Cutting and Crafting
Cricut infusible ink
How to make a t-shirt, coaster or any other product personalized. What do you need for to use Cricut infusible ink:
- Any cutting machine, for example Cricut maker or Cricut air.
- Easy press 2 or heat press.
- Optional, easy press mat to protect your work surface.
- Cricut blanks or t-shirt white or light color ( 95% polyester, 5% spandex) / coaster etc.
- Infusible ink transfer sheet.
Transferred inks never flake, peel, crack or wrinkle.
What comes inside the infusible ink box?
The transfer sheets are covered by a black plastic which protects them from humidity and light. The box has 2 transfer sheet, 2 pieces of butcher paper, a sample blank swath and a gel pack.
The number 1 enemy of infusible ink is moisture, that’s why it’s essential to store them in the plastic roll with the gel pack in the box it came in. Making sure to put it in a dark place.
How to transfer the design to a t-shirt.
To get the best result, cricut recommend using their blanks. Infusible ink transfer can’t be applied to 100% cotton t-shirts.
- Open your design in Cricut design space and adjust it to the right size for your shirt.
- Setup your design to cut in mirror mode with the fine point blade.
- Place the transfer sheet in the standard grid mat, with the liner side down.
- Load the mat and press the Cricut button to start the job and wait for the machine to make the cut.
- Remove the transfer sheet from the mat.
The way you weed infusible ink is different from iron on, Use the Cricut cracking method. To do this, you must Gently roll cut design so cut lines separate are more visible.
6. Remove the excess paper from in and around your design, only keeping the design in the liner that you want to transfer to the t-shirt.
7. Place a piece of white cardstock inside the t-shirt, and of butcher paper on top of the t-shirt.
8. Pre-heat the t-shirt for 15 seconds to 385 °F to remove wrinkles and moisture. Remove the butcher paper and let the t-shirt cool down.
9. Place the design in the desired position with the clear liner on top, also place a piece of butcher paper on top of the design. Heat the t-shirt 40 second to 385 °F.
Keep the heat press as still as possible while pressing.
10. Remove the heat press and let the transfer cool down, the remove the butcher paper. When the design is still a little warm, you can remove the liner and any remaining pieces with tweezers.
You can see how the material got transformed when applied to the blank. The ink in the transfer sheet looks opaque, but when it’ Transferred to the blank, it becomes beautiful and vibrant.
Where you can buy infusible ink?
The results with the Cricut infusible ink are fantastic and very professional, the t-shirt can be stretched without fear of breaking the design.
You can buy this product online on in Michaels stores.
Difference between HTV iron on and infusible ink
When using iron on the design is attached on top of a base material using adhesive, when using infusible ink, the design becomes part of the material itself.
With htv the design will eventually lift, crack or peel, This will not happen with infusible ink.
