Cricut DIY - Disney Themed I Just Came for the Cookies Shirt using HTV/Iron-On

Today I made matching family shirts for our upcoming trip to Epcot and the delicious Cookies Stroll! These are a little more advanced to make so feel free to customize to meet your skills/needs.

Materials:

• Glidan Royal Blue Short-sleeved Shirt
  • Adult Large - Gildan Men's Heavy Cotton T-Shirt, Style G5000, 10-Pack )
  • Child/Youth - X-small 2pk
  • Child/Youth - Small 2pk
  • Child/Youth - Medium 2pk
  • Child/Youth - X-Large 2pk
  • Toddler - 3T (Single shirt)
  • Toddler - 2T 2pk
• Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV) - Black - (I used this one: Black Heat Transfer Vinyl Rolls)
• Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV) - Orange Glitter - (I used this one: Glitter Heat Transfer Vinyl Roll 12x40in )
• Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV) - Red and Green - (I used this one: 42 Pack 12" x 10" Sheets Iron on Vinyl
• Parchment paper to cover design during ironing

Tools:

• Cutting machine or cutting tools
• Heat Press or Iron
• Ironing board/pad or thick towel
- (I used this one: Cricut Easy 12"x12" Protective Resistant Mat)

Images:

Mickey Ornament - SVGart.org

I recommend you convert the png into an svg for better use in the Cricut Design Space. See my post for instructions on how to do that - Cricut - Beginner Tips - How to Convert an Image to use in Cricut Design Space

Steps:

• First, I added the Tshirt template so I can center my project. This is optional. I made an Adult shirt first so the sizes might need to be adjusted to fit your shirt size.
• Next, I created the words. Click the Text button. Select a font you want to use. Type in "I'm just here". Center the text box on the shirt front.
• Click the Text button. Select the same font or a different font. For mine, I selected a different cursive font. Type in "for the". Center the text box under the first one.
• Click the Text button again. Select the same or different font. I chose a big bubbly font so that it would match the ornaments better. Type in "COOKIES". Center the text box under the second one.
• Right-click on the third/last text box and select UnGroup. Now we can remove the two O's. So you will be left with "C KIES" like this:
  
  
• To make it easy to cut and iron-on, I selected all the letters and weld'ed them together by selecting the Weld tool in the lower right hand side of the screen. Now they are one unit. I also adjusted the size of the unit to be 9.032" wide x 4.966" high. You can adjust yours to whatever size you need.
• Now we will add the ornaments which will become the O's in the word "COOKIES". Download the free svg ornaments from the link above. Upload the ornament image onto your canvas (for step-by-step instructions on uploading images, click here: Cricut - Beginner Tips - How to Upload Images into Cricut Design Space).
  
  
• Right-click on the uploaded image and select UnGroup. Delete the other 3 Mickey Mouse images that we're not using.
• Select the ornament and Copy and paste so that you have 2 ornaments.
• I made mine 2 different colors - red and green. You can choose any colors you want. Click the color box in the Operations section at the top of the screen like this:
  
  
• Now we need to shrink the ornaments down to fit inside the word. I made mine 1.581" wide and 1.369" high to match the letters.
• The Gingerbread cookies are a little tricky. Upload the cookie onto your canvas (for step-by-step instructions on uploading images, click here: Cricut - Beginner Tips - How to Upload Images into Cricut Design Space).
• Shrink the gingerbread to 2.153" wide x 3.014" high or to a size you desire. I wanted my cookies to fit very closely to the words.
• Rotate the gingerbread until it fits where you like on the template. It will not cut at an angle (it cuts up and down without any rotation).
• Copy and paste the gingerbread so that you now have 2 images. Click the Flip horizontal button for the new cookies. Place the second cookie into place on the template.
  
  
• So your design should now contain: "I just came for the Cookies" letters that are welded together; 2 ornaments; 2 gingerbread cookies. Click the Make It button to start cutting!
• The layout page will contain several steps/colors. Mine starts with the letters. Click the Mirror to turn it on (very important when ironing-on).
  
  
• For each cut, you will need to change the material (unless you only plan to use one material) and be sure to select Mirror!
• As my items were cutting, I pre-heated my iron/heat press. (For temperatures and times check the official guide - https://cricut.com/en_us/heatguide. Since we'll be pressing several items, I plan to cut the required times in half. For example, Everyday Iron-On requires 30 seconds but I will only press for 15 seconds. Otherwise, your material will start to shrink/stretch.
• Weed all your cut items.
• Press the hot iron over the tshirt area you will be using to create a warm base. Center the letters first. Press the iron. Cool slightly before peeling off the plastic backing.
  
  
• For the ornaments, be sure to cut the backing as close to the ornament as possible. If the backing overlaps your letters it will mess them up. I used a ruler to line the ornaments up with the bottom of the letters. Press those for half the time as well. Cool slightly then peel off backing.
  
  
• Finally, I placed the gingerbread cookies, one on each side of the wording at the desired angle. Cut the backing very close the gingerbread so it doesn't touch the other letters and mess them up. Since these are glitter-based, the temperature and pressing time are higher. I press these for the full time to be sure they adhere well. Cool slightly and remove backing.
  
  
• Now, cover the entire design with parchment paper and iron for full time (probably 30 seconds depending on your materials). Turn the shirt over and press for another 20-30 seconds to ensure the vinyl is set.
  
  
• If you really want to challenge yourself, cut out little squiggles from white vinyl and press into the cuffs of the gingerbread men. It's quite difficult to get the vinyl to stick well as the cutout space is so narrow (I pressed the material before and after removing the backing to get a good grip).
  
  

Disclaimer: - The Mickey Mouse Ornament and Gingerbread are for personal use only and not for commercial/retail/resale use

Cricut - Beginner Tips - How to Convert an Image to use in Cricut Design Space

Howdy! When I am working on a new project, I often download (royalty-free) images off the internet to use. Sometimes these images do not upload well into Cricut Design Space. Or sometimes they are in a format that Cricut does not like. There are a lot of free conversion tools on the internet for us to use to convert. I'll be showing you step-by-step how to do this.

So for this example, I downloaded a gingerbread man off the internet in png format shown here. Feel free to download it for your own personal use. We'll be running this example from a laptop/desktop.

Image:

It looks fine on the internet. But when I go to Cricut Design Space and click upload, it is very ugly and will be difficult to use. This is why we need to convert it to svg through a free online tool.

So I went to https://convertio.co/png-svg/

Click the Choose Files button. Locate your file (here I selected gingerbreadman.png).

Click Convert button.

When it's done processing, a download button will appear. Click that. Save your new svg file.

Now when I go to upload the svg file in Cricut Design Space it looks usable.

Disclaimer: - The Gingerbread Man image is for personal use only and not for commercial/retail/resale use

Cricut - Beginner Tips - How to Upload Images into Cricut Design Space

Howdy! A couple of people reached out to me for step-by-step instructions on uploading images into Cricut Design space, so I hope you find these helpful! We'll be using this Mickey Mouse image as an example but you can use any image. We'll be running this example from a laptop/desktop.

Image:

Saving Image Steps:

• Right-Click on the Mickey Mouse image here.
• Select Save As or Same Image As
• Select a location to save the image.
• Be sure the image is in a format that Cricut can use - png, jpg, gif, svg, dxf, bmp.

Uploading Image Steps:

• Open Cricut Design Space
• Open an existing Project or Create a New Project.
• Click the Upload button in the left menu bar. This will open the Upload Image page.





• Click the Upload Image button. This will take you to a page where you can either drag and drop images into this page (from File Explorer, for example) or you can click the Browse button to search for your saved files.
• Once you place your file here, click the Continue button at the bottom of the page.





• Your image will be displayed on the left side. If you selected the wrong image, just click that "Replace Image" hyperlink underneath it.
• I almost always select "Complex" on the right. Click Continue button at the bottom of the page.
• Now you are on a screen that will help you remove the background. If you plan to cut your image out, you will need to remove the background. Whatever isn't removed will be included in your project. So in this example, I want to remove the white background. So I click on it.





• Continue clicking on all the pieces you do not want included in your project. When you are done, click the "Apply and Continue" button at the bottom of the page.
• Your file should appear at the bottom in the "Recent Uploads" section (these are sorted newest to oldest).
• Click your new image and click the "Add to Canvas" button. Your image should now appear on the project screen.

Disclaimer: - The Mickey Mouse image is for personal use only and not for commercial/retail/resale use