My husband asked me the other day what I wanted for Mother’s Day. I told him to just get the kids to make me something. It’s those special DIY Mother’s Day gifts that mean so much to me.
I was recently sent a Cricut Maker from the team at Cricut to share some fabulous DIY projects with you all. My heart belongs to crafting so I jumped at the chance! Our first project using the Cricut Maker was mugs for Mother’s Day for Grandma (my mum), Nonna (my mother-in-law) and GG (my grandma).
DIY Mother’s Day gift
I love a good personalised Mother’s Day gift because they have so much sentimental value. While it’s easy to find gifts that say “Grandma”, “Nonna” and “GG” are virtually impossible.
I had heard about the Cricut Premium Permanent Vinyl so decided to put it to the test with these Mother’s Day mugs.
Materials
- mugs – I shopped around to find a simple design that I liked. The ones we chose are from Myer. I like drinking tea from a quality mug hence why I didn’t just buy a cheap mug. I wanted something that looked nice and was nice to drink from!
- Cricut Maker – that’s how you cut the vinyl. The Cricut Maker is actually super versatile and can cut hundreds of materials. It’s awesome for when you want to knock together a craft or sewing project with the kids because you have access to hundreds of patterns and projects. It’s kind of addictive! You will use Cricut Design Space to create your project so you will also need a laptop/computer to connect to Design Space
- Cricut Premium Permanent Vinyl – this is a superior quality vinyl and it lasts for up to three years, even in outdoor use. It’s also water resistant so perfect for the mugs (note the vinyl is handwash only…)
- Cricut Vinyl Transfer Tape – to get the vinyl from the paper backing on to your mug
Instructions
Step 1. You can design your labels for the mugs directly in Design Space or you can do what I did… I asked Olivia to write out “Grandma”, “Nonna” and “GG” with a black texta on sheets of white paper. I then took a photo of these and uploaded to Design Space.
I was quite surprised at how simple it was to remove the background – I was sure I was going to have to do this in PhotoShop. The process was quite intuitive.
Step 2. Once you have the words with the images removed, measure the space you have on the mug and then resize the word to fit the space. Again, this is a really simple process – you just drag the corners to resize or you can input a specific height or width into the dimensions.
Step 3. When you are happy with the size of the words, hit “Make It” and away you go. Design Space will tell you which blade you need to pop in your Cricut Maker – you just select the paper you are using and away you go.
Step 4. I leave my vinyl at the full width and just cut the length to longer than I need before sticking it on the cutting mat and loading it into the machine – whatever works for you!
Step 5. Then let the Cricut Maker do it’s thang… It’s amazing to watch. I was sceptical about how well it would cut but it really does an amazing job. All the cuts were clean and it can handle any level of detail.
Step 6. When the machine has finished cutting, remove the mat and roughly cut around the shape of the word. You will need to weed (i.e. remove) the negative (i.e. the bits around the word). This is simplest with a Cricut weeding tool.
Step 7. Now cut a piece of Transfer Tape to match the side of the word and stick it over the top. Apply pressure to ensure the letters stick to the tape. Then start peeling the backing off the vinyl. In my experience this is the trickiest part of the process… just take your time and go slowly.
Step 8. Now the fun part – placing the name on the mug. The Permanent Vinyl is quite difficult to reposition so once again, take your time and get it right. Once it is in place, press it down firmly and then remove the transfer tape – simple!
My girls are so excited to give the mugs to their grandparents for Mother’s Day. Olivia did point out that I didn’t make one for myself so I will have to do that next time! Although it’s much nicer to have a DIY Mother’s Day gift that you don’t actually have to DIY yourself. That’s mum life I guess…
If you want to make your own mugs and cheat by using our handwriting, go ahead! You can find the project here in Design Space.
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