This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.
Showing my kids’ teachers appreciation is something I truly enjoy doing. They do so much and I think often times it goes unnoticed. But let’s face it- THEY ARE TEACHING MY KIDS! I know my kids- there is no way I would be able to handle 25 of them at a time. I wanted to make Lia’s teachers something special and personalized with the help of my Cricut Explore Air 2 & EasyPress 2 !
Now mind you I am new to iron on, infusible ink, and basically anything other than card stock with my Cricut. But once I started creating there was NO STOPPING ME…or stopping my family from asking for a million and one projects! Basically mom can make it all now lol! I will be honest I love it. They get so excited and proud to see final projects. Now let’s get to these totes!
Supplies:
- Cricut Explore Air 2
- Cricut Bag Blank Tote(s)
- Everyday Iron-On In: black, white, and red
- Weeder
- Standard Grip Mat (Green One)
- EasyPress 2
- Design Space
Let’s Create!
I used design space and as the Disney lovers we are I decided to make the totes Disney themed! Luckily on Design Space you can find images and cartridges for purchase with tons of cute Disney characters. In the spirit of Valentine’s Day I went for the Mickey and Friends Love at First Sight cartridge. I picked 3 different Mickey & Minnie images and decided to add their names to the bottom. (You can find my design HERE)
Those personalized touches are my favorite!
If you look closely Minnie’s hat is a different shade of red than her skirt and Mickey’s pants. However, to reduce the number of layers I would be added and cut all the red as one piece I decided to change the color of the hat to just the basic red and weld the red pieces together, giving me that one layer I needed.
(If you are reading this going WHAT? Don’t worry this was all new to me too but thanks to Cricut for making me step outside my comfort zone)
Next I added their names. I ungrouped the letters to put them closer together just out of mere preference. Once the letters were positioned where I wanted I also highlighted and clicked weld to make them one whole piece again.
BOOM! DESIGN IS DONE!
Not let’s cut!
First of all, Design Space does an awesome job of loading the images of similar colors to the same mats to maximize the space on your mats and iron on.
SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT: Make sure to click the MIRROR option so that your images and text become mirrored and when ironed on show up the right side.
After I have loaded the first color on my mat I load the mat to my machine & let it get to work.
Once all my iron in is cut I go ahead and lay it face down and pull the mat away from the iron on, this motion helps prevent any curling. I then cut out the parts of my iron on that were used and move on to weeding.
So strange fact- weeding for some reason relaxes me. I can sit there and be so focused on weeding it is almost meditative to me. I start at the corner and make sure to be around bright light OR if you’d like you can invest in the Cricut BrightPad for some extra light.
While I am finishing up weeding I go ahead and plug in my EasyPress 2 and check the Heat Guidelines on the Cricut website. You can find heat guidelines and some step by step instructions.
Once my iron on is ready to apply I follow the instruction on the Cricut Heat Guide and get to layering. I start with the black outline. Once the time is us I do a warm peel to remove the plastic film. It’s the removal recommended for Iron On. Then let it cool a bit (if I don’t the next layer can start to stick without being positioned properly). After it cools I then position the white layer on top as best as I can and use my EasyPress to iron on. Once the white layer is done I can go ahead and add my third and final layer- the red.
VOILA! WE ARE DONE! So easy, so cute, and personalized (my favorite part of all this).
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