New Projects with Cricut!

Earlier this year, my mother gave me a Cricut Maker. Truly, I had no clue what I was going to do with it. Although I knew about this machine and I do enjoy creative projects of diverse kinds, there was nothing that caught my interest about ever owning one of these. I will spend my free time painting, drawing, pretending I have an active blog and who has time to do more than that with two toddlers swinging on your shirt sleeves? Regardless of time, if anyone knows about Cricut, they know cheap is not a synonym for one of these. As I winced while imagining a premium piece of equipment collecting dust right beside my old sewing machine, I began brainstorming projects. Man or woman, I have to tell you that after my first successful experience using this machine I was right on board. Below is a look into my first project, elegant decorative butterflies spread around an open corner of my daughter's bedroom.

I know my mother had faith in me that I would put Cricut Maker to good use. A part of my background is in graphic arts and although I would have rather taken the hours grinding out imagery using my own know-how and dedication, it was just fun for once to use designs freely given to me through the Cricut online gallery.

As though I wasn't enjoying Cricut Maker enough, recently this year on my birth date of September 28, the two wiser women of my life (Mom and Grandma as I lovingly refer to them) gifted me an HTVRont Heat Press for transferring vinyl to fabric. Yet another product I never gave a second look at, but then I am very particular with what my kids and I wear so as you guessed I came to find good use for this also. Now it's time for the fun part where I show you what I ended up putting together!

The shirts shown above feature prints on both the front and back. My choice of imagery for these was almost a subconscious choice as I have a natural adoration for Jesus and heavenly things. They appeared even more beautiful when my daughters wore them.

I failed to mention the process itself is very simple. The Cricut maker cuts the image on the vinyl and the HTV press irons the vinyl onto the fabric. I even had fairly good success when ironing a toon graphic to a quilted material. In this case, hot pads.

Why? This is because I do enjoy a good challenge of course! Thank you for seeing what I got myself into these days. Check out my videos if you want to see more about this process. God bless you and stay tuned for more!

A photo of my first prints using Cricut Maker and HTVRont Heat Press.