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It’s been a little over a month since Benji came home! The one basket with toys has quickly multiplied and I find myself wondering “HOW DO I KEEP THIS ORGANIZED?”! A DOG ROOM…well more of a dog corner for us but it still serves the same functional purpose. The best part of this dog room, I was able to DIY it all with my new Cricut Maker 3! I am so excited to share the details, tips, my review on the new Maker & everything else with you!
When searching for items for my dog room area I could not find things that I LOVED, which begged the obvious question- can I make them? And as always with the help of my Cricut machines, THE ANSWER IS YES!
The first step is to choose a designated area for your dog room. I recommend an area that is easily accessible. Don’t worry with the super cute personalized items I am about to share your space will look beautiful and decorative.
So what did I make? I have personalized, matching, and air-tight treat containers, a decorative sign, a labeled dog food container, and my favorite piece- the leash hooks!
DIY Dog Room
The most important tool for this project is the Maker 3. Thanks to being able to use new Smart Materials the work time was cut significantly. All of the personalization of this project was done using Smart Permanent Vinyl so the directions will be very similar.
Supplies For Your DIY Dog Room
- Cricut Maker 3 (You can also use any other Cricut Machine)
- Smart Permanent Vinyl in Black
- Smart Permanent Vinyl in White
- Weeder Tool
- Scraper Tool
- Transfer Tape
- Wooden Signs of your choice. I purchased one with hooks for a leash area and a pretty 3 part one for decoration! This is the part you can get to find something that fits YOU
- Air Tight Containers for Treats
- Shelves
- Anything you want to personalize!
Dog Room Decor Design
This dog room design has a few parts. The idea behind it is simple and you can access it HERE. I have all the images and wording ready for you to just make! The first step is to cruise design space and find the images you want to use.
It’s so cool the way Design Space offers you so many options with keywords such as “dog” and “paw print”. You can scroll through until you find the image you want to use in your dog room design. Once you choose your images you can resize them.
The Never Walk Alone sign is a 3 part image design. The first part of the design is the text, the other two-part are the paw prints. Once you size and choose your font and paw prints you can highlight it all and hit the “Attach” button on the bottom right corner to make it one piece. This will make it easier to weed just one image as well as when you apply it to your surface.
The dog treats labels & dog food container labels are designed in a similar way- choose a font and add your paw print. To make the 4 that I needed, I simply hit a copy & paste to make sure they all cut at one time.
The cutest sign has got to be the hanging 3-tier sign. Benji has become a very important part of our family and I wanted this dog room area to have some of that heart and love show through. Design Space had SO many options with cute dog sayings. You can use the ones I provide above or choose some that fit your style more.
These labels are all designed without a dog name to make sure you can easily use my link above as well as the thought of…WHAT IF WE GET MORE DOGS? My husband would think I am crazy thinking that right now, but- I mean it’s a possibility!
Cutting Your Dog Room Designs
Cricut machines do a fantastic job at spacing your work out to save you the most material. One SUPER exciting thing about the new generation of Cricut machines, Cricut Maker 3 & Cricut Explore Air 3 is their compatibility with the new Smart Material line. Smart Materials are a line of materials by Cricut to be used WITHOUT MATS!
The benefits? LESS materials to bring around and fewer steps between project steps. NOW- if you can I also recommend the new roll holder attachment as well. This will keep your roll of Smart Materials from unrolling and keeps everything much neater.
To cut your Smart Materials simply hit the Create button on the bottom right-hand corner and follow the prompts. You will be asked what materials you are using, select without a mat if you are using Smart Materials. The next AND VERY IMPORTANT STEP is to make sure you select Smart Vinyl from the list of supplies. This will ensure the machine uses the correct amount of pressure.
Follow the prompts to load the Smart Vinyl and get to cutting!
Weeding Your Design
After you are done cutting it is time to get to weeding. The weeding process is removing the excess material to reveal only your design. I highly recommend having bright lighting as well as your design in front of you so you remove the correct parts. You have no idea how many times I have pulled the wrong ones haha!
Applying Your Design
After your design is weeded you can make some light marks where you want it positioned. This will help when you are applying it directly.
Now- grab your transfer tape! A quick tip is you can reuse the same piece of transfer tape a few times until it loses its stickiness. I like to measure the transfer tape to my largest design.
You will then remove the backing of your transfer tape and slowly place it over the top of your design. Grab your scraper and go over the front and back a few times. Next, you will flip it over and slowly remove the backing off your vinyl. If you have any parts that are not sticking to the transfer tape just grab your scraper and go over those a few times again.
Now that your design is weeded, it is time to adhere it to your surface. My biggest tip- CLEAN THE SURFACE WELL. Use a lint roller to catch any dust and little particles.
After you clean the surface, position your design on your surface. The back of your vinyl and transfer tape is sticky so do this carefully and slowly to make sure you get your position correct. That’s where the markings come in handy!
After you place it where you need it, grab your scraper and go over the design to help it stick to the surface. To remove the transfer tape grab it from a corner and slowly pull it back in a back and forth motion.
The End Result
The coolest part of this tutorial is that with Smart Vinyl, the directions will be the same for every single project. You can follow this tutorial to create apply vinyl to whatever you want, even if you have your own designs.
After the decorative/functional pieces are done just place everything as you wish and look back and admire what you did! This project definitely added much-needed decor to a lonely corner of our home and gave us whole new storage space for the ever-growing dog stuff in our home!
