One of our favorite things about the Cricut Maker how easy it is to personalize almost anything with a professional polished look. We’ve been anxiously waiting for the holidays to roll around so we can start using our Cricut Maker for all things Christmas!
There’s no season better to add those personal touches on gifts and decorations than the holiday season!
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.
We have a list of gifts we want to make this year, but we decided to make our first gifts for…ourselves! Treat your self! We really wanted something personalized with where we live, our beloved Astoria Queens.
Anyone who lives in Queens knows that Brooklyn is personalized on everything – mugs, posters, shirts, cards, keychains…Queens not so much. We have some incredible local makers that represent our burrow, but it can be tricky to find Astoria representation!
Also, we’ve been talking about moving out of our Astoria apartment for a while now and think this might be the last Christmas we spend here. We don’t know where we’re going or if we’ll actually leave but we’re ready for a change! We’d love to stay in the area, but Astoria’s prices have skyrocketed since we moved here eight years ago.
This is the first apartment we’ve shared together; we started our business here and this past year we grew our family here (meow). Although we’ve outgrown our apartment and are ready to move on, this location will always hold a huge spot in our hearts and now we’ll have something to always remember it by.
INFUSIBLE INK COASTERS
We knew we wanted to try Cricut Infusible Ink because we’ve never worked with it before and HELLO, did you see that buffalo plaid transfer sheet?! All our Christmas fantasies coming true!
Cricut Infusible Ink is a new line of DIY products that allow you to create professional personalized heat transfers that become one with your material. These came out so vibrant we’re going to make a few extra sets for some local friends and family.
Materials:
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White Cardstock
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Butcher Paper (comes with your transfer sheet)
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Lint Free Cloth (to wipe coasters)
How to:
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Edit pre-made project in Cricut Design Space by adding a name and size to your liking. (Click here for our coaster design.)
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Select the “cut” option from the Linetype dropdown menu.
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Cut a piece of the Infusible Ink sheet to size.
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Lay the Infusible Ink sheet onto a standard grip mat, color side up. (The machine will check if you’ve to done this.)
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Click the mirroring button before loading. (The machine will also check if you’ve done this!)
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Load the machine and watch the Cricut do it’s magic. (The machine will guide you through the process – even making sure the right tool is loaded.)
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Unload, peel and weed away any negative area. (Pro-tip: Wiggle and bend the paper and the negative space comes up easily off the backing plastic.)
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Use Cricut’s recommended settings chart and set time and temperature on the EasyPress. (Round Coasters – 400 degrees/240 seconds.)
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Place a piece of cardstock on top of the EasyPress Mat to protect your surface.
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Use a lint free cloth and wipe the coaster.
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Position design on the center of the coaster – shiny side clear liner facing up.
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Place the coaster, face down on top of the cardstock. (The EasyPress 2 will heat your image THROUGH the coaster.)
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Lay the butcher paper over the coaster.
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Place the EasyPress carefully on top, start the timer. (Don’t move the EasyPress or your image might shift.)
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Once it beeps, carefully lift the EasyPress off the coaster and WAIT! The coaster will be extremely hot. (Waiting is the hardest part of this project but the reveal is worth the wait!)
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Once cool, remove liner and check out your new infused vibrant coasters.
The coolest thing about the Cricut Maker is that it works on a variety of different materials and has the widest range of tools for cutting, scoring, writing, and adding decorative effects – so you can take on virtually any project you can imagine.
TREE LOT VINYL
We know the season is going to start to fill up with a lot of holiday parties. We decided to prep a handful of host gifts early this year – so we don’t have to scramble last minute and settle on a bottle of wine!
We saw this blank buffalo plaid tin and knew we could add a personal touch to make it really special, but also keep it general enough for us to make multiples.
We didn’t stop there – we added a bit of vintage whimsy with the boarder using the Wavy Blade. The Wavy Blade is a part of the Maker’s QuickSwap suite! That means you can quickly and easily move between tools as you complete projects. Not only does this make it easier to create multi-dimensional projects, but it’s way more affordable.
Materials:
How to:
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Edit pre-made project in Cricut Design Space by adding a location and size to your liking. (Click here for our vinyl design.)
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Highlight the boarder and select the “wave” option from the Linetype dropdown menu.
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Highlight the rest of the image and select the “cut” option form the Linetype dropdown menu.
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Cut a piece of vinyl to size.
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Lay the vinyl facing up on a standard grip mat.
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Load the machine with the Wavy Blade and the mat – watch the Cricut do it’s magic. (The machine will guide you through the process – even making sure the right tool is loaded.)
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Swap out the Wavy Blade and load the Fine-Point Blade.
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Peel off the vinyl (with backing) from the mat and carefully remove and weed the surrounding vinyl, leaving only the boarder and lettering.
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Cut transfer tape to size, peel, lay on top of the vinyl and press down firmly.
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Gently peel up transfer tape with vinyl.
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Lightly position onto the tin, once positioned, smooth and rub firmly.
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Peel off transfer tape leaving vinyl lettering and wavy boarder.
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Give as a gift or keep it for yourself!
Getting a head start on Christmas gifts has gotten us fully in the mood for all things holiday cheer!! Some may say it’s too early, we say “humbug” to that!
Happy making!