Back to School with the Cricut Maker

This Back to School with the Cricut Maker post is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.

I can’t believe we are to the point of thinking about going back to school already! When do your kids go back? Mine have a few more weeks of summer, but we are down to less than a month before school starts, and I know it will be here before we know it. I know I won’t be ready when it comes (because I never am! Ha!) but I also know that I already have Porter’s things all ready for him when school does start. Pretty sure I’ll be doing these same things for most of my other boys as well. We are getting ready Back to School with the Cricut Maker. These four projects were so quick and easy to put together, I had them all done in less than 30 minutes, and now, my 4th grader will be able to keep better track of his items at school!

This Back to School with the Cricut Maker post is sponsored content written on behalf of Cricut. I received product and compensation in exchange for this post. This 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. All ideas and opinions are my own.

Back to School with the Cricut Maker Supplies:

Cricut Maker with Fine Point Blade
Permanent Premium vinyl in Color of Choice
Cricut Transfer Tape
Everyday Iron-on in Color of Choice
EasyPress 2 (small size)
EasyPress Mat (small size)
Hand Towel
Backpack
Lunch Box
Water Bottle
Pencil Box

When I started this project, I asked my son what kind of design he wanted on his school supplies. He picked a shark. A quick search in Cricut Design Space for a shark turned up the perfect one. If you have Cricut Access, this shark design is included with it. Once the shark is selected, duplicated it, then size the sharks how you need them for whatever you’re putting them on. Select the text tool and type out the name needed for this project. Move the name over the shark to see about how big it needs to be, then select the font to use. Once the font is selected and the sizing correct, select one shark AND the text on top of it then click the “slice” button in the bottom right hand corner. Next, select the text on top of the sliced shark. Delete that layer. Select the next layer of text and delete it as well. Repeat for all of the sharks.

You could make the shark with the name then duplicate it after as well.

Once all the sharks are ready, send them to be cut on the Cricut Maker.

Place your material on the cutting mat and start cutting. I cut two out of premium permanent vinyl and two out of everyday iron-on.

Because I wanted to make sure that the vinyl stays in place well, I used Cricut Premium Permanent Vinyl. It has a little more of a shine to it, and it works great!

When all the designs are cut, weed your designs.

Once they are all weeded, they are ready to be applied to what they are going onto.

Apply transfer paper to the top of the adhesive vinyl designs and smooth it out well.

Peel the transfer paper and design up off of the backing.

Place it onto your water bottle or pencil box or whatever you’re applying it to. Make sure to smooth it out well with your scraper.

Didn’t this water bottle turn out so fun? My son is pretty excited about being able to take this bottle to school + have his name on it.

He is also excited about his pencil box with his name on it.

For the backpack and lunch box, I’m not going to lie, I was a little hesitant to apply heat to them. I was worried that the nylon fabric could possibly melt. But it didn’t! These turned out so well and that got me so excited.

Place the decal onto the backpack where you’d like it. For the backpack that I’m using, I was able to unzip the front pocket right behind the decal location and place to EasyPress Mat into the pocket.

To determine what heat settings to use, use the EasyPress Interactive Heat Guide. It is so easy to use to find what heat setting you need for your materials.

For this project, select Everyday Iron-on for the Heat-Transfer Material and Nylon for the Base Material. I couldn’t find any fabric content tags on the backpack and lunch box, but they felt like nylon so that is what I selected. This is what heat setting it told me to use.

When the EasyPress is preheated, press the design onto your backpack. Did you know that Cricut has a StrongBond guarantee? If the product is used as directed, and you’re not completely satisfied, they will replace it for free. You can learn more here.

Peel the carrier sheet off while still warm.

For the lunch box, the small EasyPress Mat was a little too large, so I used a hand towel that I folded up.

Did it turn out so well?!

When selecting the different items to put the iron-on and vinyl onto, I tried to choose things that matched with each other.

I’ve done quite a few vinyl and iron-on projects and I was so surprised just how quickly I had all four of these projects done.

One of the things I’m most excited about is having a lunch box with the name clearly on it, so someone else doesn’t mistake it for their own.

Not only does the water bottle fit perfectly in the side pocket of the backpack, but it also fits in the lunch box side pocket.

These Back to School with the Cricut Maker supplies have my fourth grader is pretty excited gearing up to go back to school.

The Cricut Maker is such a versatile machine. A couple of weeks ago I was etching on leather and acrylic, and then I was cutting these labels to iron-on and stick on. I love this machine!