut project you can sell or gift! Mother's Day signs are a great gift to DIY (and no one needs to know its on a budget).
Cricut crafting on a budget is doable so check back for more project ideas!
If you want to learn to make something specific or need any help with this project, send me a message in the contact box below and I will get back to you as soon as I can!
Happy Crafting!
