DIY Floating Ornaments With Cricut: Free Template And Size Chart

Every Christmas, one thing is a guarantee, I will make DIY Christmas ornaments with my Cricut machine! Usually, I add 2-3 new designs a year. Take a look at all my DIY ornaments here. Today we are going to make DIY floating ornaments with our Cricut machine!

I love this floating ornament idea because it is perfect for beginners, and it looks like the design is floating as if by magic in the center of the plastic ornament ball. You can apply this concept to any clear ornament or photo ornament design. The result is s lovely bauble for your Christmas tree where the lights shine through, showcasing the design, or you can give these as an easy gift!

To make this craft even easier, I am providing free floating ornament templates that can be resized to fit any clear plastic ornament you may wish to use. I also provide a sizing chart for the most popular ornament sizes so you can easily plug in the dimension in Cricut Design Space!

Floating Ornament Template Sizes

Clear plastic ornaments for crafts come in various sizes, and measurements are usually in millimeters. Below I have listed the most popular sizes in millimeters to inches, and I also provide a printable with these measurements when you download the free-floating ornament template.

Now the measurements below are an exact conversion; it can be helpful to very minorly scale them down by maybe .05 of an inch just to give a little wiggle room. However, I have cut these exact sizes and had them fit well as is. Plus, I have an extra hack at the end in case things need sizing down a bit after you have already cut the design.

1. 60 mm (popular) = 2.36 inches
2. 67 mm = 2.63 inches
3. 70 mm = 2.75 inches
4. 76 mm = 3.0 inches
5. 80 mm (most popular) = 3.14 inches
6. 100 mm = 3.93 inches

If you don’t see the measurement listed above, just use an online converter to calculate the size in inches for your floating ornaments.

Next, let’s talk about the supplies you will need to have on hand to make those DIY floating ornaments for Christmas time.

Supplies List

• 4ml acetate (the acetate makes the design look like it’s floating!)
• Permanent vinyl (I like the textured metallic, holographic vinyl for this craft)
• Transfer tape
• Weeding tool
• Cricut machine (any Cricut can work, even the Cricut Joy! You may need to select heavy cardstock and set the pressure to More on the cut screen when using the Joy to cut acetate.)
• Clear plastic ornament balls
• Ribbon or baker’s twine
• Cricut scraper
• Brayer tool

Download the Floating Ornament Templates

To get access to the free-floating ornament templates (the piece we cut from acetate), find them in the Abbi Kirsten Craft Vault with the keyword “floating ornaments” at the top search bar, which will reveal all the free and premium options for you to pick from!

You can also get four free designs for these floating ornaments, including the following. And remember, you can always apply your own design or image!

Free SVG Designs:

1. Floating ornament base template and size guide
2. All is calm. All is bright ornament SVG
3. Joy to the world ornament SVG
4. Deck the Halls ornament SVG
5. Tis the Season SVG

Premium Member Floating Ornament SVG Designs:

For Premium Abbi Kirsten Members, you will get access to everything above AND all these other ornament designs. Wish you were a premium member to get all my Christmas SVG files and crafts. Join thousands of others in the Premium Member Vault! You will get everything listed above plus the following.

1. Santa sleigh ornament SVG
2. Snowman ornament SVG
3. Christmas tree ornament SVG
4. Deer in a forest ornament SVG
5. Merry Christmas SVG design
6. It’s Christmas time SVG design
7. Merry and Bright SVG design

Floating Christmas Ornament Video Tutorial

Watch the step-by-step video tutorial below, where I will also cover how to size your template in Cricut Design Space. Likewise, keep reading for a full written tutorial for this Christmas craft with Cricut.

Cricut Design Space Set Up

To get started, download the floating ornament templates above. Remember, you can get the ornament silhouette template for free, which is excellent for making your own designs!

Upload the SVG files to Cricut Design Space. Learn how to upload SVG files step by step here.

Next, scale the floating ornament templates to match the size of your ornaments. Refer to the size chart that comes with the SVG download or scroll up to view it. For example, my ornament here is 80mm, which is 3.14 inches. I will set the width of my ornament to 3.14 (do NOT change the size by height)

To scale in Cricut Design Space, hover over any of the corners, click-drag, and scale up or down for a smaller or larger result. You can also type in the exact dimensions of the top edit bar, which I recommend for accuracy.

You will also need to scale the decorative design we are cutting out in vinyl. I like to scale this slightly smaller than the ornament base piece, so for me, that will be about 3 inches.

Once the SVG files have been set up in Design Space, click the Make It button at the top and choose your material settings.

I used the acetate setting for the clear plastic 4ml acetate ornament piece. Then I chose the holographic vinyl or metallic textured vinyl setting according to which vinyl I was cutting at the time.

Applying The Vinyl To The Floating Ornaments

Once the design has been cut out, weed the vinyl. I like to weed on the mat, which is helpful if your vinyl liner is curling up on you.

Apply the transfer tape to the vinyl and burnish the front and back with the Cricut scraper tool. Flip the design face-down and peel the liner away from the transfer tape to pick up the weeded vinyl result.

Flip the design so the transfer tape is sticky-side up, and place the acetate ornament cut out on top, centering it. Take your clear plastic ornament ball and remove the top crown to put in the acetate and vinyl piece.

Finally, roll the acetate cut out with the vinyl design on it (just like you are rolling up a piece of paper into a cone) and slide it inside the ornament. Let it open naturally and then use your weeding tool to move it into place. You want it to be as centered as possible.

What To Do When Your Ornament Design Doesn’t Fit

If you place the floating ornament design inside your plastic ornament and it keeps bunching up, don’t panic; you can usually fix this. Carefully pull the design back out of the ornament and use a pair of detail scissors to go around the circumference of the acetate base, trimming it down slightly so that when you slide it back in, it will no long scrunch up.

What do you think of this floating ornament craft? Would you make these DIY ornaments with your Cricut this holiday season? What questions do you have for me? Let me know in the comments below!