Cricut Mug Press Hacks

If you have a Cricut Mug Press or are thinking about getting one, you’re going to love these simple Cricut Mug Press hacks. You’re going to be wishing you knew about these sooner. But don’t worry! It’s not too late.

These Cricut hacks will transform the way you think about the Cricut Mug Press. We want all of the Cricut beginners out there to become confident and well-rounded crafters. These tips will take your mug press game to the next level!

Cricut Mug Press Hacks

We have been making so many fun craft projects with our Cricut Mug Press. We can’t wait to show you all of the tips and tricks we have learned.

Supplies we use to create Cricut Mug Press projects:

Cricut Mug Press Infusible Ink vs. Cricut Joy Infusible Ink

You can buy boxes of Infusible Ink for the Cricut Mug Press as well as for the Cricut Joy. Each one has the same amount of Infusible Ink in the box: two sheets, each 4.5 x 12 inches.

The Cricut Joy Infusible Ink is currently priced at $7.99 and the Cricut Mug Press Infusible Ink is $6.99. The only difference between these two, besides the price, is that the one for the Cricut Joy includes two pieces of butcher paper and a small cloth.

Use Cotton Gloves When Handling Infusible Ink

Wear gloves when handling Infusible Ink

You want to handle Infusible Ink as little as possible. The ink can come off on your hands, damaging the Infusible Ink and ruining your results. This is especially true for those of you with clammy hands.

Plain cotton gloves can be really helpful in avoiding these issues.

Use A Brayer To Smooth Out The Infusible Ink

Use a brayer to smooth out Infusible Ink

Along with the gloves, a brayer can be really helpful in smoothing out your Infusible Ink sheets onto your mat. Touching only the ends, place your Infusible Ink down on the mat. Run the brayer over it to smooth it out and adhere it to the mat.

Pro tip: A scraper/burnishing tool is too harsh for Infusible Ink. It can damage the ink.

Weeding Infusible Ink

As with vinyl, we like to weed Infusible Ink on the cutting mat. To minimize touching the mat and the ink, simply turn the mat around so the Infusible Ink is closest to you.

Unfortunately, there may still be a few areas that are difficult to reach. To weed it properly, you would have to lay your hand on the Infusible Ink. To avoid this, lay down the little cotton cloth that comes with the Infusible Ink (or something similar) and lay your hand on top of that.

Place your hand inside the mug to clean it.

It’s important to clean the mug really well before you apply Infusible Ink to it. To do this, we like to place our hand inside the mug to hold it. This allows us to hold the mug securely while cleaning without touching it on the outside.

To Place The Ink On The Mug Place It Handle Facing You

Placing the ink on mug.

When placing the Infusible Ink on the mug, we find it works the best by placing the mug upside down on a sturdy surface with the handle facing you. This way you can wrap the ink around the mug, placing it flush against the tabletop.

We find this technique makes it so much easier to line up the sheet of ink perfectly and center it. Be sure to wrap it really snugly around the mug. You want it to be really tight against the mug.

We recommend using heat-resistant tape.

We highly recommend using heat-resistant tape with your Cricut mug projects. You need to tape down every part of the ink that your Mug Press won’t be able to grab hold of easily.

For example, many mugs have rounded edges that can create a gap when being heated in the mug press. Taping around those edges can ensure that you end up with a good, successful project.

We like to begin by adding the tape to the side opposite the handle first. Place it on the ink sheet first and then, fold over and press down to the bottom of the mug, working from the edge towards the middle to eliminate any air bubbles.

Pro tip: Pre-cut your tape into little pieces or use a tape dispenser to make it quicker and easier to apply.

Using A Skinny Tumbler In A Cricut Mug Press

Using a skinny tumbler in a mug press

You might be thinking that you cannot use one of those tall, skinny sublimation tumblers in your mug press. After all, if you put it in the machine and close the clamps, there will still be a gap.

Grab a piece of cardboard to wrap around the tumbler. This will help add some thickness to the tumbler so that when you close the Cricut Mug Press, the clamps will tighten around it.

In addition, you can flip the tumbler upside down to ensure that you are heating both ends of the tumbler. What about where the opening for the mug handle is? Simply turn the tumbler around.

The key here is to ensure that every single part of the tumbler has been heated in the mug press.

If you’d like to see a step-by-step tutorial on how to make a tumbler that is skinnier and longer than the size of your mug press, we have one available as a Members Only video over in our private Facebook group.