DIY: Iron Man Mug with Cricut Design Space

So if you haven’t heard by now, I got a Cricut Explore Air 2 for Christmas. I absolutely love it, and now I’m constantly thinking of fun, geeky projects I can make with it. So far I’ve made Game of Thrones wine glasses (I drink and I know things) and a Star Wars 2018 headband (to ring in the NY with the force).

And since we just watched Iron Man for week two of the Marvel Movie Marathon Challenge, I decided to make my own Iron Man mug with glitter vinyl, because Iron Man deserves a little sparkle.

DIY: Iron Man Mug with Cricut Design Space

What you need:

• Cricut and Cricut Design Space
• Mug of your choice (I found my glass mug at the Dollar Store!)
• Red and gold glitter vinyl
• Transfer tape
• Cricut weeder, scraper, and grip mat
• Iron Man png downloads (available below)

To start, download these two Iron Man png files. The first one will be used for the solid red background of Tony Stark’s helmet. The second one is the gold face plate.

Load your files into Cricut Design Space. Measure your mug and determine how large you’d like the decal to be. For my mug, I chose to make the red helmet two inches tall and the gold face mask 1.05 inches wide. (Note — Make sure Cricut Design Space maintains the file proportions when you adjust the height and width.)

Once your first file for the helmet shape is loaded and resized, place the red glitter vinyl on your grip mat and follow the instructions on your screen to cut the shape.

Once the cutting is complete, weed the extra vinyl and set the helmet shape aside.

Next, load the second file of the face plate into your Cricut Design Space. Once you have sized the file accordingly, place your gold glitter vinyl on your grip mat and follow the instructions on the screen to cut out the face plate.

Once the cutting is complete, weed the extra vinyl until you have only the face plate left.

Apply transfer tape over the gold face plate and vigorously use the scraper to adhere the transfer tape to the glitter vinyl. Note — glitter vinyl is more challenging to transfer, so make sure you scrape both the back and front of your decal to get the tape to stick.

Once ready, slowly pull the gold face mask off of the white backing with it sticking to the transfer tape.

Next, carefully place the gold face mask in the middle of your red helmet and smooth the transfer tape over both pieces of vinyl. Using the same piece of transfer tape which is still applied to the gold face mask, use the scraper to adhere the transfer tape to both pieces of glitter vinyl, and set aside momentarily.

Clean and dry your mug. If you’re using a glass mug like mine, pour enough water into the mug to use as a guide of where you’d like the bottom of your decal to sit.

Next, remove the white backing from your decal, leaving both layers of the Iron Man decal on the transfer tape. Carefully place the decal where you’d like on your mug and smooth out any bumps or air bubbles starting in the center and pushing them out to the edge.

Once the decal is securely and smoothly placed, slowly peel off the transfer tape. And voila! You’ve got an Iron Man (glitter!) mug.

Prepare for Avengers: Infinity War in May and start your own Marvel Movie Marathon by watching all 18 (yep, there’s that many!) movies in chronological order.

And if you’re looking for more Marvel DIY activities, check out my Captain America Apple Pie.

How will you prepare for Avengers: Infinity War?