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Around here it is the season to get to making tee shirts, apparently. I’m not sure what it is, but every year I find myself spending the days prior to leaving town for Christmas cutting vinyl, weeding vinyl and applying vinyl to lots and lots and lots of tee shirts in a panic that I won’t get them done in time to shove in my suitcase. So far, in the last 24 hours, I have made a whopping 11 tee shirts. That might not sound like too many, but remember, I’ve got to cut, weed and apply the vinyl for each and every shirt.
The year before last I cut a shirt for each and every family member that said: “Have yourself a Murray little Christmas” in the shape of a Christmas tree. Somebody, I don’t even remember who, wanted a photograph with all of us wearing the same cute shirt and since I have the crafty skills to pay the bills (literally) I put my hand up and made a whole mess of red and green tees. You know what happened, then? I got to Oklahoma gave everybody their shirts and then rode from the hotel to my sister’s house next to Rob in his special edition holiday made by ME shirt. And when we got to my sister’s house everybody BUT me had their shirts on for the picture. I hadn’t even brought my own. Womp, womp! I still have that unworn shirt in my closet :) Bah.
I was so stressed out making all of these shirts that after spending ages applying the HTV to the very first one, I straight up ordered a heat press from Amazon. Aaaand I paid extra for 1-day shipping. Because getting double-digits of tee shirts done in, like, 2 days with only an iron is so incredibly slow and irritating.
I don’t know if back then they had the Cricut Easypress or not. If they did, I hadn’t heard of it before to even ponder getting one. Instead, I went to a blog of a fellow crafter and clicked through the link to purchase the same one she used on the regular and liked fairly well. And I tell you that darn heat press was practically HEAVEN SENT when it appeared on my door the very next morning. But as I’ve continued making things, both for this site and for myself and family, I’ve started to dislike my heat press by quite a lot.
First of all, I had to borrow my kitchen cart to put the heat press on and, to this day, I still don’t have a darn cart in my kitchen and counter space is at a premium for me, so I kind of resent that, as silly as it might seem. That heat press is also HEAVY. Like, I straight up looked at the item details and it is FORTY-EIGHT POUNDS. And I don’t have a space for it in my craft room so I roll that darn thing out to the garage, down a step and all of that to hang out with the rest of my junk out there (but never a car, sigh) and then when I need it again I excavate it (because more junk is surely piled on top at some point) and roll that silly thing back into the house, up that step, across rugs that don’t want to make things any easier on me and use it. Bleh. Like, I’ve totally not done projects JUST BECAUSE I don’t want to mess with the heat press. Now, how crazy is that?
It hasn’t been all that long, now, that I heard about the Cricut EasyPress and I really, really contemplated getting one. I wasn’t sure which size or what I needed and I just sort of put it off. But times, they have changed and I now find myself with BOTH a heat press out in the garage (under old bikinis that I will NOT be wearing ever again in my life) AND a Cricut EasyPress 2. Wahoo!
Honestly, at first pulling it out of its box there was a slight twinge of guilt and I just thought, “I don’t REALLY need this”. But after I did the sample project that came inside of the box to help me learn how my new press I was already in love with it and I used to whip up 2 new shirts fresh out of the box.
Want to make some tees? Let’s first learn about the powerful little press that will help us make them…
The Easypress comes in 3 different sizes.
There is the smallest that is perfect for little items like baby onesies, socks, things like that and the surface of the press is 6″ x 7″. Next, there is a middle-sized press with a heating plate that is a square 9″ x 9″ and is good for those not tiny but not huge projects like applying HTV to kid’s clothes or dishcloths. The biggest of the 3, which is what I’ve been using measures in at a whopping 12″ x 10″ and is perfect for, you guessed it, adult-sized Christmas shirts! Huzzah! Actually, it works for any adult-sized shirts, be they Hanukkah, Halloween or just because :)
The Cricut Easypress offers the perfect heat settings.
One of the biggest issues I had with my heat press was that it heated up the entire room it was in. Like, it was insane how HOT it would turn my little craft room after making just a single tee shirt. It was also amazing how LONG it took for that darn thing to heat up. And I had a little stretch of wait time in between each shirt for it to heat back up to my desired temperature in between each shirt because the temperature would dip a little with each shirt I ran through it.
With the Easypress you push a button to set your temperature, wait a few minutes and then get to work. To say it heats up fast feels almost like an understatement after waiting a good 10 minutes for full heat.
Oh, and, probably my favorite thing OF ALL is that the Easypress has beeping notifications to let you know that it’s pre-heated to the correct temperature (hooray) and then again to let you know that it’s been out of use for long enough that it’s assuming you’ve walked off and it’s going to shut itself off. I love BOTH of these beeps because I have a tendency to get sidetracked and sometimes just totally forget that I planned to use it and that first little “BEEP” reminds me it is time to get on with things. When you’re making a ton of shirts one after another you sometimes run into hiccups. I had a problem with one of my shirts and as I sat at my desk trying to figure it out I heard the Easypress beep a few times. Turning around I realized that it was going to turn itself off. I reached over and tapped a button with my big toe, noticed the beeping stopped and the press stayed on. It turns out that after 10 minutes the Easypress has a safety feature to shut itself off which is pretty darn awesome, right? I don’t know about you, but when I go into “creative mode” I often fall out of “remember real life things” mode… it’s more like “GLITTER!”
The Easypress is easy to handle and store.
Now, after that whole garage storage nightmare the fact that the Easypress is lightweight, the shipping weight is 14.8 pounds and that includes the box and all of that good stuff. 14 versus 48 is an amazing difference. PLUS, the Easypress comes with its own canvas bag that you store it in. How smart is that? I literally hang this guy up in the closet when I’m done and that is that. No digging it out of a cramped and crazy (and sometimes hot as all get out or freezing cold) garage, dragging it across the house and all of that nightmare that made me dread doing HTV projects, I just swing that sucker out of the closet and get after it. It’s amazing. Oh, and the 14.8 pounds is the weight for the LARGEST of the 3 sizes, the 12×10″ press. The shipping weight of the smallest 6×7″ Easypress is 5.45 pounds and the medium 9×9″ Easypress is 9.65 pounds which are all significantly lighter than a traditional press.
Oh, and I’m going to get my kitchen cart back, too.
You can use the Easypress pretty much anywhere.
Because it is lightweight and compact using the Easypress is so much more convenient than a traditional heat press. I’ve used it on the kitchen table, the top of my desk and, just yesterday on the floor. Say what? Yeah. The floor. You see, I was tired. I’d been working all day and I still had 8 shirts to get a rather complex HTV design on and I had been weeding for the past few hours (literally, ugh) and my back wasn’t very happy with me. When my back gets like this I rather prefer to sit on the ground than in a chair and sometimes standing is just plain agony. I set up my Easypress on the floor and got after it and it worked amazingly well. If I didn’t already love my little Cricut Easypress, sitting there on that floor knocking out one shirt after another super quickly and easily, I’d have been head over heels right then.
Oh, and since the Easypress is one piece you can use it more easily on non-traditional things. Take, for example, when I added HTV to some beach chairs this summer. I first tried using my iron because I was dreading the heat press, but the iron just wouldn’t get hot enough to work. When I did finally make myself go get that darn press and use it, it wasn’t necessarily easy. I had to try and keep the HTV in the place where I wanted it on the chair and then I had to swing and lock that arm down while holding the chair so that it didn’t sag. And I had to just sort of hope that the HTV stayed where I wanted to with all of my maneuverings.
Don’t believe me? There is that massive space heater, erm, heat press on my freaking kitchen cart, no less :)
But I realized today, that with my Easypress it would have been a lot easier. I could just set the chair down on the ground and the press on top. I wouldn’t have to hold both the chair AND the HTV making the whole business so much simpler. Dude, I really wish I had my Easypress this summer. I guess, even in crafts, hindsight truly is 20/20 :)
The Easypress can rival a traditional heat press on pretty much all specs.
After knocking out a whole mess of shirts one after another on several occasions and with both presses, I really, honestly and truly feel like the Cricut Easypress works just as well, you know, like, physically as my full on gigantic press. The Easypress can reach temperatures of 400° (though I don’t believe I’ve ever used a press for more than 320°) and has a ceramic coated surface, which I’ve learned from cooking is straight up better than a plain metal surface. Because it is one piece it can be used more easily on non-traditional items like wood signage, which has me thinking of SO MANY possibilities for it beyond wearable crafts.
And this leads me to my final thoughts on this machine…
A Cricut Easypress really is easy to use.
Now at first, I wasn’t sure how to make the timer go on my Easypress but that was easy enough to figure out. To use your press you turn it on using the power button and set the temperature and timer by tapping each button and then the plus or minus buttons on the other side of the LCD screen. You can watch the temperature go up as it pre-heats but if you have other things to do, it will beep at you to let you know it’s time to rock and roll. Picking the Easypress up off of its base, place it down on your item to press. Hit the green-lit Cricut button and the timer will start counting down. FYI – if the Cricut button is red, not green, it’s not ready to use and still needs to finish preheating. When the timer has finished, the machine will beep. Pick up the press and put it back on its base. Turn your item over, if possible, and press from the backside for a few seconds to help really seal down the heat transfer material. Gently test your material to see if it has successfully transferred. If not, give it a little more time and test again. Boom. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, I tell ya.
And now, let’s actually use that Cricut Easypress, shall we?
Today I’ve made 2 different, both very simple free SVG files perfect for your second Eaypress project. Your first will be making that cute Cricut logo bag to keep your Easypress in! The first of our designs is for all of you dog lovers out there…
If you love dogs, like I love dogs, you totally need this shirt. If you know somebody who cries “dog!” every time they see one, I’ve got to tell you being one of those people, they need you to make them this shirt. Because why ask every single person if you can pet their dog if you don’t have to? This way everybody already KNOWS you’re one of those people before you’ve even started on your way, smiling like a crazy dog lover and beelining to a complete stranger simply because they have a pooch.
Get the SVG free tee shirt cut file – “Can I pet your dog?”
The next design is for any lady with a not so lady-like mouth, which is a group I also am a part of.
Everybody knows somebody who is the sweetest person but they also just happen to be a drops “f-bombs” kind of person, too. Since both my sister and I have been described in just this way, I made us both tee shirts so we can wear our good heart and potty mouths on our tee! :)
Get the SVG free tee shirt cut file – “I’ve got a good heart but this mouth”
Let’s make some fun tees using our free SVG files and our Cricut Easypress 2!
Cut your heat transfer vinyl using the SVG files and weed appropriately.
Check out the directions on your HTV and find out what temperature and time you need to use. Set your Easypress by turning it on, pressing the temperature button and then the plus or minus to the correct temperature. Repeat using the timer button to set the correct time. Give the machine about a minute and get ready to press!
Place your weeded HTV design on the front of your shirt.
Place the shirt on a folded towel, or an Easypress mat. Double check that you’re happy with the design placement and ensure the settings on the Easypress are correct.
Apply light pressure to the press and place down on top of the HTV design. If it doesn’t cover the full area, just do part of the design as the plate can cover it.
Hit the green Cricut button to start the timer and once the timer runs down and the beep goes off place the Easypress back on its base.
If you haven’t worked with a lot of HTV you might panic at first when you realize that the area where your Easypress made contact with the shirt is now significantly darker than the shirt around it. No worries. The very first project I made many, many years ago now had me so bummed because I just knew I had burnt my shirt and ruined it. This will happen and DON’T WORRY! As the fabric cools back down, the color should return to normal. Go ahead and have that big sigh of relief and peel that protective layer off :)
Have I convinced you to give up the heavy heat press or the dinky iron in favor of a Cricut Easypress? Get yours today!
Don’t forget those free cut files!
Grab your “I’ve got a great heart but this mouth” SVG cut file here!
Grab your “Can I pet your dog?” SVG cut file here!
