Transcription
[Music] hey guys and welcome back to my channel. I am so excited about today's video. Today's video is a collaboration with Cricut. I'm sure majority of you have heard of Cricut before. Basically, they make these amazing cutting machines that can create all different kinds of things. I don't even know where to start. They can do vinyl decals, iron-on transfers for t-shirts, they can do labels, cards, you can cut out banners, you can do so much with these machines. So, I am so excited to be doing this video today.
So, Cricut reached out to me a little while ago and asked if I would be interested in trying out their new Cricut Joy machine, and obviously, I jumped at the opportunity. So, I just want to say guys, I have not used this machine yet. I've literally just taken it out of the box. I wanted to do a very raw and real first impressions, first use, um, video for you guys. But I just want to say, I am very impressed already, and all I've done is take it out of the box because look how small this machine is. Look at it. It is so compact. I took it out of the box and I was like, "That can't be it. Where's the rest of it? It can't be this compact and small."
So, some of you may know that I do actually have the Cricut Maker machine, which is about four times the size of this, I want to say. It's quite a bit larger, extremely larger. So, if this machine does everything it says it does and it's this small and compact, I'm sold. So, today we're going to test it out. We're going to do a little beginner-friendly project and we'll see how it goes. But I'm impressed already.
So, the project I'm going to show you guys today is going to be super beginner friendly, as I said. I haven't used this machine yet, so I wanted to keep it very simple. I've been wanting to try out Cricut's iron-on vinyl for a little while now. So, when they asked me to come up with a project that I could do in my video, I was like, "I know exactly what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna do a t-shirt." So, that's what we're doing today. We are going to be giving this old t-shirt of mine a new life. So, I'm excited for that.
All we're going to be using is everything you see here. So, I am going to zoom in now and I'll show you exactly what we've got here. So, here I have, as I've already mentioned, the Cricut Joy machine. I've then got the Cricut EasyPress Mini, which is a heat transfer tool, so you can basically iron on your heat transfer decals. We've then got the EasyPress Mat, so this is basically just a heat-proof mat that you use when ironing on your iron-on transfers. And then I've got the Cricut Tool Set, which is basically used for weeding out your projects. I'll show you what I mean by that later. And then I've just got some iron-on vinyl here. This is a three-pack, so it comes with the colors red, white, and black. And today, I'm just going to be using the red color.
So, when you take your Cricut out of the box, you will obviously need to set it up. Inside the box, you will find a little package like this, which has everything you need to know about setting up your Cricut inside. It's a very, very easy to follow, um, guide. It literally says "Let's Get Started" on the front. So, all you do is open that up, follow the instructions, very, very easy. Inside the pack, you will also receive a cutting mat, which is basically what you put your cardstock or your vinyl or whatever you are cutting on to, then feed it into the machine. We then have a bit of practice vinyl and practice cardstock, so you can practice with your machine before you actually start using your proper vinyl or your proper cardstock. It gives you a little sample of each, so then you can make a little project before you actually get started.
So, without further ado, I'm going to go and set up my Cricut Joy and I will meet you back here and we will get started on the t-shirt.
So, once you've finished setting up your machine, on the website, it will prompt you to do a test cut. So, I just thought I would show you guys that process really quickly. You just have to make sure your blade is loaded into the machine. The Cricut Joy comes with the blade pre-loaded in the machine, so you don't have to take it out or swap it or anything, which is very handy. And I actually didn't realize this, but with the smart vinyl, you actually don't need to use the cutting mat. So, you can just insert the vinyl by itself into your machine, which is so easy. Like, I can't get over how easy that is. Here you can just see the machine cutting out my practice cut. And another thing I didn't realize is with the Cricut Joy, it actually doesn't have any buttons. So, you have to release your vinyl from your laptop. So, just keep that in mind when you are using this machine. Don't go yanking your vinyl out.
And here is the finished product here. I am just weeding out all the vinyl that I don't want. So, weeding basically means you're just taking out all the vinyl or all the bits that you don't want in your design. So, this sunflower is actually a hollow design, so that's what I'm doing now, just taking out all the bits of the vinyl that aren't supposed to be there. And this is what it looks like. All right.
So, now for the fun part. So, this is Cricut Design Space. This is the program that you can go into and find endless amounts of inspiration and projects to make on your Cricut. If you are new to Cricut and you've never used one before, I definitely recommend going into Design Space and just scrolling through all the projects and making yourself familiar. Um, today we're going to be creating our own design, but still through Design Space. So, you want to go up the top here to "New Project," which will open the canvas. Now, because I'm doing a t-shirt today, I'm going to go into templates here and scroll down until I find the t-shirt template. So, once you've selected the template, this is what you will see. This is not a necessity, but I just do this to help me decide what size I want my decal to be, and it just makes it easier to visualize what your finished product will look like.
Now, I'm just playing around with the text option and going through a few different fonts until I find one that I like. I am going with this "Yarny" design. I don't know why, but I've always had a vision of a t-shirt saying "Yarny" on it, so I thought, "You know what? That's what I'm going to make today." Because I am a yarn lover, and I know many of you are as well. So, hopefully you like this design. As you can see, there are hundreds of different fonts to choose from, so it is really hard to choose just one. But I ended up settling on this font, which is called Liga Standard Regular. I'm not sure if that's how you pronounce it, but that's the font I went with. And then I wasn't happy with how the "y" was sitting so far away from the rest of the word, so I decided to do the "y" separately so I could position it where I liked. And I changed the writing to red purely just so I could see what the finished product was going to look like. But obviously, the color of your decal will depend on the color of your vinyl. So, just because you've changed it to red on Design Space doesn't mean that it's going to print out in red, because the Cricut doesn't print, it just cuts it out. So, whatever color vinyl you put into your machine is what color your decal is going to be. I just wanted to clarify that.
Here I'm just grouping the letter "y" to the rest of the words, so when Cricut cuts it out, it recognizes it as one word and not two separate decals. So, if you are doing what I'm doing and doing separate pieces but still part of the same word, make sure you group it together so Cricut recognizes it as one word. Now, I'm just having a play around with the sizing and the positioning of the word. I wasn't sure if I wanted it to be at the top into one side, or if I wanted it to be quite large and in the middle of the chest. This is what I ended up going with. It's about 16 centimeters wide.
And now we're ready to cut. So, if you just go up to the top right and click "Make It," this is what you'll see. All you need to do is choose your materials. So, we're using the smart vinyl, so we don't have to use the cutting mat, which is great. And then you'll be able to see what your design looks like before you actually cut it. Now, a really important thing to keep in mind when you're making a t-shirt or if you're using iron-on vinyl is you need to mirror your design. So, basically, that means it's going to cut backwards, but you'll see later on that that is what we want it to do because we need to flip it to be able to iron it on. So, with iron-on transfers, you want to mirror your design, so it will cut backwards. Once you've mirrored your design, this is what it should look like. We then want to go to "Continue" down the bottom, and this is what you'll see. You then need to choose the material that you're using. So, we're using smart iron-on, and this is so Cricut knows how much pressure to apply when cutting out your design. So, always make sure you select the correct material.
Now, it's time to feed our vinyl into our machine. You will notice with the iron-on vinyl that it has a shiny side and a matte side. We want the matte side facing up. This is the cutting side. So, make sure the matte side of your vinyl is facing upways. Once the vinyl has been loaded into your machine, you just need to follow the prompts on your computer to get cutting and sit back, relax, and watch the magic happen.
[Music] Once it's finished cutting, it will prompt you on the screen to release your vinyl. So, please make sure you do this correctly and don't just yank your vinyl out of your machine because you will damage it. Once you've released your vinyl from your machine, it is time to start weeding. I'm just going in first with a pair of scissors to cut out my design. This way, you can save the remaining vinyl for a future project. There's no point wasting this entire piece of vinyl, there's still so much left over. So, cut out your design and save the rest for another project. Once you've done that, you want to peel off the main piece of vinyl, leaving just your design behind. And then I'm just going in with my weeding tool and removing all the bits of vinyl that aren't meant to be there. So, this little piece in the "a" and then also the piece inside the "e". And you'll see now that this is why we mirrored our design in Design Space, because now that we've flipped it over, it is actually the right way, which is how it's going to go onto our t-shirt.
Next, you want to go to the Cricut website and look up their heat guide. This will give you the instructions for the vinyl and for the fabric that you're using. You then want to get your EasyPress and turn it on. It will go green once it's at the correct temperature, but you can also use an everyday iron for this. Just try and follow Cricut's instructions as best you can.
So, now I'm just laying out the t-shirt, trying to get it all in place, ready to attach our decal. Now, disclaimer, you are meant to preheat your fabric before you use your iron-on transfer, which I forgot to do. So, please disregard the fact that I didn't heat up my fabric before placing my iron-on vinyl on. You are meant to preheat your fabric. Um, in saying that, this is an old t-shirt, so it has been washed and pre-shrunk before, which is what Cricut recommend, so it didn't make a huge difference that I didn't preheat it. But just keep that in mind if you're using a brand new t-shirt.
To make sure I get my decal in the center of the t-shirt, I'm going to fold it in half and then use my EasyPress to lightly iron a little crease in the center of the t-shirt so I can line up my decal perfectly. Now, I'm just laying my t-shirt back out flat. You can see in the center there, there is a slight crease, so I know that that is the middle of the t-shirt. You don't have to do this step, I just find it easiest to make sure I get my decal directly in the center of the t-shirt. You can eyeball it by all means, you do not have to do this, but this is just what I find easiest when trying to get it in the absolute center of the t-shirt. Now, I'm just inserting my EasyPress Mat to protect the table underneath, and we're almost ready to iron on our transfer. Just make sure your t-shirt is nice and flat, or at least the area that you are applying your decal to. There is obviously still a crease where we've ironed the center of the t-shirt, but just try and flatten it out as much as you can. You'll still be able to see it, it just needs to be as flat as possible. And then you can go ahead and position your decal. You want the shiny side to be facing up, and the underside is slightly sticky, so it will attach nicely and stay in place on your t-shirt. Again, just lining your decal up with that center crease that we made to mark the center of the t-shirt. Once you're happy with the positioning, you can press down and smooth it out, just to allow that sticky side to attach to your t-shirt, and this is going to keep it in place while you iron it.
And now I'm going to go in with my EasyPress Mini and, following Cricut's instructions, I'm going to maintain continuous motion for 25 seconds, applying light pressure.
[Music] Once I've done that, I'm removing my EasyPress Mat and we're now going to flip the t-shirt over and do the back. So, Cricut recommends doing this for 15 seconds on the reverse side, so I'm going to go ahead and do that now.
[Music] Now, I'm just going to flip it back over. Hopefully, all has gone well. Cricut recommends not peeling this off until it has cooled down. So, for this vinyl and for this EasyPress machine, they recommend a cool peel, which means obviously you have to wait until it cools down until you start peeling it off. So, I'm going to go ahead and wait for that to cool down and then I will peel it off. I recommend just feeling it with the back of your hand just to test the temperature. Be really careful because you could burn yourself. It can get really hot, so just be careful, but just continue feeling with the back of your hand until you believe it is cool. Once it's cooled down, you can go ahead and peel it off, which is what I'm doing now. Just take it really slowly because if for any reason your decal hasn't stuck properly, you're going to have to go back in and apply more heat. So, just do it really slowly to make sure that everything is staying where it's meant to stay and it's not coming off of your t-shirt.
And there we have it. All has gone well. It looks absolutely amazing. I'm so happy with how it's turned out. I'm gonna go ahead now and pop it on for you guys so you can see what it actually looks like and I'll give you a little model, I suppose. Well, here she is, the finished product. I'm so happy with how it's turned out. For my first t-shirt, I think I did okay. Um, the design seems pretty straight, it seems pretty centered, which I'm happy about. This is just a little close-up for you so you can see what it looks like close-up. Um, honestly, this is like the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Cricut. There are so many different things you can make, like I mentioned earlier in the video. This is literally just the tip of the iceberg, so I can't wait to see what other things I can come up with for you guys.
If you would like to make a "Yarny" t-shirt of your own, I will link the link to this design in Design Space down below. So, if you do have a Cricut and you want to try out this design, please feel free. If you do make this t-shirt or if you use this decal for something else, I would love to see your makes, so make sure you tag me on Instagram.
But that wraps up today's video, guys. Thank you so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed it. If you would like to see more Cricut tutorials, please leave me a comment down below. I would love to do more of these videos. And as always, if you did enjoy this video, please don't forget to give it a thumbs up and make sure you subscribe to my channel and turn on your notifications so you will be notified of all my future videos. Until next time, guys, thank you so much for watching once again, and I will see you next time. Bye.