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Every year my son and daughter ask for personalized Christmas pajamas that match. For the whole family. I know the desire to dress like their mom and dad even if at home will soon go way, so this year I’m going to make matching Christmas jammies happen for them. It’s another reason why I love my Cricut Explore Air 2. Easy personalized gifts in a jiffy.
Aren’t they cute? The pants are super soft; I picked them up on Amazon, but you can find them at a lot of department stores this time of year. The personalized Christmas t-shirts were a Cricut Infusible Ink project (instructions below!)
Making Personalized Gifts on the Cricut Explore Air 2
As I said, one of the really wonderful things about owning the Cricut Explore Air 2. machine is being able to customize just about anything in a few minutes. Cricut offers such a wide range of vinyl products, both iron-on and stick-on vinyl, that’s almost impossible to find something that you can’t put a name on.
Personalized Gift Ideas
If you have children in your life, giving them a pair of personalized Christmas pajamas with their name on it, or a Christmas t-shirt with a monogram is always a sure winner. They love seeing their name on things.
Other personalized gift ideas for kids:
- Stuffed animals (the new Mini EasyPress makes this possible!)
- Backpacks
- Lunch boxes
- Hats
- Blankets
- Cups
The reason I really love being able to personalize gifts to give is that they show the recipient that you really are thinking of them. It’s that “extra mile” or extra effort that makes them feel special with the open the gift. And making friends and family feel special is what we are all after anyway, isn’t it?
Personalized gift ideas for adults:
- Wire keepers
- Earbud holders
- Make-up cases
- Purses
- Totebags
- Scarfs
- Blankets
- Trays
- Signs
- Coffee mugs
- Champagne glasses (and the bottle!)
There are so many good choices for personalized gifts! Cut a name to size in vinyl with your Cricut and apply to the gift–it’s a great way to give a thoughtful gift.
How to make Personalized Christmas Pajamas with Infusible Ink
The set of matching Christmas pajamas for the family was made with Cricut Infusible Ink sheets and blanks. They come in all sorts of sizes, so there was something for everyone. As a bonus, the t-shirts are super soft and can be worn as Christmas shirts in the daytime as well.
The buffalo check pattern Infusible Ink sheet I used for the reindeer on our reindeer Christmas shirts comes with a sheet of black as well, so you only have to buy a single box to get both colors–total bonus!
Personalized Reindeer Christmas Pajamas with Cricut Infusible Ink
Create personalized Christmas Pajamas for the family with this buffalo check reindeer pattern and Cricut Infusible Ink.
You REALLY want to follow instructions to the letter with the Infusible Ink projects, there reason for every step in the process.
Materials
Tools
- Cricut Explore Air 2
- Butcher Paper
- EasyPress 2
- EasyPress 2 mat
- White cardstock
Instructions
Open up the customizable Reindeer Project file in Cricut Design Space. This file is set up so you can go in and change the name to whatever you like. Just like with iron-on vinyl, it'll work best if you weld the letters of the name.
Size the entire image (reindeer AND name) to fit whatever size t-shirt you are going to put it on.
Click “Make.” Mirror the image, first thing! This is still an iron on, so you'll need everything to be backwards on your transfer just like with iron-on vinyl. Select “Infusible Ink” for your material.
Put your Infusible Ink sheet onto the green or purple mat and feed into your Cricut Explore Air 2or Maker machine. Try not to touch the color on the sheet; the oils from your fingers will disturb the ink.
Weeding the Infusible Ink sheets is a little different than vinyl. Bend the paper a bit to separate the cut then peel off the excess. Try not to put your fingers on the areas that will be pressed on!
setting up your cricut infusible ink for transfer
You’re going to have five layers of material by the time you’re done with this, but it’s all important. Turn on your Cricut EasyPress 2 to 385 degrees. I use the medium-size press for a kid-size t-shirt. (BTW--I love the bag to store it in so much more than I thought I would.)
Put your EasyPress mat down on your work surface. Lay a sheet of thick white cardstock on top of it to protect the mat.
Place the mat with the cardstock on top inside the t-shirt.
Thoroughly lint roll the t-shirt area where you will be placing your image.
This seems silly but here is the reason why you want to do this: when you heat the ink up with the EasyPress, the inks turns into a gas and resettles into the fibers of your shirt. If there are lint balls or dirt or anything else on the t-shirt that is going to fall off with washing, your ink is going to go right along with it. No lint balls or debris means your image is going on your shirt just the way you want.
Place the butcher paper over your t-shirt. Press for 15 second at 385 degrees to make sure all errant creases and wrinkles are out of your fabric. Let cool completely. Next we add the pictures to our t-shirt!
how to press an image with cricut infusible ink
Here is where all the (literal) magic happens! Place the reindeer image (and if you can do without plastic overlap, the name, too) onto the t-shirt face down where you want the image to be. Usually, three finger widths under the neckline is where your image should be placed.
Place the butcher paper over the image, then press for 40 seconds at 385 degrees. Very carefully lift the EasyPress 2, being sure not to jostle your stack of papers. Let cool COMPLETELY.
Once the t-shirt is cool, remove the butcher paper and transfer sheet.
If you are pressing the personalized name in separately, repeat the process for the name.
Then your shirt is complete!
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You can even make your GIFT WRAP personalized!
Another neat personalization trick you can do with your Cricut Explore Air 2 is to use it to personalize your gift wrapping. Use a little bit of iron-on for the ribbon and apply it to the edge of the ribbon. The EasyPress Mini is great for small projects like this.
Or, use some regular vinyl to put names on gifts. It’s easy to do as well.
Happy gift-giving this Christmas–hope you leave this post with a few ideas to make the people in your life very happy this holiday season!