Personalized Bridal Shower Napkins with Cricut and Martha Stewart
We’re eleven weeks out from my daughter’s wedding and we’ve been busy, y’all! Every few weeks my bride-to-be, some of the girls in her wedding party, my mom, my daughter’s stepmom and my sister all come over to my house and we craft the day away. We’ve been making all kinds of goodies for the wedding! My house totally looks like a sweat shop with all those girls crafting in here. :) I seriously can’t wait to see how it all comes together on the wedding day!
In the middle of all the wedding planning, we’ve also been prepping for her Bridal Shower and a Bridesmaid’s Brunch. So much is happening I don’t even know which end is up. It’s crazy town over here!
Anyway, if you know me at all you know that I am all about the personal details. Well, with the help of my Cricut Explore Air 2, Martha Stewart Special Edition (available exclusively at Michaels), we have been personalizing everything, y’all! These personalized napkins were so easy and so cute that I just couldn’t wait to share.
My daughter is a huge mimosa lover, and we’ll be having mimosas at both her shower and the brunch. The bubbly will definitely be flowing, so with the help of the Martha machine and the Martha Stewart EasyPress 2, we were able to customize some “Pop the Bubbly” napkins for my girl. Aren’t they so cute?!!
To Make these Personalized Bridal Shower Napkins You’ll Need:
We used the Cricut Explore Air 2, Martha Stewart Special Edition , but any Cricut cutting machine will work
This project in Design Space
Paper Napkins (I got these marbled ones from Oriental Trading Company)
EasyPress Mat (or something to protect your work surface)
Begin by opening this project in Design Space and clicking “Customize.” When the project opens, select the design and click “Detach” in the bottom right corner of the screen.
Open a text box and type the names that you’d like to personalize the napkins with. I used the “Babette” font for this. When you type the letters, Design Space spaces them pretty far apart. Decrease the letter space until the letters meet like you’d like them to.
Once you have the text how you’d like it, delete the names I have in the project and move your names to that space. Keep the names highlighted, then click “Weld” at the bottom right of the screen. This will ensure that the machine cuts your names out as one full cut instead of cutting out each individual letter.
Next, select the entire design and center it horizontally. Keeping the entire design selected, click “Attach” in the bottom right hand corner. This action keeps all of your design in place when you go to cut. At this point, measure the space in your napkin and determine what dimensions your design needs to be. With the entire design selected, use the width and height options in the top bar menu to size your design to fit the napkin space.
Now you’re ready to cut! Click “Make It” in the top right-hand corner of the screen. Design Space will show you your mat. Click the mirror toggle to “on.” When you are using iron-on, you always want to cut in mirror mode so that the iron-on will display properly on your project. Make sure that you have your material dial set to “Iron-on.”
Quick note: If you’d like to cut more that one decal at a time, simply select your design and click “Duplicate” prior to clicking “Make It.” Design Space will add the additional images to your cutting mat.
Load your iron-on material onto a Standard Grip Cutting Mat, shiny side down. Load the mat and click the blinking button to cut.
Once the images are all cut, it’s time to weed! Peel away the large pieces of negative vinyl, then use a weeding tool to pull out the vinyl from in between the letters. I love to use my Cricut Bright Pad for weeding! It lights up the cut lines making it soooo much easier to see what needs to be pulled out!
Pressing the iron-on is my favorite part! Are you ready?!!
Preheat your Martha EasyPress 2 to 315 degrees and set the timer for 30 seconds. You can absolutely use an iron for this if you don’t have an EasyPress, but an EasyPress gives you successful adhesion in less than a minute, and precise temperature control for flawless transfers every time. It’s kind of a guessing game with an iron.
Next, protect your work surface. You can use a towel on your countertop, but I prefer the EasyPress Mat. Place the napkin on the mat.
Press the EP2 to the napkin for about 5 seconds to preheat the material. Situate the design onto the napkin where you’d like it to be adhered, place the EP2 over the design and apply slight pressure, then push the “C” Cricut button on the EP2. The timer will count down 30 seconds.
When the 30 seconds is over, flip the napkin over and press for an additional 15 seconds. Let the napkin cool just a bit, then peel away the carrier sheet. Ta-dahhhhh!!! Look how CUTE that personalized bridal shower napkin is!!!
Guys, planning your daughter’s wedding with her is a pretty special thing. I’ve gotta tell ya, though, to have the ability to design and create things that are customized specifically for her and her big day…well, that’s pretty darn remarkable. There are a million and one things I love about owning a Cricut machine, but being able to create such personal pieces like this just might top the list. ❤︎