How to Use the Cricut Mug Press to Make Custom Mugs

This simple tutorial for how to use the Circut Mug Press to make custom mugs will have you making fun, personalized drinkware in no time.

I don’t know about you, but at our house, hot chocolate is consumed in massive quantities as the weather gets colder.

So I thought it would be fun to use the Cricut Mug Press to make some mugs for a little hot chocolate party.

In order to use the Cricut Mug Press, you will need to use sublimation blanks, like the mugs from Cricut, and sublimation inks such as Cricut Infusible Ink.

If you don’t use the proper supplies the finished product will not turn out.

Cricut Mug Press Materials

Cricut Mug Press
Cricut Mug Blank
Cricut Infusible Ink
Cricut Joy Machine
Cricut Cutting Mat
Weeding Tool
Heat resistant tape
Cricut EasyPress Mat
Mug Design (Mine is for a 12 oz mug.)

How to Prepare a Circut Infusible Ink Design

The first you need to do is choose your design.

There are several premade designs or you can make your own as I did.

I opened up the mug design setup under the projects tab in Cricut Design Space and chose the correct size for my mug.

Then I found a simple snowflake and resized it and scattered it across the cut area of the mug design.

When I had them placed how I wanted I simply sliced through the mug design.

You can do it all at once if you weld all of the snowflakes together to create one layer.

Then you use the snowflake layer and the mug design layer and slice.

For more tips on slicing check out my post on how to use the slice feature in Cricut Design Space.

Once I had my design ready it was time to cut it out.

I used my Cricut Joy and the long cutting mat.

For the Cricut Mug Press, you want to use Cricut Infusible Ink.

I chose the solid blue sheet from the Rainbow Paint Splash set of Infusible Ink.

I cut a four-inch wide piece of Infusible Ink and put it color side up on the cutting mat, fed it into the machine, and cut.

Don’t forget to mirror if your design requires that.

Once the design was cut I just weeded out all of the snowflakes leaving all of the background intact.

This way the snowflakes will be white from the mug showing through the design.

Prep your mug by making sure the surface is clean and using a lint roller to remove any debris from the surface.

Then you simply wrap the design snugly around the mug and use some heat-safe tape to tape it in place so that the design doesn’t move.

How to Use the Cricut Heat Press

Now it’s time to press.

Preheat your Cricut Mug Press by plugging it in and turning it on.

When the light turns green and the machine beeps it is ready.

Make sure the lever is up and place the mug down inside, careful not to touch the green heating element, and push the lever down to start the press.

This will push the heat plates around your mug firmly and will start the timer.

The five little lights above the power light are to indicate how long the cycle has left on your press.

These lights will light up as you go through the heating cycle.

When the Cricut Mug Press beeps that it is done simply lift the lever and very carefully take your mug out.

It will be very, very hot, but you should still be able to grab the mug handle with a bare hand.

Just don’t touch the sides of the mug.

Place it on a heat-resistant surface such as an EasyPress mat.

When the mug is cool to the touch you can remove the infusible ink design.

And that’s it.

Your mug is now done and ready to use.

I would wash it with some warm soapy water first and then enjoy a nice cup of hot chocolate.