New Years Eve Napkins (and the 5 Reasons I love my Cricut Explore Air2!)

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut . The opinions and text are all mine.

Christmas is literally around the corner (I’m still wrapping!!!) but what I find creeps up even quicker is New Years Eve!  If you plan on hosting this year, and you’re thinking of going an eco-friendly route with your table settings, then you must check out these DIY New Years Eve napkins I made with my favourite toys (Cricut Explore Air 2 and EasyPress 2 machines).  But first, in case you’re doing any last minute Christmas shopping, I want to tell you at least 5 reasons why I love my Cricut Explore Air 2.  If you have someone crafty on your shopping list, I promise you this machine will not disappoint!

Reason#1:  It cuts everything!

This is one of the biggest reasons why I love playing with this machine so much.  It can cut glitter cardstock, it can cut vinyl, it can cut iron-on transfers, pretty much anything!

Reason#2:  Design Space is easy to use!

Cricut’s design space makes it easy to design your project and create it!  What I also love is that, depending on what material you’re cutting, it will remind you how to load the material properly.  For example if you’re creating an iron-on transfer, it will tell you to mirror your image and place the material with the shiny side facing down on your mat. These little reminders have saved me every.single.time.

Reason#3:  It’s a fast cutting machine!

Every time I create a project with my Cricut , I’m amazed at how quickly this machine gets the job done!  Case in point, the napkins I’m going to show you how to create down below.  I set my machine up to cut out my iron-on transfer and it was done faster than me pouring a cup of coffee!

Reason#4:  Creating a design is easy!

I’m no graphic artist so I’m forever grateful that Cricut has built in images, word plays and accessories that I can use in my projects instead of designing everything from scratch!

Reason#5:  It’s portable and beautiful!

Ok this may be a shallow reason to love a machine so much but it really is a beautiful machine that is quite portable!  I use it in my craft space, in my dining room, on the floor, etc.  It doesn’t take much space and the design is smart and sleek – two important features for technology in my opinion!

DIY New Years Eve Napkins

Now I cheated a bit and I personalized some IKEA napkins but you could grab some light cotton or linen and make the napkins first before personalizing them!

Design your Iron-On Transfer

Cricut is fantastic in that it offers you a design space that has pre-loaded images and sayings that you can use to customize your project.  In this case I used one of their fonts and some confetti images they had.  (Psst…click this link to use the same image I used for my napkins!)

Cut and Weed your Image

Don’t forget that with iron-on transfers, mirror the image and put the shiny side of the transfer paper DOWN before cutting!)

Transfer your Image onto your Fabric

I fired up my EasyPress2 and warmed the machine up to the “Cotton” setting at 150 C.  (I’m Canadian – we use Celsius!). I also set the timer for how long I actually needed to press the iron-on transfer to my fabric – in this case 30 seconds. I took my EasyPress mat (you could use a towel as well) on a hard surface and placed my fabric on top.  Then I warmed up the fabric first and applied my iron-on transfer (this time, shiny side up!).  I applied pressure with my EasyPress2  for 30 seconds at a time on both sides of the fabric.

All that’s left is to peel back the plastic film from your iron-on transfer and repeat!  (I always get excited seeing the finished product!)

I have to show you what I used as a napkin ring holder – it’s a flask!!! (tee hee)