Easy Cricut Iron-On Tutorial for Beginners

Instructions

Step 1: Measure the tea towel

The first thing we are going to do is measure our tea towel to see how wide we want our design to be on the towel. 

To do this, I folded the towel how I would normally fold a towel when I am going to hang it and then used a tape measure to see how wide I could make the design. 

I went with 6 inches for this project but probably could have easily gone up to 7 inches.

Step 2: Upload the design to Cricut Design Space

Next, we are going to open up a new project in Cricut Design Space and upload our design. 

The Design I am using for this project is available for free at the bottom of the page. If you need help downloading and uploading SVG's to Cricut Design Space, you can watch my quick video on how to do that here.

Step 3: Resize the design to fit on your towel

Once you have the design open, you can adjust the size to fit on the towel you are using. 

Step 4: Prepare the design for cutting

Before we cut this design we will want to attach the different design elements. 

If I click make it before attaching everything, you can see that the design is all over the place.  That is now what we want so we will go back and attach the design.

Since we are using two colors for this design, we will need to only select the black part of the design to attach. 

To just select the black part of the design, we will need to ungroup the design.  So select the design and click ungroup.

Now we can turn off the red hearts and select just the black section of the design.  Then we can click attach. 

Turn the hearts back on and click the make it button.

Now our design looks just how we want it.  You can see that we will have two different cuts, one for each color we are using. 

You do have the ability to move all of the design elements to one mat so that you don't have to load up the mat twice, but for this beginner's project, we will just cut each mat separately. 

In my other iron-on vinyl tutorials with multiple colors, I show you how to do this so check those out if you want a more advanced way of cutting designs with multiple colors.

Step 5: Mirror the design on the mats

Since we are using heat transfer vinyl we need to make sure to also mirror our design.  So we will go ahead and click the mirror option for both of the mats.

Step 6: Place iron-on vinyl shiny side down on your standard grip mat

Next, I am going to place the black heat transfer vinyl on my standard grip mat.  You want to place the HTV with the shiny side down. 

Then I like to use a brayer tool to make sure the material is really stuck on the mat well.

Step 7: Select your material type

Now we need to select our material type before we can cut.  I do this part on my tablet, but you can do it on your computer as well. 

If you are using Cricut brand Heat Transfer Vinyl, select the specific kind as your material type. 

I am using an Explore machine, so I will set the dial to Iron On. 

Step 8: Load the mat and start cutting

Once you select your material, the arrow button on your machine should start blinking meaning you are ready to load your mat. 

Once the mat is loaded the Cricut button will start blinking and you are ready to start cutting.

Step 9: Unload the mat and remove the vinyl

When the machine is done cutting, the arrow button will start blinking again and you can unload the mat. 

To take the HTV off of the mat, you will want to flip over the mat and gently peel the mat back from the HTV. 

Peeling the HTV right off of the mat can cause the material to curl which is not what we want.

Step 10: Cut the glitter iron-on vinyl

Now we can place the red glitter iron-on onto the standard grip mat. 

The shiny side goes down again and I will use the brayer tool to make sure the vinyl adheres well. 

Since we are using a different type of vinyl for this mat, we will need to change our material type to glitter iron on. 

To do this on an explore machine you will need to set the dial to custom and then select glitter iron on in the material type section of design space.

Load the mat again and select the cut button to start cutting. 

Once the Cricut is done cutting, unload the mat and peel the mat away from the vinyl as we did with the black iron-on vinyl previously.

Step 11: Weed the design

Next, we are going to start weeding the design.  I'm using a Cricut weeding tool for this part and I highly recommend you do as well.

I've linked all of the materials I recommend for this project above. 

When I am weeding, the first thing I do is get the bulk of the excess vinyl peeled off.  Take your time with this part so you don't accidentally tear or weed the wrong parts of the design.

After I get the bulk of the excess vinyl off of the design I go back and get all of the smaller pieces in the letters and the rest of the design. 

Make sure you look over your design a few times to double-check that there aren't any little pieces you missed when weeding. 

I can tell you from experience it is VERY frustrating to finish a project and realize you missed something when you were weeding and then it's too late to fix it.

Step 12: Set time and temperature on your heat press

Now I am going to pull up Cricut's heat guide so I can figure out what temperature I need to set my Cricut EasyPress to. 

For this project, I am selecting the EasyPress 2, then selecting glitter iron-on for the material. 

Then I select what type of material I am applying the HTV to, in this case, cotton.

The reason I am selecting glitter as my material instead of regular iron on vinyl is that the glitter requires a higher temperature than the everyday iron-on. 

I want to make sure that both the glitter and regular iron on vinyl get stuck to the towel so I'm using the slightly higher heat recommendation.

The heat guide recommends setting the temperature to 330 degrees for 30 seconds.  Then after we heat the front of the design, we will also press the back of the towel for 15 seconds.

Step 13: Center the design on the towel

To get the design lined up in the center of the towel, I am folding the towel in half and then applying heat. 

This will put a crease on the towel right in the center so I have a visible line to place my design on.  This will also pre-heat the towel which Cricut recommends doing before applying the design.

Next to line up the design, I am going to fold over the design and gently crease the top and bottom of the plastic backing sheet.  Then I can match those lines up to the line in the center of my towel.

Now we can place the design down on the towel and then we will add the hearts to the design before pressing.

To add the hearts, you will need to trim the plastic sheet down to make sure you can stick the hearts on the towel without covering any of the black vinyl. 

If you cover the black vinyl with the plastic sheet from the hearts, the black vinyl will not adhere to the towel. 

When you place the hearts on the towel, make sure the glitter side is up.

Step 14: Apply heat

Now that the design is lined up, we are ready to apply heat. 

Just place the heat press down on top of the plastic sheet to cover your design.  Make sure to apply firm pressure so that the design is evenly heated.

Then we will flip over the towel and press for 15 more seconds.

Step 15: Remove the plastic backing sheet

The type of iron-on vinyl I am using is a warm peel meaning you have to peel the plastic sheet away from the design while it is warm. 

The type of vinyl you purchase will specify if it is a warm peel or cool peel heat transfer vinyl. 

Once you start to peel the plastic sheet away, if you notice any parts of the design not adhering to the towel, just place the plastic sheet back down and go over that spot with the heat press again until it sticks. 

If you have an EasyPress mini, that works really well for small areas that aren't sticking.

That's all there is to it!  Wasn't that so easy!?  I love how this tea towel turned out and it looks SO cute in my kitchen!

Don't forget to grab this free design at the bottom of the page so you can make this project too!