Wine Cork Shadow Box Holiday DIY Gift with Cricut Joy!

Learn how to make a custom wine cork shadow box quickly and easily using a Cricut Joy and Smart Vinyl. Perfect DIY gift for wine lovers!

This post is sponsored by Cricut, but all opinions are my own.

We are heading into gift giving season! Woo Hoo! I actually love it! Finding creative ways to make personalized and heartfelt gifts is something I truly enjoy.

Having a Cricut cutting machine saves me money and opens me up to endless possibilities of DIY gifts that mean so much to friends and family.

Some of my favorite homemade gifts I’ve made for others using my Cricut was when I transferred my Grandmother’s handwritten recipe to an oven mitt, used my kids’ handwriting on an epoxy glitter tumbler, and personalized makeup bags for teachers.

I have made countless others over the years (you can check out all my DIY gift idea tutorials here) but this year I needed that extra special gift for my husband. I don’t know about you, but my hubby is super hard to give gifts too.

I’ve been having fun making shadow boxes lately, so I knew I could make a quick and meaningful gift out of one for him. I looked for ideas on Pinterest and as soon as I saw a wine cork shadow box I knew it would be perfect gift for him.

Because we LOVE wine! Maybe a little bit too much, but it’s something we love to do together. Drinking wine, tasting wine, going to wine festivals, making personalized wine glasses, you name it!

This is actually a super quick and easy DIY gift using the Cricut Joy! If you are unfamiliar with this small but amazing machine, make sure to check out my post all about the Cricut Joy.

It took me a little bit to come up with the perfect saying to put on the DIY wine cork shadow box but I did and I love it! So this is to my partner in wine…

Materials Needed for Wine Cork Shadow Box

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links from Shareasale, Cricut, Awin, CreativeFabrica, and Amazon.com. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my links (purple text). As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

shadow box – I got this one at Michael’s but you can find them at other craft stores or for a little bit more on Amazon here
Cricut Joy
Cricut Smart Permanent Vinyl
Cricut Tools
Transfer tape
wine corks – save your wine corks or ask friends, I’m sure you’ll get tons!

Designing Customization in Cricut Design Space

Ok, let’s get to designing the vinyl decal for this Cricut Joy gift idea.

On a new canvas in Cricut Design space, insert a text box and type whatever saying you want.

The glass of my shadow box is 8.5×8.5 inches so my full custom vinyl needed to fit. Since I am using my Cricut Joy, I will need to cut it into two sections since I can’t cut taller than 5.25 inches.

I opted for “To my partner in wine” and chose Arab Brushstroke STD for the font. I aligned it for center text, made it about 6.3 inches wide, and Attached the letters together (click on Attach in lower right-hand corner).

I used Arab Brushstroke for the Est. 2002 text box too.

Then I inserted a new text box and typed in Mark & Amy using Aphrodite Pro font from Cricut Access.

To make the letters of our names closer together I first decreased the Letter Space on the top. Then once they were as close as I wanted them, I clicked on Ungroup in the upper right so I could move the letters independently of each other.

I clicked on each individual letter and moved them to where I wanted them. I also didn’t like the ampersand in this particular font so I deleted it.

Once the letters in our names were how I liked, I used my cursor to put a box around all of them and clicked on Attach.

To find a different ampersand, I clicked on Images and searched ampersand and found one I liked. Then I inserted it.

I sized it to fit in between our names and then selected our names and the ampersand and clicked on Attach.

I also wanted a flourish to put in between the saying and our names so I clicked on Images again and searched Flourish. Once I found one, I inserted it and sized it to fit in between.

Then I selected everything and Centered Horizontally under the Align tab.

The top half of my cork box custom decal is already attached so I just selected the flourish, our names, and the Est.2002 and clicked on Attach so they will cut out together exactly as they are.

Save the project and make sure Joy is selected in the drop down menu at the top if you have more than one machine.

I am going to be using Smart Vinyl so after I clicked on Make It and the pop-up screen came up, I selected Without Mat.

Cricut Design Space shows me that I will need 15 inches of Smart Vinyl to cut everything out.

Select Smart Vinyl-Permanent for the material setting.

Then follow the onscreen directions! I placed my vinyl roll under the wheels and let the Cricut Joy pull the vinyl in.

All of the commands for the Cricut Joy will be within Cricut Design Space. So whether you are using an Ipad, phone or laptop make sure to follow the prompts and push the load and unload buttons on the screen.

Cutting Smart Vinyl with Cricut Joy

Once you have pushed the Go button on your screen the Cricut Joy will do the rest!

It can cut long sections and you’ll notice the vinyl coming out the back side.

Once it’s done, click the Unload button. Then I like to cut the end of the roll with my trimmer so it’s nice and straight for the next time I use it.

Then weed all the extra vinyl off.

I decided to put my corks in the shadow box first but you can do it in either order. I pushed up the tabs with my spatula and pulled the backing off.

I cleaned the inside of the glass and then added some wine corks.

There is no right or wrong on how many corks to add. At first I added a bunch but later I realized I didn’t like them that high so I took some out. No biggie, super easy to open and shut the shadow box!

Replace the board and back and push back down the tabs.

Clean the front of the glass.

Then apply transfer tape to the weeded off vinyl

I like to peel off just the short edge of the transfer tape backing first and line it up with the edge of the vinyl backing.

Press down the first few inches then pull the backing of the transfer tape off as you’re pulling and pressing it on the vinyl.

applying transfer tape to cricut joy vinyl

Once it’s on, scrape it all down well. I scrape the front and the back.

Then I cut it in half and placed it on the shadow box glass so I could line it cup. Since the top of the vinyl backing is straight I lined it up near the top and did the same with the bottom.

I marked the center of each and lined it up with the middle of the frame with a ruler.

Then I taped the top vinyl section to the glass with blue painter’s tape to hold it in place.

Now that it’s in place, I folded it down towards the tape, removed the backing and gently laid it back down on the glass.

Scrape it down well (but gently!) and then peel off the transfer tape.

Repeat the same exact process for the personalized names and date on the bottom half.

That’s all there is to it! Now you have a personalized wine cork holder shadow box to gift to your partner in wine!

As I mentioned, I took a few of the wine corks out but it’s totally a personal preference! You could always add enough corks to fill the entire shadow box.