Spring Thrift Store Crafts with Cricut Joy!

With the warmer weather upon us, we find ourselves energized to get crafting. So today we’ll show you how to make a beautiful spring-themed thrift store craft using an inexpensive thrifted picture frame, our Cricut Joy and some colorful vinyl. This floral wall decor idea is perfect for any room in your home!

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Completed spring wall art with the phrase "the earth laughs in flowers" in white vinyl with colorful vinyl flowers all around.

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Colorful Thrift Store Craft!

Taking a trip to our community thrift store for inexpensive craft supplies really gets our creative juices flowing. It’s so fun to see what items with loads of potential can be found on a budget.

We’ve shared many DIYs using materials we’ve upcycled over the years and old picture frames have definitely been one of our go to supplies. Take this rock’n Father’s Day frame and this framed paper peony flowers for a couple of examples.

the earth laughs in flowers phrase placed on to a thrifted picture frame

In fact, we scooped up this particular wood picture frame that didn’t even have a backing to it for just $0.25! For that price, how could we pass it up? And lucky for us we held on to it until inspiration struck since it was the perfect size and look for this thrift store picture frame craft.

vase filled with Spring florals next to thrifted picture frame craft

Materials Needed:

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Design Space Images #M248CF1C1; #MB9602F3; #MB96029B; #M1EC63DDD; #M173DFA1A; #M33272
Open Back Photo Frame measuring 10”x13”
Cricut Joy
Permanent Smart Vinyl in White
Removable (or Permanent) Smart Vinyl in Hydrangeas Sampler
Weeder
Cricut Transfer Tape
Scissors
Crafter’s Acrylic paint in Coral
Paintbrush
Hanging hardware (we used gold screw hooks and twine)

How to Make:

Prepare the Thrifted Picture Frame

Carefully remove the glass from the open back thrifted picture frame and clean the glass if needed before putting aside for later use. Next, apply a coat of paint to the frame and let the paint dry before reassembling the frame.

painting a thrifted frame in a coral color

Creating the Art in Design Space

Open Cricut Design Space and click on the “+” sign to start a new project, opening up a blank canvas.

Insert a rectangle shape measuring the same as the glass from the picture frame. In our case, it was 8.5” wide x 11.5” high.

Click on the Images button from the toolbar to search the flower phrase (#M248CF1C1) and insert it on to the canvas. Hide the leaves and rose from the flower phrase and resize to 4.5” wide (same width as the Smart vinyl). Change color to white and place the phrase in the center of the rectangle.

insert flower phrase on to canvas and place on top of rectangle shape

Next, search and insert the flower patterns (#MB9602F3; #MB96029B; #M1EC63DDD; #M173DFA1A; #M33272) on to the canvas.

Hide any unwanted flower layers to simplify the cutting and transferring of the images.

place flower shapes and hide extra layers to simplify the design

Resize the flower patterns and position them around the phrase but with the rectangle shape and adjust the color of the flower pieces to match the Smart Vinyl material colors.

adjust flower colors to match Smart Vinyl and place around flower phrase

Attach same color flower pieces together to be cut, maintaining the positioning and spacing as placed. To save on vinyl you can avoid this step and position the cut vinyl flowers afterwards.

Hide the rectangle shape (this was just the guide for placement and size of the flower patterns).

hide rectangle shape leaving just the cut images showing

Cutting the Smart Vinyl with Cricut Joy

Ensure the machine is set to Cricut Joy and select “Make It” in Design Space. Choose “Without Mat” as the option for cutting when using Smart Vinyl.

proceed with cutting and choose without Mat option

Set material type to Smart Vinyl (removable or permanent depending on what you’re using) and follow the prompts for loading the mat into the Cricut Joy and cutting the Smart Vinyl. Unload the Smart Vinyl when finished from the cutting machine.

insert Smart vinyl into Cricut Joy to cut

Applying the Vinyl to the Thrifted Picture Frame Glass

Peel away the excess vinyl around the images and discard. Use a weeding tool for smaller pieces that can’t be peeled off by hand.

peel and weed excess vinyl leaving just the flower images

On a flat surface, roughly position the images to match the placement of your artwork but don’t worry about getting the exact placement.

position the flower phrase in the center of the picture frame glass

Start with the flower phrase and cut a piece of transfer tape a bit larger than the phrase. Peel away the transfer tape backing and place the transfer tape overtop of the phrase. Gently rub the vinyl to help it stick to the transfer tape.
Peel away the vinyl backing and place the image in the center of the glass. Gently rub the vinyl to help it stick to the glass and carefully and slowly peel away the transfer tape.

Repeat with the remaining vinyl flower shapes placing them around the phrase. Use a picture of the art in Design Space as a reference of the placement. I used my phone and had it sitting beside my work space.

transfer the flowers on to the glass around the phrase using art as a guide

Layer the different pieces of the flowers on to your transfer tape and then place them on the glass.

Continue until all the pieces are placed.

continue transferring all cut vinyl on to the glass until finished

Finishing the Spring Thrifted Picture Frame

Place the glass back into the painted frame and secure. I first screwed some gold hooks to the top of the wood frame and then used some wood glue to hold the glass in place around the edges.

Hang on the wall to enjoy!

completed Spring thrifted picture frame hanging on blue wall

We just love the bright colors and happy sentiment of this thrift store craft idea! It’s perfect for a home office, bedroom or craft room. You can even make and sell this simple Cricut craft idea!

Looking for More Thrift Store Picture Frame Crafts?

The local thrift store always has plenty of old picture frames that can be used for crafting. Here are some other fun ways to upcycle these inexpensive frames: