How to make the perfect place to store precious wedding keepsakes using Cricut.
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We all know memories are precious. Through our lives we understandably gather items that have sentimental value to us for exactly that reason. Hopefully you’ll experience many moments in life that you want to hold on to the memories of, and your wedding, and by extension, your honeymoon, are naturally going to be high up there in the sentimental stakes.
You’ll no doubt want to hang on to little mementos that will remind you of those special details, like a copy of your vows, the Order of the Day, your wedding invitation, a few petals from your bouquet or a packet of the confetti and, of course, your wedding cards. But what do we actually do with those things?
Well, we already have a whole video giving you ideas for Wedding Keepsakes (which you can find here), so you can showcase your memories to the max. However, for those items that you maybe don’t necessarily want to have out, we’re thinking you’d still prefer to do something more special with them than shove them in an old shoebox under the bed?
With that in mind, we got out our Cricut to create a personalised Keepsake Memory Box tutorial for you. The perfect solution! Create a beautiful place to safely store those mementos that you’ll love to keep in sight and look through on future anniversaries, reliving the memories together. We made this one as a wedding gift and chose to create a design in keeping with the couple’s wedding invitation (in the hope they liked it! Obviously easier if you’re making this for yourself!) – from fonts, to colours, to patterns. Whilst you can more simply create this whole design using vinyl, which will still look amazing, we decided to emphasise the family name by cutting it out of basswood, giving it more of a premium look.
Our Cricut tutorial assumes no prior knowledge, we walk you through the entire process of creating our Keepsake Box step-by-step, so if you’re a Cricut beginner, fear not, we’ll get you there – also feel free to ask questions in the comments, we keep an eye on them to help out where we can. And of course, we make it really easy for you to adapt our tutorial to the design you need by sharing all the skills and techniques you’ll need. If you’re more advanced and just looking for tips on a particular step in the process, you’ll find time stamps in the video description box over on YouTube so you can jump ahead as you like!
In case you’re keen to know which Cricut skills you can expect to pick up in our tutorial, here’s the list (though there’s lots of bonus tips and tricks sprinkled throughout!):
- How to create a project/design using Cricut Design Space.
- How to add and manipulate text in Cricut Design Space, including using the ‘unite’ function.
- How to alter an image using the ‘slice’ (aka how to crop an image) and ‘unite’ functions.
- How to prepare your design for cutting – how to prep your mats and materials, and how to tell the machine where you want it to cut.
- How to load blades into the Cricut machine.
- Everything you need to know about cutting wood using a Cricut Maker (NB. This section of the tutorial can only be done with the Maker machines, as the required Knife Blade is only compatible with those machines).
- Everything you need to know about cutting vinyl and how to transfer it to the project.
As you might be able to tell from that list, that’s quite a lot to get through…and that’s before we’ve primed, painted, sealed and added the finishing touches to the box itself. Consequently, we’ve split this tutorial into two parts so it’s more digestible! Part one is live now, but you’ll only have to wait one week for part two, which drops August 16th, 4pm BST. Once it’s up, we’ll add the video link here for you too!
Find everything you’ll need below….
What we used (with links where possible):
(*Affiliate links – we get a small percentage of the profits made through our referrals at no extra cost to you when purchased through the links marked with asterisks.)
Cricut supplies:
- Cricut Maker* (only Cricut Maker machines are capable of cutting this project)
- Cricut knife blade*
- Fine point blade (usually included with the Cricut Maker machine)
- Cricut basic tool set*
- Cricut premium permanent vinyl, white, glossy*
- Cricut premium permanent vinyl, gold, glossy*
- Cricut basswood, 12” x 6”, 4 pack*
- Cricut StrongGrip mat*
- Cricut StandardGrip mat*
- Transfer tape
Box supplies:
- Wooden box, 25 x 20 x 10cm from The Works
- Masking tape
- White primer spray*
- All-Purpose glue*
- Clear sealer spray*
- Card insert / box liner from The Works
- Double sided tape*
- Acrylic paint, matt vanilla*
- Paint brush*
NB. This video is not made in association with Cricut. Some materials listed above are affiliate links, these are clearly marked by an asterisk* where applicable. This means we get a small amount of commission from the retailer for the referral at no additional cost to you.
Got any questions about Part One? Leave them in the comments and we’ll do our best to help. Who are you making your box for? We’d love to know, and remember to tag us in your photos on Instagram @bridesociety_uk so we can see how yours turned out!
Want more like this? Check out the Cricut tutorial playlist here!
For even more from Bride Society, visit our LinkTree:
— Rebecca and Laura, Bride Society
