Christmas gifts, like these customized ear muffs, can be made better with your Cricut. Add HTV and humor and they will thrill anyone on your list. They go behind your head and cover your ears. The pointy ears are either elf ears or for those Trekkies, Spock ears.
I bought these ear muffs at the Dollar Store. With just a little HTV you can make them extra special. This inexpensive gift is great for you mailman or your child’s teacher. And I guarantee that they have nothing like them.
What you will need
- HTV
- Ear Muffs from the Dollar Store
- Iron or Easy Press
- Download File
Cutting
If you only knew how many times I have cut the wrong side of HTV. LOL. I use a pick to separate a very small part of the HTV in a space I am going to weed anyway. It is easy to tell which side is the HTV and which side is the “paper”. Put the “paper” side down. BTW if you ever cut the wrong side, just turn it over and re-cut. Most brands the backing is thick enough that you didn’t cut all the way through it anyway. It makes weeding a little more difficult because you now have two images, one reversed on the wrong side, but at least the vinyl isn’t wasted.
Weeding the Customized Ear Muffs
Once the pattern is all cut, you need to weed it. This design is simple and you probably don’t need a light source like the Brightpad to weed it.
But you will need a sharp pick. I have a set from Harbor Freight that cost 2 or 3 dollars. I have just found a pinpen from 651vinyl.com that works great. While you are there look at the weeding ring. It is great! I used to stick the weeded vinyl to my hand but my skin had a reaction to the sticky. The weeding ring solved that.
Ironing
I have an Easypress now. But I don’t know if you need one for this project. I just used my small iron.
With an iron set and the highest setting without steam, warm the area you are going to put the design on then place the design where you want it. Press fairly hard on the design. Use a lot of pressure. You are trying to melt the material and force it between the fibers. After you have pressed the area, go over the whole design slowly a few times. If it doesn’t stick well try again. If you use glitter vinyl, it is very difficult to melt. This make take a few tries.
After it cools and I’ve taken the paper off, I always repress the design just to make sure it seals. Use parchment paper between the iron and your design.
And your Customized Ear Muffs are done!
This tutorial contains links to sellers of which I am an affiliate and get a small commission. Your price is not affected.
Fun Facts about Ears
- Ears are completely individual just like fingerprints!
- Of the 206 bones in the human body, the six smallest are in your ears
- Ears are self-cleaning.
- Our sense of balance lies in our ears
- Our ears are always working, even when we sleep
- The most unpleasant noises to the human ear are: a knife scraping against a bottle, a fork scratching on a plate, chalk on a blackboard, a ruler on a bottle, nails on a blackboard, a baby crying, an electric drill, rusty swing chains, a person retching and two pieces of expanded polystyrene rubbing together.
- We hear music better on our left side