I just love love love to make DIY Infusible Ink Coasters with my cutting machine! I remember when I first started making them, the frustration behind it almost made me quit, but I just loved how they looked. So I kept practicing and thought, let’s create an article that will hopefully save you a lot of headaches and frustrations! So you can make perfect DIY Infusible Ink coasters with no problems.
If you are brand new to Infusible Ink, please check out my What is Infusible Ink? A Ultimate Guide to learning Infusible Ink. Plus there is a tote bag tutorial in there for you to start with.
Infusible Ink is absolutely amazing because it actually infuses into the blank (base material) you are using. It doesn’t sit on top like Vinyl or iron on and infusible ink also stretches with your material if you use it on a shirt! I just love the outcome of our DIY Infusible Ink projects.
I am so thrilled to teach you how to make DIY Infusible Ink Round Coasters! This post may contain some affiliate links for your convenience (which means if you make a purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you! Read my full disclosure here.
Materials Needed for DIY Infusible Ink Coasters
- Design Space
- Cutting Machine– Explore Air family or Maker
- Cutting mat-Green
- Fine Point Blade
- White Cardstock or white Cardstock
- Heat Resistant Tape
- Infusible Ink Transfer Sheets- black and retro marbles
- Compatible Infusible Ink Coasters
- Butcher Paper- Comes in box with transfer sheets
- Heat Press– An Iron will not work for this because it doesn’t get hot enough
Making our four Coasters in Design Space
The first thing we need to do is design the coasters how we want them in Cricut design space.
Let us open Cricut Design Space and Start a Blank Canvas. On a blank canvas let’s set our 4 circles to 3.6 inches, which is the size of the round ceramic coasters we will be working with.
So let’s go into our left side panel and click on shapes. Next, let’s grab a circle and size it to 3.6 in width and height. Once that is sized, let us duplicate it three times so we have four circles. How to resize and duplicate are down below.
Resizing the circles
Now it’s time to resize the circles that are representing our coasters.
There are two ways you can do this.
First way to resize
You can select the circle and drag it out with the two arrows pointing in the opposite directions (bottom right hand corner).
Second way to resize
The second way is to head on up to the top panel and put the exact size into the size icon. 3.6 x 3.6
Now lets duplicate that circle 3 times. So we now have 4 round circles that are 3.6 in W and H.
Two ways to Duplicate
First way to duplicate
Select the circle and if you right click (depending on what kind of computer you are on it may vary) then hit duplicate.
Second way to duplicate
Select the circle in which you want to duplicate and head up to the top of the right hand panel and hit duplicate until you have all four circles.
Need a bit of help with the icons in design space? NO problem. Head on over to my AWESOME Ultimate Beginners Guide to Cricut Design Space
So we should now have 4 different circles on our canvas that are sized to 3.6 in W and H.
Selecting the design we want for our Coasters
Now that we have 4 circles on our canvas that represent the coasters we are working with, it’s now time to figure out what we want on our coasters! I am doing an Under the Sea Theme for my coasters!
Let us go into images on our left side panel and search for a fish, sea horse, a turtle, and a crab.
The numbers for these images are below! All you have to do is copy and paste them into the search bar in images if you want to make the same ones:) Once they pop up, select them, and insert them onto your canvas.
Numbers of the images I used
- Fish- #M2761F80
- Sea Horse- #M46607
- Turtle- #M2EDE203
- Crab- #M2833481
We should now have four circles and four images on our canvas like the below image shows.
As you can see the images above have layers to them and we don’t want any layers. So we are going to ungroup these images one by one and get rid of the back layer.
So let’s go ahead and select our fish and head up to our right side panel and hit the ungroup icon (Second icon). Then delete the back layer. (see image below)
Now do the same thing for the seahorse, turtle, and crab.
We are now ready to size these images inside our round circles. The sizes I sized mine to are below.
- Fish- 3.2 (W) x 3.062 (H)
- Sea Horse- 1.726 (W) x 3.385 (H)
- Turtle- 3.042 (W) x 3 (H)
- Crab- 3.34 (W) x 2.485 (H)
Once you have all of the images sized, we are now ready to align them how we want them. I personally want them centered.
Aligning the Images to the Center of the circle
So we now have everything sized and are ready to align the images to the center of the circle. Let’s start with the fish, which is a bit bigger than the coaster. I was ok with the fins being cut off.
Aligning the Fish
Let’s select the fish, hold your shift key down, and select the circle it’s on. So both are now selected. Let’s head up to the top panel and find align, which is to the left of arrange. Click on that and find align center and select it. (see image below)
We are going to repeat that for each of our circles and images. Use the picture for a guide if you need to.
So we now have all four aligned:) WOOHOO! You are doing fabulous!
We are now ready to slice these.
Slicing the Images out of the circle (slice and set method)
So we are now ready to slice these images from the circle which is also called Slice and Set. What this means for this project is that we are going to slice the fish from the circle and set a different colored fish in there.
Step 1
We are going to select the fish, hold your shift key down, and select the circle. Now let’s head over to the bottom of the right panel and find the slice icon, which is the first icon, and hit it. (See image Below)
We are going to do that for each circle. So next would be the Seahorse and circle.
So select the Sea Horse, hold your shift key down, and select the circle. Now let’s head over to the bottom of the right panel and find the slice icon, which is the first icon, and hit it.
Repeat for the Turtle and also the crab
Slice Results
The photo below shows the results for the slices.
I am not sure if this matters, but I always delete the slice result and keep the original image.
So let’s go ahead and delete each slice result and we are now left with the original shapes and the circles:)
Just one more delete- you do NOT need the fins that got cut off. So you can delete those too, but keep the fish!
You should now have 4 shapes-fish, seahorse, turtle, and crab, and also the four circles. (results are Below)
Now lets select our Fish, hold the shift key down, and select the Seahorse, Turtle, and Crab. Head up to the top panel and find the color and change these to one color. (see Image Below)
As you can see the shapes will fit perfectly inside the circle. We will set them into the holes once it is cut:) (Slice and Set)
We are now ready to move on to the Make it Screen, so go hit that aqua button on the top right hand side.
Make It Icon
Preparing your mats
Oh we are just so close:) I am soooo Excited. So here we should have 2 mats. The one with the circles and the ones with the shapes.
There is ONE VERY IMPORTANT THING WE NEED TO DO HERE! We need to MIRROR each mat.
Even though we don’t need to, it’s a good habit to get into! I can’t tell you how many times I have personally forgot to do this. But if you make it a habit to do it right away you will not forget.
Now lets hit continue and move on to the machine and material screen.
Machine and Material Screen
We are now ready to select our machine. Which in my case is the maker. Then we are going to select the material we are working with which is Infusible Ink Transfer Sheets.
NOTE: if for some reason Infusible Ink Transfer Sheets is not on your main material screen.
Hit Browse all Materials then in the search bar type in Infusible and it should pop up. (see Image Below)
Explore Air 2- Choose the “custom” material setting and select Infusible Ink Transfer Sheets from the menu in design space.
So our little machine is now flashing and ready to go!
Prepping your cutting mat
Let’s grab our green cutting mat and for the circle, I am using the Infusible Ink Transfer Sheets- Patterns, Retro Marble. I am making two blue coasters and two orange coasters. If you want them all the same color, that’s ok too! You can do all four blue or all four orange. I will explain both.
2 blue 2 orange coasters
Real quick, let’s look under mat 1 and there is an edit button (AQUA). Click on that and your mat pulls up to edit. Figure out what two you want orange and what two you want blue and move them side by side like the image below shows.
I did space them out a bit more after the took the picture.
Now take your orange transfer sheet and cut it big enough for the two bottom circles and do the same with the blue for the top circles. You can see the two different boxes below. Those are your different transfer sheets .
Once you got them cut go ahead and place them on your mat, ink side facing up and we are ready to cut!
All four one color
Let’s grab the infusible ink transfer sheet, trim it down to the size we need, and place it on our mat- ink side facing up.
Loading the mat into our cricut machine
Make sure your cricut has the fine point blade and we are ready to load our mat in our machine.
The arrow light will be flashing, so lets press that and it will load the mat.
Once that is done, your cricut button will be waiting to be pressed. OFF your mat goes to be cut by this Awesome machine.
Design Space will then let you know when it is done cutting, when you get that prompt go ahead and unload your cutting mat.
Peel off the Infusible Ink Transfer Sheet(s) , then place the black Infusible Ink Transfer Sheet down, ink side facing you, for the Shapes.
Hit the flashing arrows, which will load, and then the cricut icon and off your machine goes again.
When it’s done unload the mat and again peel off the infusible ink transfer sheet. And we are now ready to weed.
Weeding our Under the Sea Designs for our DIY Infusible Ink Coasters
The easiest I have found is by hand. So make sure you wash your hands and your hands are clean! If you leave oils on the transfer sheets that may affect the outcome of your project!
DO NOT WEED WITH THE NORMAL WEEDING TOOLS! That may ruin your design
The transfer sheet is so thick and easily rolls and bends so you can pick the pieces out that you don’t need. And if you didn’t use the whole sheet make sure you cut off the extra before you start weeding.
Now, we are ready to weed our design out. Infusible ink is a bit different to weed.
You can begin by cracking the sheet- Gently bend and roll the transfer sheet between your hands to crack the pre-inked transfer sheet. Then start peeling away everything that doesn’t belong on there to be transferred to our DIY Coasters.
Now the Design should be the only thing left on your transfer sheets. Everything else we weeded out.
It’s now time to take our black transfer sheet design and peel it off and place it right in the space on the circle that we sliced. Align them just like a puzzle piece. It should be an exact fit.
You can use the Brayer here and roll over the design so everything is stuck to the circle carrier sheet!
Wiping off our Coaster Blank
Our design is now weeded and set, and we are ready to get our blanks ready to be pressed.
So let’s open the blank package of coasters, grab that little towel that comes in the package, and start wiping off the blanks to make sure there are no dust particles on there.
Now that they are cleaned, we are now ready to attach these designs to the coasters, and use our heat resistant tape to secure the design to our coasters.
Securing the Design onto our DIY coasters
Lay out the four different circles, which should have the images set in the circles. Next take your coasters, one at a time, and lay them down on our design centering it as best you can.
Once you are happy with the placement, lets cut two-four pieces of our heat transfer tape and secure the design to our coasters. Make sure it’s covering the entire coaster.
Heat Press
Set your heat press to 400 degrees and let that heat up. Once that is heated up to 400 degrees we are now ready to press our design onto our coasters:)
Laying out our coasters
So I do not have a cricut heat press, I will be pressing them all together on my industrial heat press. I am pretty sure that you can press them all together.
You want to grab your heat press mat and put a piece of white cardstock down, then set your coasters on the cardstock. Lay your coasters so the design carrier sheet is on your mat and you can see the back of the coasters.
Now that our coasters are on the white cardstock, lets take our butcher paper and cover them.
Cricut suggests that you press for 240 seconds with no pressure on them.
Because of my heat press, I personally do apply pressure because mine locks into place and holds the same amount of pressure the whole time.
Once your 240 seconds are up, go ahead and lift your heat press and butcher paper off the coasters and let them COOL.
WARNING- YOUR COASTERS WILL BE EXTREMELY HOT! DO NOT TOUCH THEM. Let them cool down for about 10-20 minutes and then you can remove your carrier sheet.
You just made your very own DIY Infusible Ink Under The Sea Coasters
There’s nothing more satisfying than removing that liner to see a bright beautiful professional looking design on your blank that you made! So well done my amazing friend!
I hope you found this Tutorial extremely helpful! Now I want to see your designs! Make sure you leave a comment below with a picture of your creation!
I am so super excited to see what your creations look like!
Again make sure to follow me on Instagram and Facebook and tag me so I can see your awesome creations!
NOW let me see pictures of your projects! Share and comment below!
More Projects?
