Elf Inspired Christmas Hand Towels

This Elf Inspired Christmas Hand Towels post is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.

Do you have a favorite Christmas movie? One that you could watch almost any time of the year? The favorites at our house are Elf and Home Alone. I hear quotes from both of these movies all year long from my family, and I like to quote them too. We love them! Since we love these movies so much, I decided I wanted to create some Elf Inspired Christmas Hand Towels and my Cricut Maker machine. Today I’m sharing them with you, along with the Design Space Cut File so you can create some for your self!

This Elf Inspired Christmas Hand Towels with the Cricut EasyPress 2 post contains affiliate links. If you click on an affiliate link and purchase something, you won’t pay anything extra, but it will help support this blog. I received product in exchange for this post. All ideas and opinions are my own.

Elf Inspired Christmas Hand Towels with the Cricut EasyPress 2 Supplies:

Let’s talk for a minute about the EasyPress machines. Last year I received the original EasyPress to use and I LOVED it! As in, I felt like it was life changing to be able to have a larger surface area for pressing than my iron. I used it for a lot of different things from pillows to shirts and totes as well. When I heard that they were coming out with the EasyPress 2, I’ll be honest, I wondered why? Could they really make it that much better? The answer to that is YES! I really loved my original EasyPress, but I can honestly say that I love my new EasyPress 2 even more. I love that when I turn it on, it remembers the last temp/time that I had used it for. This is especially handy when you’re working on multiple of the same projects, and if it happens to turn off, then you don’t have to try and remember what the settings were. Oh, and when I say that it might happen to turn off, can I just say that I love this feature. Both have this feature, but it’s a great safety feature. I can’t tell you how many times that I wish my glue gun did that. 😉 Not only do I love the new EasyPress, but did you know that there are three different sizes? I love them all! They all work great for different projects. If you’re looking for one and aren’t sure which size to get, I would recommend the 9 x 9 because it is a great in between size. I love the large size (12 x 10) for pillows or sign making, and the mini size (6 x 7) for mini totes and smaller projects, but the mid size 9 x 9 is the perfect in between size that allows you to be able to use it for projects large and small! I love how quickly the new EasyPress 2 heats up and that the heating plate is more even. It also is able to get hotter than the other. I think my very favorite part about the EasyPress is that it is convenient to use. It is easy to pull out and set it up, but I can tuck it away when I am done. I don’t have to have a large place for it to live like I would have to with a heat press. Anyway, if you’re looking for the next tool to add to your Craft Room, this is it!

Cutting Your Iron-on

That was a fun little tangent, but really, I do love the EasyPress! On to the tutorial for these Elf Inspired Christmas Hand Towels. Open up the Cricut Design Space Cut File. Once you have it open, you’ll click “Make It”. You can follow this tutorial for How to Cut Iron-on Vinyl for more tips. Just make sure you mirror your image!

When you send it to cut, it will show on different mat for the different colors. I think mine even showed two mats of each color, but I attached things together so I could save some iron-on material. I was able to cut one of each color. I cut out the gray.

Then I cut the patterned iron-on vinyl. I think these towels would look great with just red and gray too, if you don’t have the red buffalo check on hand.

Once it was cut, I weeded the designs.

Assembling Your Hand Towels

The gray designs were all one piece, but because of the way I put the red words together to be cut, so I could save iron-on material, I needed to cut the words apart. It worked out better this way anyway so I could press them all at the same time.

I trimmed the tops and bottoms of the carrier sheets on the red words, so the carrier sheet wouldn’t cover any of the gray words. (I may or may not have had an amateur moment when I made the other towel, and some of the gray letters may have ended up being pressed to the carrier sheet of the red…I couldn’t believe I did that! However, I was able to save it with some careful handling of it!) While I was lining up the words, I preheated the EasyPress 2. I love the new interactive heat guide. I used the settings for patterned iron-on, on 100% cotton and with the EasyPress Mat. Even though the settings were different for the materials I was using, I went with the patterned settings and it worked great!

Once I had all of the words on the gray carrier sheet, I placed it on the towel where I wanted it.

I grabbed the light weight EasyPress 2 and started pressing my Elf Inspired Christmas Hand Towels. I pressed the front followed by pressing the back.

The gray vinyl recommends warm peel, while the patterned recommends cold peel. Since the carrier sheets for both were on there, I peeled the gray when it was warm.

I waited for the red to cool before I peeled the carrier sheet off of that.

These Elf Inspired Christmas Hand Towels turned out perfectly with the help of the Cricut EasyPress 2!

I can’t wait to put them on my oven for the Christmas season when I get all of my Christmas decor out in a few days!

Have you decorated for Christmas yet, or are you waiting until after the Thanksgiving holiday? I prefer to wait until after + Thanksgiving is early this year, so we get to enjoy the Christmas decor a little longer this year!