DIY Shirts + Coasters with Cricut’s New Infusible Ink!

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This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.

DIY Iron On Shirts and Coasters with Infusible Ink

DIY Iron On Shirts and Coasters with Infusible Ink

DIY Iron On Shirts and Coasters with Infusible Ink
Remember a few weeks back, when I was traveling on Instagram stories and had literally signed an agreement that I wouldn’t say where I was going? Well, the day has come when I can tell you! That super secret trip was actually to the Cricut headquarters, where they welcomed a handful of makers to show us the newest addition to the Cricut family: Infusible Ink. I’m sure you’re like… what’s that? Well, just follow along here, because this stuff truly, honestly blew my mind. I feel like it’s a craft supply that’s about to change the way we make things. So I wanted to share a project here today to give you the scoop on how it works!

Just like it sounds, Infusible Ink is ink that actually gets infused into the structure of the material that you apply it to. So unlike iron-on vinyl, which rests on the top of a t-shirt, Infusible Ink becomes part of the fabric. It’s hard to describe unless you have it in your hands, but it’s incredible. The result is smooth, seamless, totally vibrant in color, and it stretches with the fabric. It’s insane. I seriously have no idea how they made this happen — it’s like science and sorcery combined. 😉 And the rad thing is that you can make things that legitimately look like you can’t have possibly made them by hand. The finish is so professional and super cool.

Cricut created a whole line of blank items that you can apply Infusible Ink to — shirts, onesies, totes, and coasters. And the Infusible Ink is optimized to work with the Cricut tools that you already love — the Maker, EasyPress, and all of your tools. So we tried out the shirts and coasters to make a fun summery combo!

Materials

  • Cricut Maker (Explores will also work!)
  • Cricut EasyPress 2
  • Cricut EasyPress mat
  • Cricut standard cutting mat
  • Infusible Ink sheets
  • Infusible Ink pens
  • Cricut Infusible Ink compatible t-shirts and coasters
  • Cardstock
  • Butcher paper (it actually comes in the roll of Infusible Ink sheets!)
  • Heat resistant tape
  • Ink jet printer paper
  • Scissors
  • Lint roller

Let’s start with the shirt! One of my favorite things about Infusible Ink is that it comes in two forms: colorful sheets of paper with all kinds of patterns that are ready to be cut into your own Cricut designs, and pens that you can use to draw whatever you like. So I used both here in a layered technique.

Step 1: Place your Infusible Ink sheet onto a standard grip cutting mat, color side up. Cut a 6″ circle using the Cricut machine. Once cut, trim around the circle leaving some excess, and weed away the negative area. You’ll find that the excess pops off more like cardstock than peels off, like vinyl would.

DIY Iron On Shirts and Coasters with Infusible Ink

Step 2: Heat up your EasyPress to 385 and set it for 40 seconds (these are the t-shirt Infusible Ink settings). Place down your EasyPress mat, then your shirt on top of that. Place a piece of cardstock inside your shirt. Lint roll your shirt to make sure there is no fuzz or debris.

Step 3: Use the EasyPress to heat up the surface of your shirt and remove any wrinkles. Allow to cool slightly. Then, carefully place your circle of Infusible Ink color-side-down on your shirt, where you would like it. Smooth it down and place a piece of butcher paper over the top. Apply the EasyPress for 40 seconds.

DIY Iron On Shirts and Coasters with Infusible Ink

DIY Iron On Shirts and Coasters with Infusible Ink

Step 4: Remove the EasyPress, and pull away the Infusible Ink sheet. Eeeeek so exciting!

Step 5: Now let’s get fancy with the pens. In Design Space, create some wording with the text tool. Size it to about 7″ wide, to complement your circle, and set it to Draw rather than Cut. Insert an Infusible Ink pen into your Maker.

Step 6: Mount a piece of printer paper to your cutting mat, and insert into your Cricut. Make sure you mirror the design, and draw your design.

DIY Iron On Shirts and Coasters with Infusible Ink

Step 7: Remove the printer paper. Place it face down over the circle already on your shirt. Cover with butcher paper, and apply the EasyPress again. Gently pull away and BOOM! You did it!

Is that just gorgeous?! I love the layered look that using both techniques creates — it seriously looks like you couldn’t have made it yourself. So let’s try some coasters!

DIY Iron On Shirts and Coasters with Infusible Ink

Step 1: Cut smaller circles from the Infusible Ink sheets (ours are 2″ across), and create smaller words in Cricut Design Space. Use the Maker to cut and draw both items.

Step 2: Wipe your coaster blanks with a cloth to remove any debris. Set your EasyPress to 400 degrees and 60 seconds.

Step 3: Place your Infusible Ink circles ink-side-down where you would like them on your coasters (we aligned ours so that they were hanging off the edge to make a full bleed look). Use a bit of heat resistant tape to tape your papers around the back of the coaster so they don’t slide. Apply the EasyPress for 240 seconds. Once you remove the EasyPress, these coasters will be HOT! Let them cool a bit before touching.

DIY Iron On Shirts and Coasters with Infusible Ink

Step 4: Remove the paper and repeat the process with the drawn words that you created. Overlap them on the Infusible Ink if you like. Tape them around the back and apply the EasyPress again. Once finished, let them cool and remove the paper.

DIY Iron On Shirts and Coasters with Infusible Ink

I gotta say, this stuff is truly bonkers. You can check out our Instagram stories for some video of how the Infusible Ink moves once it’s on a shirt — it stretches and slinks and it’s just so lovely. It’s peel-proof and crack-proof, and so far the color lasts through lots of washing. I feel like the possibilities of what you can do with it are kind of endless.

DIY Iron On Shirts and Coasters with Infusible Ink

So whaddaya think? Have you ever seen anything like this? Are you dying to get your hands on it? Stay tuned for lots more projects with Infusible Ink. Hooray! xoxo

DIY Iron On Shirts and Coasters with Infusible Ink

DIY Iron On Shirts and Coasters with Infusible Ink

DIY Iron On Shirts and Coasters with Infusible Ink

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