It’s here, it’s here! Tis the season to pour a glass of mulled wine, crank up the holiday music and deck the halls with abandonment. I’ve always felt our house really shines in the winter, and as I don’t do much to the interiors the rest of the year, I fully embrace decorating for this winter season. I welcome and look forward to transforming our common rooms to celebrate the end of the year with a festive feeling at home.

This year we teamed up with Cricut to create a completely customizable set of holiday decor projects to help you create your own cohesive, stylish, and totally unique look for your home this season. I’ve been using the Cricut Maker for almost a year now for everything from signage for our business to custom packaging and one-of-a-kind cut paper framed artwork from sketches in my sketchbook. We were THRILLED when the Cricut team wanted to partner with us on holiday decor because there is SO MUCH you can do with this machine.

Here are three of the reasons why Cricut is an important part of my creative process.

1. You can create, upload, and share design work made in Illustrator and Photoshop. For my fellow designers out there, imagine creating a dieline and then testing it out with total precision? It’s pretty incredible to be able to go from working in 2D to 3D templates in minutes. Need a little more inspiration? Check out Cricut’s Design Space where you can find pre-designed templates from other users (and a few from moi)
2. The Cricut cuts way more than paper. WAY more. From wafer thin tissue paper to fabric, chipboard, wood, and leather, I’ve been able to make prototypes for upcoming product lines, customized decals for clients, fabric signage for pop-up shops, the list goes on. It’s seriously powerful.
3. It’s reliable, high-quality, and continually improving. I bought the Cricut Maker, which allows a multitude of adaptable tools that allow you to work with a ton of materials. Plus, the online community is fantastic for troubleshooting and testing out new applications.

Tricks and Tips for Customizing Your Handmade Holiday Decor

When setting out to make your handmade holiday decor look as polished and professional as possible, there are two important decisions to make before you decide WHAT to make: you must select the core color palette of your projects and the materials you’ll be using.

Select Your Color Palette:

I recommend going with two neutrals and one pop of color. In my case, we went with black, white and hunter green. If you keep to a minimal palette, it makes the design process, that much simpler; it’s an instant balance between competing and contrasting colors. Two neutrals, plus a pop of color ensures that just about everything you make will go together.

Pro tip: gather all your holiday decor and look at what colors you gravitate towards. Still need help? Take a look at your home… your rugs, pillows, sofas, etc. Does the color palette jive with what already exists in your home? If you can’t decide what color palette to go with, let your everyday pieces decide for you.

Select Your Materials:

In addition to using paper, think about other materials that are featured in your favorite decor pieces. Smooth paper looks great juxtaposed against raw basswood and butter leather. Add in some brass accents and you’re looking at a versatile mix of materials that work well in a variety of different ways. Still stumped? Again, take a look at what you already have in your home and use this as a guide!

Remember: simple isn’t necessarily simplistic. What makes these designs impactful is not the number of intricate cuts, but the materials and colors used in each piece.

All of the projects below include links to the templates, instructions, and details on how to produce them using the die cutting machine. If you do not have a Cricut, we have a link to our SVG files here, so you can produce them by hand!

Project One: Paper Village

One of my favorite memories of the holidays is when my mom would set up a Christmas village in our living room. Each house was beautiful and I loved how the light flickered at night. I designed three homes for my village inspired by my travels to Scandinavia. This project is even simpler than it looks because all you need are paper and tea lights (LED ones, because safety first)! I made these out of large pieces of art paper in various shades of cream, light gray, kraft paper, and dark gray to give the village some contrast.

You can find the downloadable templates, directions and materials available here 

Project Two: Custom Holiday Artwork

This is a super simple yet elegant way to switch up your wall decor for the holidays! I designed two cut paper prints for you to create in any color you like. Simple mount the cut paper print on a contrasting piece of paper, frame and, voila! Both of these prints originated from my sketchbooks and are inspired by block prints.

You can find the downloadable templates, directions, and materials available here

Project Three: Customized Leather and Wood Stocking Tags

A simple way to customize your favorite stockings is to hang a little wooden or leather tag to them. We went with a beautiful cognac leather (we used this one from Cricut) and 1/16” basswood for our custom letters. I created an entire alphabet in this lovely font for you to use when making your own stocking charms!

You can find the downloadable templates, directions, and materials available here 

Project Four: Magnolia Garland

What I love most about this garland project is how impactful it is! I recommend cutting your first few using the Cricut and then using them as a template for the rest of the paper leaves. Imagine this beautifully simple garland across your mantle, draped from a chandelier, or banister!! It’s so pretty.

You can find the downloadable templates, directions, and materials available here

Project Five: Merry Garland / Sign

Using chipboard we created a “Merry” Sign that mixes in materials you find throughout our space: wood, brass, and onyx. This is totally customizable depending on your style! You can use wood, leather, or hand paint the letters.

You can find the downloadable templates, directions, and materials available here

Project Six: Letters to Santa Decal

My son is finally old enough to understand who Santa is so we’ve been having a ton of fun sharing all the fun ways we can communicate with him. I created this little “Letters from Santa” decal that takes no time at all to apply.

You can find the downloadable templates, directions, and materials available here

I hope you enjoyed discovering some new ways to customize your decor and turn DIY creations into something that looks polished and professional! Happy crafting, all!

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Ed. note:

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.

The compensation received in exchange for placement on Wit & Delight is used to purchase props, hire a photographer, write/edit the blog post and support the larger team behind Wit & Delight.

While compensation was received in exchange for coverage, all thoughts and opinions are always my own. Sponsored posts like these allow for the development of additional dynamic content to be produced, unsponsored.

Kate Arends

Kate is the founder of Wit & Delight. She is currently learning how to play tennis and is forever testing the boundaries of her creative muscle. Follow her on Instagram at @witanddelight_.