Nowadays, personalized coffee mugs are trending a lot for good reasons, but they can be expensive. However, those days are past when you need a lot of time and cash to get your customized mugs. You can create your customized coffee mugs and tumblers from the comfort of your home, and it won't put too much burden on your pocket. This blog will help you make your own using your Cricut machine.
Things You Will Need to Make Personalized Mugs
For any project, you need some essential tools. This particular project only requires a handful of items and supplies, but these supplies are essential for this project. These items include:
Cricut Machine
You can use Cricut Maker 3, Cricut's newest and most powerful model, to create personalized mugs. But you can also use older Cricut cutting machines such as Explore or Maker.
Cricut Mug Press
Cricut Mug Press is a heat press and the newest addition to the Cricut family, designed for mug making. It's perfect for creating personalized mugs with Cricut's unique mugs, infusible ink sheets, and pens. It boasts a one-touch setting, temperature control, and an auto-off feature.
Cricut Mug
You can use Cricut mugs or sublimation mugs with Cricut Mug Press, but it should fit the following criteria:
- The mug should have polyester or sublimation coating
- For a more vibrant transfer, the mug should be white or light-colored.
- 12-15 oz in size
- It should be straight-walled drinkware only and should not have uneven textures
- The outer diameter should be between 3.2-3.4 inches
- Maximum height should be 4.72 inch
For the Cricut mugs, the dimension of a small mug should be 8.75 x 3.79 inches, and for a big mug, the measurement should be 8.75 x 4.25 inches. The Mug Press won't work with any white mug, so use a Cricut or Sublimation mug. You can easily find the Cricut mugs in stores like Target, Hobby Lobby, Joann, Michael's, and Walmart. In contrast, sublimation mugs are generally available online.
Infusible Ink transfer sheets, markers, and pens
Infusible Ink comes in transfer sheets, pens, and markers. Mug Press is compatible with the Cricut Infusible Ink line of products, such as Infusible Ink transfer sheets, markers, and pens. Cricut infusible Ink comes in small sizes specially designed for the mug press. You can use other sublimation inks, but the Mug Press is not optimized. Infusible Ink Transfers come in various colors and patterns.
Making Infusible Ink Mugs Using the Cricut Mug Press
The first thing you need to do is list out all the essential supplies for the projects, such as a Cricut machine( namely Cricut Explore or Cricut Maker series), a Mug Press, Mugs, Infusible ink sheets, pens or markers, a lint roller, heat-resistant tape, butcher tape, copy paper, and EasyPress mat.
Design the mug in the Design Space app.
When you are done setting up your Cricut machine and Mug Press, you need to download the Design Space app onto your smart devices. On the app, you will find various ready-to-use images and template sizes that you can use for the project. These templates have a variety of edges ( straight, ripped, wavy, scalloped, etc.) and size for both small and large mugs.
Find an image or text you want to add and measure it to fit on the provided template. Don't alter the size of the ready-to-make mug template; it is already the perfect size. An appropriate length of images should be about 3 inches. Avoid using images with intricate or complicated designs for this project, as they don't weed quickly. All the mug templates have a top layer where you will put your design on. The bottom layer looks like an outline with two "tabs" on the ends.
You can use the little red "mug guides" to help you set up your designs on the template. Once you have centered the image below the lines, click on the layer and then on the eye to hide the guide layer. You can also align the selected images and the long templates vertically. Then click on Attach, located in the screen's lower right-hand corner.
Cutting and applying the design
You can cut the design using Cricut Explore Air 2, Maker, or Joy, as Mug Press is compatible with these models. Before cutting your design, make sure to mirror it. Roll the cut design to "crack" and break away the cut designs. Also, remove the negative space from the design and transfer sheets from the "tabs.”
For this kind of project, we recommend you use heat-resistant tape. To clean off the mug, use a lint roller, then position the transfer sheet on the mug appropriately; it might take some time to get it right.
Transferring the design using Mug Press
Once the mug is all taped up, turn on the Mug Press. When thoroughly heated, place the mug and push down on the big right-hand lever. The transfer process will take about six minutes; the time may vary depending on the temperature of the mug and room. The Mug Press will beep when the process is done. Take the mug out and let it rest for 15 minutes on a heat-resistant surface. Lastly, remove the tape and infusible ink transfer sheet; you have a new personalized mug.
FAQs
Can you use Heat Transfer Vinyl or vinyl to make personalized mugs?
Unfortunately, these materials are incompatible with Mug Press as they can melt inside due to heat and pressure. HTVs are not meant for customized mugs, but they can be used for creating Customized T-shirts. Using them on mugs will only last for a while, or the results will be less than desirable.
Can regular white mugs be used for such projects?
The answer is no; the regular white mugs are no good. You either have to use a Cricut or a sublimation mug. You'll need a mug that fits specific criteria, like it should be white and have a smooth texture. And should be a capacity of 12 to 15 oz.
Do the Cricut infusible ink sheets come with butcher paper?
No, the infusible ink sheets do not come with butcher paper; you must purchase butcher paper separately when working with infusible ink pens. When you use butcher paper with infusible Ink, you will have to cut the butcher paper according to a particular size. With the infusible ink sheets, you do not need butcher paper; you will only need pens.
