Every year, I make gifts for my students to show how much they mean to me, and this year, I want to expand that to my fellow educators. That’s right, it’s time to make gifts for teachers! When most people think of baking, they tend to think of the holidays but the best thing about these gifts is that they can be given at any time of the year! I mean, who doesn’t want cookies, right?
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Gathering Your “Ingredients”
First off, you can purchase the items for these gifts at your local grocery store, Dollar General, or Dollar Tree (like I did), apart from the Cricket and iron-on foil. You’ll also need the program Design Space, a mat or towel to place your potholder on so you don’t burn underneath it, and heat transfer tape to keep your image from sliding everywhere (optional).
You can use any type of cookie you want; I chose sugar cookies because they were limited on choices. Personally, I like the polyester pocketed potholder because everything fits so perfectly and comes out beautifully. If you choose a color other than black, you could use infusible ink to really get the design to pop! The red and white baking spatulas are adorable with this design, but if you are leaning towards another color palette, you can find them in so many other colors as well.
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You will also need a Cricut heat press and iron-on foil. I used foil by Paper Studios that was on sale at Hobby Lobby, matching the color with my chosen design. I highly recommend it.
Design Space: Creating your Teachers’ Gift!
For this portion, you can use your own predesigned image, create directly in the space, or purchase a design and upload it to play around with. I purchased the Mega-Pot Bundle from Design Bundle for this particular project.
First, you are going to upload your design to Design Space. The size of design you will need should be listed on the tag of the potholder (mine was 5” by 4 ½”). To change this, unlock the image by clicking the lock button in the menu bar and type in your measurements. Also, don’t worry about the colors that, will come with the iron-on foil.
When you are finished resizing and designing, make sure you are outputting to the correct machine. Mine is set up for my Cricket Explore Family. To change this, you simply go to the pull-down menu beside the “Make It” button and choose your machine from those listed. Then “Make It”!
**Quick Note! Use Attach instead of Weld when saving the project because you can Detach the image after saving making it editable at a later time, whereas you cannot Un-Weld it. **
Cricket Time! (I 💖 my Cricket)
After my design is saved and sent to my Cricket, I lay out my mat and place the iron-on foil face down, rubbing to remove all the air bubbles. Load it into your Cricut and watch it do its magic!
** Before moving on, it’s best to preheat your Easy Press. I use the Cricut’s Heat Guide to know where to set it based on what I am using. **
Once you peel the foil off your mat, its time to weed it out. Be careful because, even though it pulls off easily, it can tear. Make sure to get all the tiny pieces out too!
Feel the Heat!
- Preheat your potholder by pressing your Easy Press on top of it for 5…4…3…2…1. This draws out the moisture from the fabric.
- Place your design that you worked so hard on in position, its about to get permanent.
- If you have Heat Transfer Tape, you can use it to hold your image in place.
- Press your Easy Press onto the image for the amount of time that’s labeled on your machine (Mine was 30 seconds, based on my Heat Guide).
- Set aside to let cool (Just like making cookies)
- Very carefully pull the plastic off the potholder so the image doesn’t try to peel off
- Place in your cookies and baking spatulas
- Finished!
Now you have your own gifts for teachers!
Now you have yummy looking gifts for your favorite teacher(s)! I hope all my fellow educators will enjoy these and love the sweetness I am gifting them (and the cookies too)! I would love to see your personalized potholders (or other gifts for teachers, you created)! Please share them with me in the comments below. Happy Crafting!