Weekend Crafting Adventures – Details, episodes & analysis

After 46 weeks of sharing my crafting projects on Weekend Crafting Adventures with you, I am stepping back and taking a break from this weekly podcast. In this episode, I wrap up my experience learning to use my Cricut machine one crafting project at a time and I share what is next for me.

Did you know that there is sublimation heat transfer vinyl? You can use sublimation vinyl to add beautiful vibrant sublimation ink designs onto cotton and dark colors. In this crafting project, I use HTVRONT Sublimation HTV for Dark Fabric to put infusible ink tie dye designs on black cotton t-shirts. The HTVRONT sublimation heat transfer vinyl I used is matt white so adding colorful sublimation designs to any color fabric is now an option! 

Inspiration:

Quick project, new kind of vinyl, sublimation on dark color fabrics!

Crafting Keepers:

1. Cooling down my heat press fast by simply changing how I place it in the heat stand

2. Always read the specific instructions for the specific materials and brands. I use a lot of different materials, so taking the time to read the specifics is so important! - For example the heat temp and peel temp for the vinyl versus the infusible ink… added a few extra minutes but is very important to the outcome of the design and project

Satiscraftion: 3

Infusible ink can be tricky - the heat and pressure are very important in bringing out the best of the ink sheets… Using vinyl is not a new skill or project

I will use the sublimation vinyl again

Cricut Design Space Link:

Cricut Design Space Designs:

Materials:

Sublimation Heat Transfer Vinyl

T-Shirt or base material

Infusible ink sheets

Standard grip mat

Fine point blade

Brayer

Cricut Easy Heat Press

Cricut EasyPress® 3 - 9 in x 9 in

Teflon sheets

Lint Roller (to clean off shirt surface)

T-shirt guide

I had my Cricut Maker cut 10 different kinds of fabric! In this crafting adventure, I am putting my rotary blade to work cutting everything from sequin fabric to waxed canvas to create custom tassel keychain bracelet gifts for friends and family. The fabric cutting results vary from amazing to total failure!! Find out which fabric tassel was my favorite Cricut cut and what fabric cut made my Cricut Maker power button blink red!

Do you want to add more personality and fun to your usual smart watch bands and bracelets? In this weekend crafting adventure, Kim Wojtalewicz gets crafty with a sublimation smart watch band to create a simple but fun spring and summer design with infusible ink transfer sheets. Kim loves the look of a simple crisp design on a watch band, so she decided to do a black and white daisy design with a little pop of color in the center of the daisies. The sublimation watch band blank was the perfect background for black and teal infusible ink. This project is definitely easy to complete in a couple of hours. Kim even had time to make some colorful bead bracelets to wear with her new smart watch band!

The custom clear acrylic bags are trending right now. And with spring sports here and summer travel around the corner, what better project to have than a Clear Acrylic Bag Project? Kim Wojtalewicz decided to customize a few clear zipper pouch bags with her Cricut. For her bag, she used Teckwrap UV color-changing vinyl for the first time. For her teenage boys, she used Oracal 651 permanent vinyl. The UV color-changing vinyl easily becomes one of Kim’s new favorite materials to work with! These little pouches are perfect for storing snacks, electronic accessories, sun protection, makeup, reusable grocery bags, toiletries, and all the little stuff that might get lost in a backpack or tote bag. Kim’s 16-year-old is using his to store all the candy he got for Easter (which she’s pretty sure will not be full for long). In this crafting adventure, Kim also tries out the one side shadow style for all the lettering on the bags to give it a fun little pop of color and 3D effect! These little bags would make great personalized gifts for teachers, friends, or coworkers!

Want to make your project shimmer and shine? Foil iron on vinyl does just that in my latest crafting adventure. It is baseball season in our house, so I am spending a lot of time outside in the Colorado sunshine watching my son play baseball. In this project, I am using foil iron on vinyl for the first time to add a shiny blue personalized baseball design with my son’s jersey number to a visor. This is a very quick and easy project that I completed in under one hour! The foil material was easy to work with, and my heat press worked great with the visor.

SatisCRAFTion: 5

Crafting Keepers:

Foil iron on vinyl

Cricut Heat App

Materials:

Blank Visor

Outdoor Cap PCTV-100 | Outdoor Cap Premium Cotton Twill Visor | ShirtSpace

Foil Iron On Vinyl (I used Royal Blue)

Foil Iron-On | Cricut Shop

Hat Press

Hat Form (comes with Cricut Hat heat press)

Cricut Heat App: Apple Store | Google Playstore

Teflon Sheet

Heat Transfer Tape

Lint roller (to clean visor)

Tooling and cutting leather with my Cricut Maker is something that I have wanted to do for a while. I found the perfect project for my first try! I am a Colorado hat girl and I love making my own hats with the Cricut. I found an amazing YouTube tutorial by CleverSomeday’s Kay Hall and knew that I had to try her leather tooling “Shine” hat patch project. This was a fun and exciting crafting adventure from start to finish! The detailed instructions, material list and Cricut Design Space link make this project one of the most enjoyable Cricut Projects I have done and I am loving my new trucker hat! To hear more about my experience doing this project check out my latest podcast episode and blog.

I decided to try the Cricut watercolor markers by making two personalized birthday cards for my son. Wow, do I love the Cricut card mat!! The card mat is one of my Crafting Keepers for this project. Watercolor is such an incredibly cool art. This is my tiny little start into the watercolor world and I will say the process was extremely enjoyable!!

As a preschool special education teacher I am always carrying around a variety of fidget toys and reinforcers to use with my students. Earlier in the school year I packed up my Cricut Maker and my mini heat press and brought it to work to create some custom aprons as a team building activity. Our team created some very cute aprons to wear at work that hold everything we need for our students. Due to our ongoing staff shortages my amazing early childhood office coworkers happily volunteer each week in my Friday preschool classroom. My goal is to give each of these amazing women a custom teacher apron as a token of my appreciation for their support and help. I just finished Kate’s apron and I love how it turned out! Using heat transfer vinyl, puff vinyl and some fun SVG files I purchased from ETSY I am crafting some fun and functional teacher aprons in this weekend crafting adventure.

In this crafting adventure I am tackling decoupage with tissue paper, Mod Podge, and glass canisters. I use my Cricut Maker and rotary blade to cut the tissue paper on my fabric cutting mat. I am dressing up a few glass canisters to hold infused vodka for my husband's birthday. Infusing the vodka was just as much fun as this crafting project. Even though this was a really fun crafting project I did not give it a 5 for satisCRAFTion... to find out more about my experience with this crafting project check out this weekend crafting adventure.