Quick Cricut Crafts {for kids!}

Try saying that 3 times fast LOL! Well, it is finally feeling like Spring around here and that means the kids want to be on their bikes everyday. The bikes they love, the helmets….not so much. So in an effort to make my daughters a little more thrilled with them I let them decorate their own:

This was so easy 😛 and they did most of the work themselves. I let them use my gypsy (it’s handheld and has a screen so of course they use it better than I do) and they picked the designs they wanted.  Then I cut the shapes from self adhesive vinyl. You can purchase colored vinyl online but I use scraps from a local sign and banner shop. They give me the scraps that are too small to put in their machines {yay free!} and these smaller sizes are perfect for my cricut. I have purchased vinyl (the chalkboard vinyl and glow in the dark is so cool!) from oh my crafts and EAD designs and their brands are really nice too.  Anyway if you are cutting vinyl on your cricut you need to set the depth at 2 or 3 and pressure at low (or 2) because you want to cut through the vinyl but not the backing paper. After it is cut pull of the waste (area around the decals) then you can let the kids stick their decals where they like. On the swirly flourish I first pressed contact paper on the decal while it was on the backer sheet and picked it up then with it still on the contact paper I pressed it on the helmet making sure it adhered in the grooves. Tat decal was the only ones the kids couldn’t peel and stick because it would have ripped. Instead of contact paper you can use transfer tape that comes with craft-store purchased vinyl. You can decorate all kinds of stuff with vinyl like rubber boots, sports equipment, toys, you name it plus it is waterproof! To remove it simply heat it with a hair dryer and peel it off.

Another fun craft you can do with the kids and your cricut is to die cut paper piecing patterns and let them make cards for birthdays. Here I used the Once Upon a Princess cart (I caved when it went on sale for $17 at oh my crafts) and die cut the castle and frog out of pretty colors to match (close enough) the wrapping paper we chose for a birthday Saturday. To make any shape into a card using a gypsy simply take the base layer of the design copy and paste it so you have 2, make sure both shapes are welded, mirror the one on the left and line them up side by side and let them overlap enough so they will be connected when you cut it out, that is where you will fold your shaped card. You kids will have fun gluing on the rest of the design as mine did. So easy!

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!