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It's ideal for those looking to create beautifully bespoke gifts for their friends or family Portable women’s Thermos Cup
The Cricut Mug Press is a must-have piece of creative kit that lets you transfer your own design onto mugs in minutes.
Cricut has transformed home crafts, allowing excellent, consistent results for a whole range of projects at the touch of a button and this mug heat press is no different.
The much-anticipated Mug Press officially launched last October, quickly selling out due to its popularity. Thankfully it's now back in stock.
Here’s what you need to know about the must-have machine and where to buy it.
The £180 machine allows users to create their own personalised mugs by way of a process called sublimation. It's perfect for those who want to create beautifully bespoke gifts for family, friends, and teachers without having to invest in a full sublimation printer set-up.
It works with Infusible Ink transfer sheets, pens and markers, meaning you can seamlessly incorporate your designs onto specially coated sublimation mugs, with no sign of flakes, peeling or cracks.
What’s more, the mugs created are dishwasher friendly, making it easy on the washing up.
You can buy the Cricut Mug Press right now.
As well as the Mug Press, you'll need a Cricut machine to create your design using the design studio.
Depending on your design, you'll need infusible ink pens or infusible ink transfer sheets, which are available in a wide range of colours and prints. You'll also need infusible ink-compatible mugs – also known as sublimation mugs – in order for your project to work. The Cricut Mug Press is designed to work on 82-86mm diameter mugs with straight walls only.
Using Cricut Design Studio, you create your mug design and use your Cricut machine to make the transfer in mirror image using infusible ink products.
Once you've created your design using Cricut infusible ink materials, attach it to your mug by carefully placing the transfer sheet around your mug, securing it with heatproof tape and placing it in the machine.
With a patent-pending heat plate design, Cricut Mug Press applies the optimal amount of heat and pressure with an easy, one-touch setting.
One button starts the transfer of your design to the mug, LEDs track the progress of your press, and a beep lets you know when it's done. All you have to do is insert, press, and ta-da!
Be sure to use your Mug Press in a well-ventilated space and have heat-safe surfaces to hand.
Using Cricut infusible inks to make a project is essentially sublimation just in a slightly different form.
With standard sublimation, you would use a specialised printer and inks to print your chosen design onto sublimation paper. Sublimation in this form can be a great craft to get into and even develop into a hobby side hustle or small craft business, but the initial set-up can be costly. The most basic sublimation printers start from around £300; once you add on the cost of ink refills and sublimation paper, the costs quickly mount even more.
With Cricut Infusible Ink, you get the fantastic finish of sublimation but without the cost. The infusible ink sheets come either as solid colours or patterned designs. The sublimation/infusible ink is already applied to the surface of the sheets so you just have to cut your chosen design with your Cricut machine, weed the unneeded parts away and then press the design onto your project with a heat press.
There is also the option to use Cricut Infusible Ink pens. With infusible ink pens, you can draw a design (free-hand or using a Cricut machine with the pens added into the tool adaptor) onto laser printer paper and then transfer that directly to your project by pressing with a heat press
Yes! Although the Cricut Mug Press has been optimised to work best with its infusible ink range, it will also work with designs printed onto standard sublimation paper.
No. You need to use specially coated mugs to transfer infusible ink designs with the Cricut Mug Press. These can either be Cricut branded mug blanks or off-brand sublimation mugs; just be sure to check that the sizes are compatible with the Mug Press before using them.
The length of time it takes to press a mug with the Cricut Mug Press can vary depending on the ambient temperature of your mug and the room you’re working in, but on average, it takes about 6 minutes for the Cricut Mug Press to complete a full press.
If the mug is too cold, it can take longer for the heat transfer process to happen; you can always warm your mug up slightly beforehand by putting it in the press without any design applied and heating it for 30 seconds.
Cricut suggests letting your mug rest for 15-30 minutes to cool down before fully handling it. When using any kind of heat press, it is advisable to take precautions to protect yourself from burns with items such as heat-resistant gloves.
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