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DIY Scarf Tees with the Cricut EasyPress 2

March 6, 2019 By Taylor 1 Comment

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.

I have been wanting to jump on the neck scarf trend forever but honestly I just don’t know that I’m a neck scarf girl. When I saw this project for Scarf Tees in the Cricut Design Space I pushed it right to the top of my to-make list!


I have been DIYing custom shirts forever with an iron, which is doable but not very effective so, last year I purchased a heatpress machine. I have really liked it but I will say it is very bulky and in a small craft space might not work. When Cricut came out with the Cricut EasyPress 2 I was super curious and last month I finally got my hands on not 1 but 2 of them!

My first question was what does the EasyPress do that my heatpress machine or iron can’t? After playing with them for a few weeks now, my best way to describe it is that they combined the best features of each a heatpress and an iron and packaged it in one machine! The EasyPress has the heat capabilities and speed of a heatpress but the convenience of an iron.

The EasyPress has an edge to edge heat plate that will get up to 400 degrees with totally even heating. This is the problem with making custom tees with an iron… the heat source is usually in the middle of the iron so you are not getting a consistent temperature and you end up with peeling vinyl. I had a learning curve with my heatpress and it is also pretty big. I have to store it on the floor in my craft room and it takes up a lot of real estate. If you don’t have a big workspace the EasyPress would be perfect for you because I can actually store it right on my shelf. It is also portable, which would be so fun for showers or girls nights where there is crafting involved!

Cricut has an interactive online guide HERE that takes all of the guesswork out of it. On the guide, you enter the of type of material you are working with and what medium it is going on and it tells you the temperature and time needed. Then you set your machine and the cute little bug light will turn green when it is ready. I also love that after 10 minutes of idle time it will start to beep and then it will turn off for safety! If you are still working when you hear the beep you can just press any button and it stays on.

The EasyPress comes in 3 different sizes which is convenient for different types of projects. I have the petite and the jumbo (this is the jumbo pictured above). The jumbo is 12″x10″ and I love it! I have made shirts, pillows, bags etc. with this one. There is a mid-size that is 9″x9″ and the petite is 6″x7″. The petite one os perfect for, you guessed it… small projects; fabric scraps, onesies, hats, shoes, small quilt pieces etc.

Speaking of projects… lets gets started on the cute DIY Scarf Tees…

You will need:

  • Cricut Machine
  • Cricut EasyPress 2 and Pressing Mat
  • Blank T-shirt (I love this brand)
  • Cricut Heatpress Vinyl in Neon Blue, Red, Blush and Lilac
  • House that Lars Built Design File in the Cricut Design Space

The two shirt files that I used are part of a shirt collection from House that Lars Built. There are quite a few more so be sure to browse around! You can find the ones I used HERE and HERE.

Once you open your file in the Cricut Design Space software, you can customize it. You can change colors, size, layout etc. I was making one of these for my daughter so I made her design a little smaller.

I always cut my vinyl beforehand to make sure I don’t waste any vinyl. When you choose “make it” on the software it will show you exactly where the design is on the cutting mat and you can move it around and that is how you will know what size to cut your vinyl and you where to place it.

With heatpress or iron-on vinyl there is a shiny side and a matte side. The shiny side is the “top” and that will be the side with the carrier sheet to help you later when you press it with the EasyPress. You always cut heatpress vinyl with the shiny side down to protect that carrier sheet and keep it intact. After you cut your vinyl to the correct size, place it shiny side down on your cutting mat. Now we are ready to cut our design! Remember we placed the “top” or the shiny side down so we want to make sure to mirror our image.

After your design is cut you will weed it. This means removing all of the negative parts of the design. You will do these same steps with each design.

Don’t let a design with multiple colors scare you! You take the same steps, just cut each color one by one and weed each layer.

Then you place the design with the carrier sheet (sticky side down!) on your shirt right where you want the design to live forever :)

Now it’s time to press the design with the EasyPress! I looked up the settings on the EasyPress Guide for the vinyl I was using and for this specific shirt so I set my settings to 315 degrees for 30 seconds based on their recommendation. It also told me to preheat my shirt for 5 seconds before pressing the design on.

For a design with multiple colors, you do the exact same thing… just start with the bottom color and work your way up. I started with the blush vinyl, then did the blue then lastly, the red.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE how these turned out! Bee and I love coordinating outfits and I am so excited to wear these!

Overall I’m super impressed with the Cricut EasyPress 2, I can tell that I will be using it a ton in the near future! Please let me know if you have any other questions about this machine that I didn’t answer! Happy Crafting!

Filed Under: clothes, cricut, girl Tagged With: cricut

Frida Kahlo Costume

October 29, 2018 By Taylor Leave a Comment

Presenting Little Miss Frida! I don’t want to play favorites but this Frida Kahlo Costume might be my new favorite to date! The dress, the headpiece, the braids…. I can’t handle it!

This costume could be as intricate or as last minute as you want; you can’t do Frida wrong! Here is how I made mine: I used a few basics from Primary; the Cardi Sweater in Cherry, the Reversible Sundress in Cobalt and Pool and the Jersey Slim Tee in Black. You for sure want the red sweater, but the color options for the dress and shirt are endless!

These were my inspiration photos. I love the photo of Frida on the left and I really love the Frida Barbie’s outfit so that is what I based this costume on. I’d say Bee nailed it right?!

I started with the shirt and found a few pieces of trim at Joann and sewed the trim on the black tee. You could definitely use fabric glue or wonder under. I also got a little piece of gold rope for her bolo necklace.

I really liked the blue dress with the little white flowers on it so I cut some tiny white flowers out of heat transfer vinyl and pressed it on to the dress. Then I added a little trim to the bottom. Again, I sewed it on but fabric glue would work here as well!

Lastly, is my favorite part… the headpiece. I bought some fake flowers from the dollar store and hot glued them to a solid black headband. I did a “faux crown braid”, not really sure what it’s called, I think I just made that term up. Good thing I’m not a beauty blogger because I barely know what I’m talking about haha! I think I’ll stick to crafts and costumes :)

Don’t forget Frida’s signature thick brow. I used dark brown (almost black) eyeshadow and a q-tip to create the heavy eyebrow look. I also added a little pinky-orange lipstick which was Bee’s favorite part of this modeling session ha!

This whole costume took me around an hour or so to pull together! I did do a little sewing because sewing is easy for me and I have everything set up but this could easily be a no-sew costume.

 Special thanks from me and my little Frida Girl to Primary.com for the clothes! Let me know if you have an questions and Happy Halloween!

 

Filed Under: costume, girl, halloween Tagged With: costumes, holidays

Kids Camping Shirts

August 1, 2018 By Taylor 2 Comments

We love camping! Seriously, we can’t live without it! In honor of our love for camping I’m sharing some Kids Camping Shirts today with a free download to make your own!

We go camping few times a year and we sleep in a tent and hike and cook and it’s amazing. My mom took us camping as kids and we have great memories so after we had kids Bryan and I started going again to keep the tradition alive. We usually go to a State Park that is right under 2 hours away so it’s really not too much trouble because it’s so close. Keeping it simple is key. We do however like to make a big deal of our camping menu which is fun :) We go with our family and some good family friends so we have a group of around 20ish. There is something about sleeping outside under the stars and roughing it for a few days that will fully recharge your battery. And can you think of a better way for kids to spend a weekend than playing outside?!

For our last trip we decided to make “official” camp shirts. I made the adults matching shirts but made something a little different for the kids and I just love how they turned out!

All the moms picked a different colored solid tee for their kid. They are super simple but that’s kind of how camping is so it works :) I used black heat transfer vinyl and a heat press so they will hold up well, we are very hard on our camping clothes as you can imagine! (HERE is a link to my heat press machine, I love it!) I found the super soft blank tees and these little dino shorts at Walmart.

I have the silhouette file available HERE for free to download or if you just want the PNG file to copy and trace on vinyl you can find that HERE. I have the images flipped so be sure to check that before cutting depending on how you are doing them. I would love to see your shirts if you make one so don’t forget to email me or tag me in a pic :) Also… if you haven’t taken your kids tent camping yet you should definitely give it a try, I promise you will all love it!

 

Filed Under: boy, girl, kid stuff, Silhouette Tagged With: cricut

Mermaid Birthday Party

July 9, 2018 By Taylor 1 Comment

This last week Bee turned 4! We had a weekday playdate party at our house with some friends and fun was had by all! She requested a Mermaid Birthday Party months ago so I went with it… thankfully there is a ton of Mermaid stuff out right now :) For the decor I just did a balloon arch, one food table and then we had some fun party favors! We blew up a big kiddie pool, a slip and slide and we also had a mobile Snowcone Truck come to our house so that was a big hit!

If you follow me on Instagram (@taylormadecreates) you know I got lots of help with my balloon arch this time… Yay for big kids :) I always get a lot of questions about balloons… I usually buy way too many but I like variety and I like options. I had 3 shades of pink, 2 purples, 3 mint/teals and a bag of white balloons and the bags usually have about 25 of each. I also like a variety of sizes for the balloons. I used THIS STRIP this time to make the arch. If you haven’t used it or made an arch it’s not quite as pretty but it’s also WAY easier! It’s just a thin, clear plastic strip with holes in it and you push the end of a blown up balloon in the hole. (this is a link to amazon but I have found it a few dollars cheaper at party city.

I usually make all of our invitations but this year I was in a time crunch and I found this one on Etsy and thought it was pretty perfect… HERE is the link.

Total party planner fail.. I didn’t take any pics of the table once the food was all out but I promise it was pretty haha! We had a “brunch” theme. I made an egg casserole, lemon vinaigrette salad, chick fil a tray for the kids, goldfish and chips and fruit salad. The only thing I made that was on theme and cute were these little oyster cookies that I found all over pinterest. I just piped strawberry frosting between nilla wafers and added a candy pearl. I found the tablecloth, happy birthday banner, plates and napkins all from Target’s party area.

I added just a few drops of blue food coloring to some lemonade to make it look mint and called that “mermaid lemonade”. I had some champagne and OJ for the moms because #brunch. The pink bevnaps are from amazon HERE.Bee and I have the same birthday so I always like to do something matchy matchy for us ;) This year I made us matching shirts for the party.

Speaking of shirts… I made the cutest party favors. I found a place online who sells very affordable blank tees in tons of colors and sizes so for under $3 a piece I made all the party goers a tee with my silhouette machine, vinyl and my heat press. The boys got sharks and the girls got shells. I even had some mini guests :) I hung them up with twine and clothespins and the kids had fun finding their name after they swam.

My mom is always in charge of the kids cake… thank God for her because I am no baker! This year she had a cake planned then a few days before the party while at Kroger she spotted this one just knew it would be perfect for the queen of flashy, I mean perfect for Bee :) She also got her matching cupcakes and of course Bee LOVED it!

 

Just in case the kids didn’t have enough sugar, I found a snowcone company who comes to your party in a truck:) They make the ice part of the snowcone then the kids get to top it with their own flavor on the side of the truck… it was super cute!

How cute is this little mermaid swimsuit?! Guess where I found it?? Amazon haha… HERE is the link.

We had such a fun and festive time! Thanks to everyone to who came to help us celebrate… our little mermaid loved it!

Check out Bee’s past parties here!: Fiesta Party, Farmers Market Party, Peppa Pig Party!



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Filed Under: birthday, girl, kid stuff, party Tagged With: parties

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Welcome to Taylor Made

http://www.taylormadecreatesblog.com/about-me Hi Yall! I'm Taylor... a crafty mom of three from Houston, TX. I love sewing, collecting floral fabric, eating Mexican Food & Margaritas, photography, brights colors, rearranging, and decorating. Taylor Made Creates is all about creating a fun, colorful home, sewing cute things and eating good food. Check out my SHOP HERE HERE! Thanks for stopping by!

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