I'm Betsy from Happily Ever After, Etc. and I am so excited to be here on Craftey.com today! I have been using their vinyl for months now and I absolutely love how easy it is to work with... and all of the unique options. Over at Happily Ever After, Etc you can find fun home decor projects and cute craftey ideas. Everything you need to make your house a home. Today I have a fun (and easy!) project for you. If you're looking for the perfect teacher gift this one is quick, simple and sure to be a crowd pleaser. Let's get started.
Supplies:
- Oven Mitt
- Brownie Mix
- Spatula
- Measuring Cups
- Color Chimp Glitter Heat Transfer Vinyl
- Cricut Explore Air 2
- Cricut Cut Files (Grab these for FREE at the bottom of the post)
- Iron
- Small Board or Book Kitchen Towel
- Ribbon
Step 1: Cut Your Vinyl
As with any good vinyl project the very first step is to cut out your design. Cutting HTV is super simple... but if you haven't done it before here are a few tips. Heat Transfer Vinyl is held together by a clear plastic sheet... think of this as a built-in transfer tape. You'll place this clear plastic sheet down facing your cutting mat. Since the clear plastic sheet is touching the front glittery side of our HTV, we're cutting into the back of our sheet... so we'll need to cut our design out backward. You can do this one of two ways: flip the design so that it reads backward in your designing software or turn the mirror option on when you get to the "make" screen in Cricut Design Space. Just make sure your words are reading backward when you go to cut them out... then hit cut! Once the cut has been made, go ahead and weed all the designs and cut them apart. (Weeding means to pull all the little tiny pieces out of the design (like the middle of the o or the top of the e) in case you were wondering!).
Step 2: Prep Your Oven Mitts
Now it's time to prep our oven mitts! Heat transfer vinyl applies to most surfaces without a problem but oven mitts are coated with a thin layer of something (perhaps sizing?) to help keep them clean in the kitchen. That's great for your oven mitt but it will definitely keep your HTV from bonding to the surface. Trust me. I tried. Luckily it's an easy fix. Take a bit of rubbing alcohol on a washcloth and rub the surface of your oven mitt. You don't need to saturate the material, just lightly rub the area where you'll be placing your design. It's definitely easier to place the rubbing alcohol on a washcloth then directly on the oven mitt since you don't want to completely break the sizing seal over the entire mitt... plus it would take forever to dry if the entire mitt were drenched in rubbing alcohol. Once you've rubbed a bit of alcohol over the surface set your oven mitt aside to dry for a couple minutes. Mine took about 15 minutes to dry completely before I felt comfortable moving on to the next step.
Step 3: Apply Your Heat Transfer Vinyl
Now's the fun part! Adding your design! Since we're working with an oven mitt and not a normal piece of fabric I decided to add a small piece of wood to the inside of the oven mitt... it acts as a mini ironing board and helps the iron hit all of the design since the seams on the oven mitt are pretty bulky. If you don't have a small piece of wood something like a small paperback (or hardback!) book would probably do the trick. Then add your design to the oven mitt... you should be able to read your words at this point with the clear plastic layer being on top. Double check that you got allllll the little pieces when weeding... I missed a few o's the first time around since the design is so little. Then add a kitchen towel over top and press your iron evenly over the entire design. I typically don't use a towel but the quilted parts of the oven mitts made it tricky. Without the towel the clear plastic layer started to shrink (which is normal) but made the design want to shift a little bit... the towel prevents the plastic from shrinking and therefore holds everything steady. It took about 10 seconds of solid pressure with the towel in place for the design to bond to the oven mitt. I went ahead and gave each design a solid 20 seconds to make sure alllllll the little odds and ends were secure before peeling the clear plastic layer off and enjoying my designs! Peeling that plastic off is always the best part... it's like magic!
Step 4: Add Your Supplies
Now it's time to stuff your oven mitt with goodies! I went with a small bag of brownie mix, a spatula and a set of measuring scoops. I wanted them to stay put in the oven mitt (so that they looked pretty!) so I fanned out the scoops and taped them to the bag. Then I slid the spatula through the little ring and volia! Ready for action. Go ahead and slide the entire little package of goodies into your oven mitt... we're so close I can taste it!
Step 5: Add a Bow!
Technically you could skip this step if you wanted too but let's face it... everything's better with a big bow on top! This little project is so cute you could completely forgo wrapping and just add a gift tag to the bow on top of the little oven mitt... instant gift wrap. Now all that's left is to decide who to give each little oven mitt too! I think they make the perfect teacher gifts!
I hope you enjoyed this fun little tutorial! Feel free to grab the cricut cut files for all three oven mitts... they're way too cute not to share! Of course, if you're looking for more projects with my favorite glitter heat transfer vinyl I've got you covered. You can check out this fun DIY Large Door Gift Tag project or whip up a couple quick and easy DIY Pillows.
Don't forget to pin this little project for later... you know you'll want to whip up at least 3 of these bad boys! Thank you to Craftey.com for letting me spend a little time with y'all. If you're looking for more fun Cricut projects I'll be back at Happily Ever After, Etc working on fun projects and cute home decor. Until next time!
