Make your own personalized lunch bags by adding iron-on vinyl to any lunch box. Plus personalize a thermos using Cricut permanent vinyl.
We are gearing up for back to school in our house, how about you? My three kids are at three different schools for one more year, which makes our hectic life a little bit crazier!
My sanity saver is crafting! One of the reasons I like back to school time is because I get to use my Cricut. A. LOT.
It is perfect to personalize all of my kids’ lunch boxes, water bottles, backpacks, pencil cases, etc. Plus I get asked to personalize a lot of my friends’ kid’s supplies.
It is so quick and easy to cut out some permanent vinyl or iron-on vinyl and turn an ordinary school supply into something the kids love.
It also saves me from having to order those expensive personalized items from the fancy stores.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.
If you’d like to learn more about the Cricut Maker, make sure to check out my Cricut Maker review here and don’t miss my Ultimate Guide to Cricut Ideas either!
Materials Needed for Personalized Lunch Bags
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links from Amazon and/or Cricut.com. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my links (purple text)
- lunch box – I used this one from Amazon (it comes in a variety of different colors)
- Cricut cutting machine– Maker or Explore
- Cricut Iron-On Vinyl with the strong bond guarantee – I love this iron-on vinyl! It weeds so easy and is built for long-lasting sticking results!
- EasyPress 2 and mat- Click to learn more about the EasyPress family
Instructions for Applying Iron-on Vinyl to a Lunch Box
The thing you’ll have to be careful with is that you don’t melt the plastic linings inside the lunch bags. I didn’t have any problems at a lower temperature.
My baby EasyPress 2 worked perfectly because it was pretty much the same size as the area I was personalizing. It fit right in between the zipper and the edge so it laid flat.
In Cricut Design Space, add any name you want. I wanted a shadow layer to make it pop more so I filtered the fonts that were multi-layered.
Make sure to turn on “mirror” cut on the preview page.
I cut out the shadow layer with black Cricut iron-on permanent bond vinyl and the top layer with the beautiful Natalie Malan Indigo Sky patterned iron-on.
Place the shiny side or patterned side of the iron-on vinyl down on a light grip Cricut mat. Select iron-on as your setting. Insert your mat and let it do it’s thing!
I set my EasyPress 2 to 280F for 45 seconds. This a lower temperature at a longer time so that the plastic won’t risk melting.
Weed off the extra iron-on vinyl.
Unzip the lunch bag and place the front flap on top of an EasyPress mat.
Preheat the fabric for 3-5 seconds.
Center the bottom layer iron-on vinyl. Cover it all with a protective sheet and press it for 5-10 seconds. Since this is just the first layer, it only gets pressed a few seconds because it will get pressed again for a long time on the second layer.
The secret to using the Cricut iron-on is that you need to let it cool for about a minute. If you try to pull off the backing right away, the vinyl will pull up with it. So let it cool down and then peel off the plastic.
Center the top layer over the shadow. Cover the entire image with a protective sheet and now press the full 45 seconds. Peel off the plastic backing and admire you’re personalized lunch bags!
Such a cute lunch bag, don’t you think?
Applying Vinyl to a Thermos
You all know I love making personalized tumblers and glitter tumblers using my Cricut. Another easy way to personalize a thermos is to just add a name or image to it with permanent vinyl – no sealants needed!
I used Cricut shimmer permanent vinyl for this personalized thermos. The trick with applying these premium types of vinyl is to use the strong grip transfer tape that is included in the package. If you don’t, you’ll say some words you don’t normally say!
I designed this in Cricut Design Space using a heart and a name that I curved slightly with the curvature tool. Then I made a knockout with the name (watch a knockout tutorial on YouTube.)
All of the following steps are in the video after the personalized lunch bags tutorial so make sure to watch it all!
Wipe down the front of the thermos where you’ll be applying the decal with rubbing alcohol and let it dry.
Cut out the pieces of permanent vinyl you are going to use as the decal for the tumbler and weed off the extra vinyl. Apply a piece of transfer tape to the heart and scrape it down well. Turn it over and scrape it down more if it doesn’t want to come off.
Take off the transfer tape that has the heart attached and center it over the name. Press the transfer tape down and scrape it well again.
With shimmer permanent vinyl I find it easiest to turn everything over, scrape down well on the backside, and peel away the paper from the transfer tape.
To get it perfectly straight make sure to check out how to use the hinge method in my applying vinyl to a tumbler post. For this one, since it was already curved, I just eyeballed where I wanted it and placed it down (middle of design first, and then smooth toward the edges). Scrape down with fingers and/or a scraper.
Peel off the transfer tape and you’re done! Make sure to let the vinyl cure (or sit undisturbed) for 72 hours to ensure the adhesive enough time to really bond before it gets wet.
Always remember, that vinyl should not go in the dishwasher – hand wash only!
Another quick and easy back to school project you can make with a Cricut Maker and patterned Cricut iron-on is a personalized pencil pouch.
If you need some creative teacher back to school gift ideas, I loved making this cute survival kit!
Hopefully, these Cricut project ideas will get you started with some back to school personalized projects so you can check that off your August calendar. The Cricut makes it super easy to make such cute, unique, and easy personalized school items!
If you’d like to save this tutorial for later, simply hover over the top left of the image below and PIN It!
Thanks so much for stopping by and please comment below with questions!
Have a creative day,
