Make a stunning St. Lucia crown with felt and a Cricut Maker and this simple tutorial. This gorgeous St. Lucia wreath can be worn to celebrate St. Lucia Day, or can be used as a festive holiday decoration.
Holiday dinner at my husband’s grandmother’s house always consisted of freshly baked homemade food, colorful Christmas decorations filling every corner of their spacious home, and a St. Lucia wreath on the holiday dinner table.
I loved this nod to my husband’s ancestry. I’ve always appreciated the beauty and simplicity of St. Lucia’s Day (also called Saint Lucy’s Day), a joyous holiday celebrated every December 13th in Sweden, Norway, and parts of Finland.
St. Lucia was a young Christian girl who secretly brought food to the persecuted Christians in Rome. She would wear candles on her head to see and so her hands were free to carry the food, and was martyred for her beliefs.
Every St. Lucia’s Day each town selects a girl to portray St. Lucia. She dresses in a white dress with a red sash around her waist, and wears a green lingonberry crown with red berries on candles on her head.
The girl symbolizing St. Lucia leads a procession, while younger girls wearing white and lit crowns and boys wearing white costumes sing traditional carols. Older girls wear real lit candles on their heads, while younger girls use electric candles.
I want my children to know this beautiful story and honor the traditions of their ancestors, so I created a beautiful felt St. Lucia crown for my daughter to wear. It will make a lovely Christmas decoration when it’s not being worn, and is a wonderful way to introduce the story of St. Lucia to my family.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I made a very small percentage of any purchase made at no extra cost to you.
My Cricut Maker machine did all of the cutting for me, so this lovely St. Lucia wreath came together very quickly and easily. You can learn more about the Cricut Maker and why I think everyone NEEDS a Cricut Maker.
My favorite feature of my Cricut Maker is that it can cut TONS of different materials, including felt, fabric, leather, crepe paper, and even chipboard!
There is a whole suit of tools that you can use to cut, write, and score, all with a Cricut Maker. Design Space software is so easy to use, and you can even upload your own designs to cut!
St. Lucia Crown
Supplies:
- Cricut Maker
- Green, red, white, and yellow felt
- Purple Strong Grip Mat
- Glue gun
- Small floral foam wreath (mine was 9.8″ or 24 cm)
Cutting the felt
You can find the cut files I designed to cut all the felt pieces for the St. Lucia crown here-
To cut each of these designs, just follow the prompts in Design Space to cut.
Be sure to change the quantity of one when you go to cut so that you can get multiple cuts on one piece of felt.
- For the green leaves, I cut multiple pieces of green felt (so many that I didn’t count).
- For the yellow flame, I cut 6 of them out of yellow felt.
- For the red berries, I cut 40 of them out of red felt.
I like to use the rotary blade when cutting felt, even though it is suggested to use a different blade. When I go to cut, I just change the blade to the rotary blade every time I cut felt because the rotary blade cuts it so perfectly… just like butta’.
Place the felt on your purple Strong Grip Mat, then let the Maker do all the work!
Once all your pieces are cut, pull them off the mat so they are ready to go.
Making the candles
My St Lucia crown has six candles. To create each candle, you’ll need a rectangle of white felt.
I used a sheet of white felt from the craft store, which was the perfect amount for the six candles.
First, take a flame and use a glue gun to glue the straight yellow end along the top edge of the white felt (when the felt is laying horizontally). Take another flame and do the same thing to the bottom end, so the flame is facing outward.
Roll the white felt over the yellow, adding a line of glue here and there to hold the “roll” in place. Repeat until the candle is your desired thickness. Use scissors to cut the side of the candle, then glue the ends down.
Cut right through the middle of the long candle to make two candles. Repeat until you have 6 candles.
Putting together the St. Lucia crown
Decide which part of the wreath will be the front. Place hot glue onto the bottom of the candle (so the felt seam is facing the back and won’t be seen), then place just inside the front of the crown.
Repeat for the rest of the candles so they are evenly spaced.
Once the candles are all glued and secure, start gluing the green leaves onto the St. Lucia wreath craft. I wanted my wreath to have a little dimension so I only glued one end of the leaves so they would poke up a bit.
Cover all of the foam wreath and the bottom of the candles inside the crown with the green leaves.
Next, add red berries throughout the St. Lucia crown.
Remove any hot glue strings you might see, then your crown is ready for wearing or decorating. I used my TrueControl Knife to cut off any extra hot glue. This knife is so cool because it doesn’t roll when you set it down like other brands do and it works SO well!
This pretty wreath fit my daughter perfectly! If your child is smaller or larger than mine, then you can always use a piece of felt as the base (instead of a foam wreath) and make it the same size as your child’s head.
Now I can start our own tradition of proudly displaying a St. Lucia wreath on the table at Christmas dinner, just like my husband’s grandmother. Hopefully my children will look back with fondness on this cherished tradition just like I do.
What are some of your favorite DIY holiday decorations?
Here’s some more projects you can make with a Cricut Maker-
- How to Make DIY Christmas Cards with Cricut
- Hedwig baby owl costume {No sew!}
- Star Wars Trick or Treat Bag
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.
Leave a Reply