Easy Fall Pillow with Cricut's Infusible Ink

Ever since Cricut came out with Infusible Ink I have been obsessed with how it bonds so completely to whatever surface you put it on. It doesn’t sit on top of the surface, it literally bonds to the surface. So when these little pillow covers came out I knew I had to whip up a few.

And fall is the perfect excuse to whip up a few pretty new pillows… especially since I have 5 new Fall SVG’s to play with! (You can get all 5 SVG’s for FREE here!).

In the mean time let’s get started making these pretty pillows!

Supplies:

Cricut Maker
Fine-Point Cutting Blade
Strong Grip Cutting Mat (that’s the purple one!)
Cricut Easy Press 12 x 10
Easy Press Mat
Cricut Pillow Blank
18″ Pillow Insert
Cricut Infusible Ink (Black and Distressed Berry)
Heat Resistant Tape
Essential Tool Set
“Fall” SVG’s (FREE at the Bottom of this post)

Fall Inspired Infusible Ink Pillows

Ready to take the leap but not sure which machine is right for you? Check out my Explore Air 2 and Maker comparison before pulling the trigger. I go over the pro’s and con’s of each machine and even have an easy to read check list of each machine’s features so you can decided which cutting machine is perfect for you.

Step 1: Prep your Project

For this project we’ll need black infusible ink and two sheets that are different colors. You can pick any two colors you like but in my stash this distressed berry had the best two coordinating colors… I just love that dark berry color for a pumkin!

Since I’m making two pillows (with 2 SVG’s) I needed a total of 1 dark colored sheet (the dark berry), 1 light colored sheet (the lighter pink color) and two black sheets.

If you’re only making one pillow you’ll only need one black sheet.

Now go ahead and upload your SVG into Cricut Design Space and size them to fit on a 12 by 12 sheet of infusible ink. Since our pillows are 18 by 18 an dour infusible ink sheet is only 12 x 12 we want the design to be as large as possible. Size both of your SVG’s to the proper size and then hit go to see how they look on the cutting mats.

Luckily the two SVG’s I picked (the large cheetah print pumpkin and the “Welcome to our Patch”) were able to cut on the same colored sheet… so our dark berry sheet of infusible ink should have a large pumpkin and a small pumpkin cut out… and the same with the lighter pink.

At this point you can place all four of your infusible ink sheets on a cutting mat (I always use a purple strong grip mat for infusible ink). Of course if you only have one cutting mat you can load that mat, cut it, remove the infusible ink sheet and then load the second infusible ink sheet etc BUT this is why I like to keep multiple cutting mats around. It’s much easier if you can just load up all 4, cut all 4 and then remove all 4.

All set? Now we can cut our design! Make sure you have mirrored the design and then click make it.

Just look at those crisp clear cut lines! I always love infusible ink because it cuts so beautifully and the cut lines are so easy to see! I love vinyl (don’t get me wrong) but you never need a light pad with infusible ink the way you do with vinyl.

Plus no weeding tool!!

Alright… back to the project.

Once all of your mats are done cutting you can close your cricut and turn it off. Then carefully remove your infusible ink sheets from your cutting mats. Remember that these are ink sheets so you need to handle them with clean, dry hands… on a clean dry surface. Any moisture will mess up the ink.

Which is not good.

So make sure your work surface is clean (and dry… I know, I know I already said that) before you flip your cutting mat over. Then hold onto the infusible ink sheet and carefully roll your cutting mat away. This will help your infusible ink sheet from curling anymore than it already has.

Step 2: Weed your Design

Now it’s time for the fun part… weeding your design! Unlike vinyl you don’t’ need a weeding tool for your infusible ink sheet… in fact a weeding tool is more likely to rip your design than your fingers.

Since the infusible ink sheet is thicker it’s usually easy enough to start pulling the extra ink off with your fingers. You’ll want to remove all the negative space or areas that you don’t need… the areas around the letters, the insides of the o’s or e’s… and all those little areas inside the pumpkins!

For this particular project start by only weeding the two black infusible ink sheets! Just make sure to leave the cheetah spots!

On a completely unrelated note my kitty Lily decided to help at this point so if you want to play a game of see how often she moves her legs you can check her out in the upper left hand corner. I don’t know about y’all but I certainly found her amusing.

Step 3: Add the Colored Areas

Alright now… let’s move on to the colored infusible ink sheets.

Since infusible ink can only be heated up once per project you can’t place the black sheet, heat it up, place the berry sheet, heat it up and then place the light pink sheet and heat it up.

Nope we need all three colors to be merged onto one carrier sheet in order to heat them all up at once.

Luckily this is much easier in practice than it sounds.

Start by carefully peeling your berry/pink areas of the design up one by one (be careful not to curl them) and then fit them down into their spots on the black infusible ink carrier sheets.

Basically add the pink/berry colors to the inside of the pumpkin!

Carefully line each section up and then use your fingers to press it into place… they fit together pretty easily so if you’re the kind of person that really likes meticulous weird projects (like watching dirty grout become clean again) this is for you.

Doesn’t it look amazing?! I just love how all the colors look!

Now go ahead and turn on your easy press (in this case I’m using my larger 12 by 10 easy press in order to press the entire design at once) and let it heat up. You want to set the easy press to 380 and 60 seconds for infusible ink so it will take a minute to get there… while it’s heating up you can weed and put together the other pillow design!

It has a smaller pumpkin which takes a second to piece together.

Step 4: Use your Easy Press to Apply the Infusible Ink

Now let’s get to the good stuff… actually making our pillows!! Go ahead and unfold your pillow form and place it on your easy press mat. Make sure that the zipper is on the bottom side so that it’s hidden once your pillow is made.

Then use your easy press to pre-heat the pillow and remove as much of that crease as possible! (You can do this while the easy press is heating up… it doesn’t need to be at 350 to pre-heat something).

Then carefully place your design down on your pillow cover. Make sure it’s straight and then smooth it out… the carrier sheet is sticky so it should smooth into place nicely. Of course, since infusible ink needs to stay put while it’s being heated up (or you get that weird fuzzy halo around the edges) it’s always best to secure your carrier sheet with a few pieces of heat resistant tape on the corners.

Beautiful!! Now if your easy press is at 350 you’re good to go. Carefully pick it straight up and set it straight down on top of your design… then hit the green cricut button to start the timer.

You don’t want to accidentally move the easy press while it’s heating up the infusible ink and you don’t need any additional pressure for this one so once you hit the button you can leave it alone to do it’s thing.

Then once the timer is done lift the easy press straight up and put it back on it’s base. You’ll notice that the infusible ink sheet has started to come up from the pillow cover… that’s how you know it’s done transferring the ink!

Of course, at this point you really want to see how it turned out (trust me, I get it. Patience is a virtue) BUT that baby is hot, like it was just heated up to 350 degrees so don’t touch it hot. Instead leave it to cool for a few minutes and then once it’s cool to the touch you can peel away the carrier sheet and look at the design.

In this case I simply picked this pillow cover (and easy press mat) up and moved them to the side… then put down a new easy press mat and my second pillow cover.

Then I used my hot easy press to apply the infusible ink to the second pillow cover while the first one was cooling. Once this baby is done your first pillow cover should be ready to go!

Just peel up the carrier sheet, remove any infusible ink pieces that have fallen onto your piece and volia!

Beautiful darling!

Ready for the finished results?!

I absolutely love how they turned out! I was a little upset I didn’t have any orange infusible ink in my stash (but not upset enough to go to the store) but I love the darker berry color and the light pink… these babies still totally read as fall to me!

Just take a look!