This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Cricut for Cricut. All opinions are 100% mine.
It’s no secret that I love using the Cricut for my classroom!
But when I heard about the Backpacks of Love from The Blue Ribbon Project, I knew exactly how I could create two DIY backpacks with my Explore Air 2 and EasyPress Mini to spread some love to some very deserving children!
If you are not familiar with the Blue Ribbon Project, it is an amazing organization that supports victims of child abuse and youth in foster care. The Backpacks of Love initiative helps provide children in foster care some basic essentials during their first few days of care.
To help, I personalized two backpacks- the Tropical Flower Backpack for a 9-10 year old girl and the Rockets Backpack for a 5-6 year old boy.
Below are the 5 easy steps that I took to make personalized backpacks especially for them!
1. Grab the Essentials!
Collect all the following materials that you will need to crate the backpacks. For both backpacks, I used my Cricut Scraper Tool, Cricut Scissors, Cricut Weeder, Cricut Everyday Iron On Sugar Berry, Cricut EasyPress Mini, and a backpack from Everest.
2. Find it on Cricut Design Space ™
Open up the Tropical Flower Backpack on Cricut Design Space ™ to cut the flowers on the pink vinyl and tropical leaves on the purple vinyl. Make sure you place the shiny side of the vinyl down and use the Cricut Scrapper to flatten the vinyl onto your Cutting Mat before cutting. This will help you achieve an even and flat cut.
3. Cut and Arrange
Use your Cricut Scissors to cut around the design, save the access for another project, then use the Cricut Weeder to remove the unneeded vinyl. Proceed to cut the flowers and tropical leaves and arrange them as shown below.
5. Transfer the Design
To avoid the rubber lining of the backpack to melt inside, place a towel inside of it before using the Cricut Easypress Mini to transfer the design. Since the Iron On vinyl comes with the plastic transfer, simply set your Easypress Mini on the first or second setting and press it onto top of the transfer sheet. It’s just that simple! 🙂
I set my phone’s timer for 30 seconds as I gently pressed the design onto the backpack. It is best to pick up the Easypress then place it back down and repeat to transfer the design rather than sliding it back and forth like an iron. This will make sure that the vinyl stays in place.
I repeated the same steps for the Rockets Backpack, however, with Rockets Design that you can find on Cricut’s Design Space. Since the rockets are smaller than flowers and tropical leaves, I used my Cricut Scissors to remove the Everest patch before transferring the vinyl.
And so there you have it! Two super easy DIY Backpacks that your littles will surely love!
If you would like to crate or send your own backpacks to the Blue Ribbon Project, the organization is currently not accepting donations until April 10th due to the Coronavirus Pandemic.