The holidays are behind us and as we look ahead for a (hopefully) better 2022, there is no better time to commit to your New Year resolution goals!
These resolution jars whip up easily and they not only help to keep you motivated until your goal is reached, but they’ll look super pretty on your desk or bookshelf too. Plus, you can get all of your supplies (except the vinyl) from the dollar store, keeping costs low and your budget happy! 😊
New Year Resolution Jars
- Supplies
- Digital Products
- Cricut Design Space
- Texts and Offsets
- Cutting and Weeding
- Application
Supplies Needed
- Two empty glass (or plastic) jars
- Decorative rocks (or marbles)
- Measuring tape or ruler
- Alcohol wipe
- Permanent vinyl (I used Oracal 651 – various colors)
- Transfer tape
- Weeding tools (a felt-covered scraper is also recommended)
- Cricut cutting machine (or another type)
- Digital products: Ashley Marie Font Trio (optional)
- Ribbon, twine, or other decorative embellishments (optional)
Digital Products
The Ashley Marie Font Trio is an adorable script and sans serif that is just perfect for this project and as an added bonus, it’s on sale over at Creative Fabrica! That said, however, don’t feel obligated to only use this font! You can use just about any of your favorites for this project – just make sure that it is an easy cut to create your decal. If you want to have a look over some other fonts that pair well with your Cricut machine, check out my article “56 Best Fonts for Cricut + Learn How to Use Them” for more ideas!
Once you have downloaded your fonts, install them onto your computer, then open up Design Space and start a new canvas.
Cricut Design Space
Before jumping into this project, you first need to be sure of your resolution goals! It can literally be anything at all, as long as it is something that you can realistically achieve. For me, I need to lose a few pounds after a long pandemic lockdown (and too many treat nights), but maybe you want to save a little money; or perhaps you want to craft a little more and plan to do at least one project a week? The choice is all up to you – these are YOUR resolution jars to personalize!
Once you have decided on your goal, it’s time to design the decals for your jars.
As one jar will represent the beginning of your journey, the other will represent your achievements; similar to a before and after. Because of this, you will need to create two separate decals.
Texts and Offsets
On your clean canvas, first, type out a title for your goal and change the font to one of the fonts from the trio that you just installed. As my new year resolution is to lose a little weight, my “before” jar is called “Pounds To Go” and my “after” jar is “Pounds Lost”. No matter what your resolution is, the steps are the same in creating your design.
For the “Pounds” title on the first jar, I used the Ashley script font and contrasted it with the sans serif for “To Go”. For the second jar, I reversed this by using the sans serif for the “Pounds” and the script for the “Lost” – adding a little glyph on the end. You can really have some fun with the texts – mix it up or keep everything uniform…you are only limited by your own imagination (and supplies!)
You can also create an offset for your vinyl, but this is completely optional. I personally chose to use this handy tool because my glass stones/marbles are a very dark blue and I wanted my lettering to pop out on the jars. If you aren’t as much of a fan of the offset as I am, you can use some glitter or metallic vinyl to compensate and create a flashy color contrast!
To use the offset feature, first, select your text and then the offset button at the top of your canvas (laptop).
On the offset popup, simply either use the slider or enter the amount in inches to determine how large of an offset you would like.
You will see a light blue outline around the text indicating the size of your chosen offset. Feel free to play around with the settings – choose rounded or squared corners. I adjusted mine to 0.08 to give it just a little offset which acts as a highlighted border for my texts.
When you are happy with the distance of your offset, click on the apply button. You can also change the offset/text color from the layers panel, and then select both your text and offset and group them. Use your measuring tape to determine how large you want your decal and then resize the designs to fit those dimensions.
- 🔔 Remember! The offset is a separate layer from your text, so be sure to group both the text and the offset together before you make size adjustments.
If necessary, select the text (not the offset) from the layers panel on the right-hand side of your screen and then weld. This will ensure that your text will be cut as one whole word – instead of cutting out the letters separately.
Now just repeat this same process for each text group.
Cutting and Weeding
With your text and offsets created, grouped, and resized, select the text “To Go” and be sure to attach them if you ungrouped the letters previously, otherwise they will be scattered on the mat and not cut together.
Now you are ready to click on that “Make It” button! On the next screen, make sure that your layers are correct. If everything looks good, click on continue. Choose the appropriate material settings for your vinyl type, but I do recommend using the “Washi Sheet” setting as this really helps in cutting smaller, intricate texts.
Once all of your vinyl has been cut, weed as per usual – carefully! Sometimes using the Washi Sheet setting requires a bit of a slower hand.
Layer them accordingly – matching up the skinnier texts with the thicker offsets. Set them aside while you prepare your jars.
Application
Before applying your decals, it’s important to properly clean your jars so that no dust particles or residue from the purchase labels interfere with the vinyl adhesion. To do this, you can give them a good washing, and then use an alcohol wipe to make sure that it is as clean as can be. Allow them to air dry thoroughly, or you can use a lint-free cloth.
Now to make the jars! Carefully center the decal on the jar as best you can. Then, carefully lay it down on the glass, pressing at the center only. Slowly smooth it outwards from the middle, making sure there are no air bubbles or folds along the way.
Give it a light burnish with your scraper and then remove the transfer tape. Using a felt-covered scraper if you have one, burnish it again.
Now just repeat the same process for the remaining decals. If you do have some folding issues, no worries! Just use your weeder tool to carefully lift the vinyl and replace it.
That’s it! If you like, you can add some twine around the top for an added crafty touch – then load it up with your marbles/glass stones and start achieving those goals!
Cheers to a brand new year of crafting! 💖🥂🎉
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