Custom tumblers and water bottles have become increasingly popular with the rise of Etsy. I do not argue that they make great gifts and are fun to use around the house. They are an easy thing to DIY with the right equipment and materials and ultimately save time and money compared to ordering online. You can easily get a 100% unique item, suited to your occasion.
For this craft I'll be using...
- assorted vinyl
- transfer paper
- plastic wine tumblers (found at local craft store, dollar store or amazon)
- cricut
The first step is to decide on an overall design for your tumbler, including text and shapes. I was making mine as a birthday gift for my best friend. We are so close, we often refer to each other as sisters. I decided on cutting out our names and "Big Sister" and "Lil Sister" for each of our cups. I also made small flowers to sit near our names.
First I set up the cuts for the flowers. I used google image search to find a two silhoette images of flowers. This is a great way to cut down your crafting cost. You don't need cricutaccess to cut out images. Google Image Search has hundreds of thousands of images that you can upload and edit as you desire. The only catch is that projects with uploaded images cannot be shared or made public on Cricut Design Space. I uploaded the images that I found to my Cricut account and removed the background. I sized these images to 1" x 1" and made 3 copies of each. I went ahead and cut them out of bright pink and orange vinyl. Once my flowers were cut, the inside measured about .4". I used the "shapes" tool on the toolbar of Cricut Design Studio to set up small circle cuts to create the pollen of my flowers. I made 6 copies of my circle and cut these out of bright yellow vinyl. I used my fingers to gently lift these (you can also use the tweezers) from the vinyl backing paper and set them into the center of my flowers. I then used the transfer paper to lift each individual flower onto my cups. I arranged them in a group towards the bottom.
Next I worked on my lettering. My cups measured 6 inches tall. I selected a font and typed out my lettering. I rotated accordingly and welded to get a single cut. Once I had each text as a single layer, I sized them to fit the cups. I went with 4 inches in height for our names and the Big Sister/Lil Sister cuts. I went with a bright green vinyl and set up my cut. Once it was finished, I used the weeding tool to remove the insides of letters like "e" and "b". With my transfer paper, I lifted it from the vinyl backing, used the guidelines and pressed it onto my tumblers on opposite sides.
First I set up the cuts for the flowers. I used google image search to find a two silhoette images of flowers. This is a great way to cut down your crafting cost. You don't need cricutaccess to cut out images. Google Image Search has hundreds of thousands of images that you can upload and edit as you desire. The only catch is that projects with uploaded images cannot be shared or made public on Cricut Design Space. I uploaded the images that I found to my Cricut account and removed the background. I sized these images to 1" x 1" and made 3 copies of each. I went ahead and cut them out of bright pink and orange vinyl. Once my flowers were cut, the inside measured about .4". I used the "shapes" tool on the toolbar of Cricut Design Studio to set up small circle cuts to create the pollen of my flowers. I made 6 copies of my circle and cut these out of bright yellow vinyl. I used my fingers to gently lift these (you can also use the tweezers) from the vinyl backing paper and set them into the center of my flowers. I then used the transfer paper to lift each individual flower onto my cups. I arranged them in a group towards the bottom.
These tumblers are easily customized. I have made similar ones for my husband and I with "Mr" and "Mrs" written on them. They make great gifts as long as they are taken care of and are a relatively inexpensive endeavor. Similar personalized or monogrammed items on Etsy or through retailers like Tervis sell for $20+ per cup, plus $8-$10 for shipping. Minus the initial investment of my Cricut, this craft cost less than $5 total, to make 2 separate, completely custom cups. I already had the vinyl that I needed around the house and only used 1"-2" off of each roll, leaving the majority untouched. To buy new rolls of vinyl for this project would have been more expensive, but single sheets retail for $1 each at Michaels, cheaper with the regular running 40% coupon. I could easily have purchased the 4 colors that I used for less than $3. I found my tumblers locally at the Dollar Tree, so they cost $1 each. This is an overall savings of about 90% from retail.
Plain tumblers and water bottles are readily available at local craft stores and dollar stores. I use outdoor-grade, permanent vinyl that I order from Amazon. It is also available at your local craft store. Although it is waterproof, I recommend hand washing tumblers and cups like this to keep them in tip-top shape for as long as possible.