The release of the new Cricut Joy Xtra was accompanied by some new materials which have made getting the most out of this mighty machine a pure…. joy.
After building my confidence with the Print & Cut functionality on my previous sticker creating project, it was time to give it a second go to create a personalised gift for my pizza-making obsessed dad.
After creating my design (a custom pizza restaurant logo) in the Cricut Design Space, I set my Cricut Joy Xtra up for a Print & Cut process, using the Printable Iron-On Transfer paper. It’s as simple as following the on-screen prompts to first print, before feeding into the Cricut Joy Xtra for the cut.
I used the Cricut Heat App to send the correct heat transfer settings to both my Cricut EasyPress 3 and Cricut Hat Press, and within minutes I had not only a custom, personalised cooking apron, but a sweet hat to match.
The cuts on this project were quite simple, so I wasn’t surprised at how seamless it worked – but knowing that the print and cut feature works on much more intricate designs, I’m excited to play with more in the lead up to Christmas.
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One thing to note is that the printable iron on transfer paper is quite delicate, so it’s important to make sure you or your Cricut don’t make any unwanted impressions in the paper, as it could effect your design. I did have one casualty as my Cricut left an indent in the paper when completing the design as it fed through the machine.
It’s also important to have a decent printer to do the heavy-lifting with the quality of your design. I used my home EPSON XP-4200 series which did the trick for a vibrant, true-to-design print job.
Overall, I was super impressed with the result. And most importantly, so was dad.
