Modern Flower Pillow Cover Using the NEW Cricut EasyPress 2

Friends! I am thrilled to talk to you about this project! I’ve been in search of some new pillows for my living room and have not been able to find anything I like in the stores in my area, so of course, I decided to design and create my own! I was also recently excited to receive the Cricut EasyPress 2 machine in the size 9″x 9″ and just knew it would be perfect to use for this project. I’ll share all my thoughts with you about this machine as well as how to design and create a lovely pillow of your own! I’ll also share the link to the design I made in case you love it as much as I do!

This post is fully sponsored by Cricut. They supplied me with the machines and materials and also compensated me for writing this post. All thoughts and opinions are mine and I promise to always give honest reviews! I never review a product I don’t like (and have turned down many for that reason.) There are also affiliate links in this post, which means if you purchase something after clicking through one of those I get a small commission, at no extra cost to you. For more information, see my Disclosures page.

What you’ll need:

• A Cricut cutting machine – I’ll be using my Cricut Maker machine
• Standard Grip machine mat
• Cricut Design Space™
• Everyday Iron-On, Boho Sampler
• Cricut EasyPress 2 – size 9″x 9″
• EasyPress Mat

What you need to know about the Cricut EasyPress 2!

Friends, this brand new machine is really awesome and I’m excited to tell you about it. It has made all of my iron-on projects vastly easier and faster to complete. The EasyPress 2 comes in three different sizes! If you are only using it for small projects, like a baby onesie or dishtowels, then I’d recommend the 6″x 7″ size. If you’re doing projects like small t-shirt designs or small pillow cover designs then the 9″x 9″ size will be perfect. However if you’re doing larger projects all the time then you’ll want to go with the 12″x 10″ size. I think it’s so fantastic that this is offered in different sizes to accomodate our needs. No need to have a huge machine if you’re just doing a tiny little iron-on decal.

I’ll be using the 9″x 9″ for this project, so the rest of the review will refer to that machine specifically. The EasyPress 2 is so easy to use! I can’t wait to show you how simple it is and how professional the iron-on looks in under a minute! And don’t you just love that beautiful raspberry color?

Designing:

I’m going to share a couple screen shots to show you how I designed this in Cricut Design Space and the steps to cut it out. If you are really experienced with Design Space, then feel free to scroll down to the Cutting heading and read from there. 😉

Here’s a quick overview of how I designed this, just so you’re aware of the process. If you want the flower that I designed you can find it in my Cricut Community Profile at this link:

Modern Flower Pillow Cover

Sheri’s Cricut Community Profile

Sign into Design Space. Select images on the left toolbar. Type “flower petal” into the search. Click on the petal you want, then click Select Images on the bottom right and it will put it onto your workspace.

Duplicate the petal as many times as you want. Click on the diagonal arrows on the lower right of each selected image to resize it. Rotate it with the circular icon on the top right of each selected image. Change the color by clicking on the colored circle on the right toolbar. (You can also select whether to cut or write, but we’ll be cutting all images in this project.) Create your design!

Once you have all your petals where you want them, hold down Shift on your keyboard and click each of the teal petals (lower arrow) in the right toolbar. Once all teal petals are selected, click Group (upper arrow).

Next, Select each Group in the right toolbar (middle arrow) and click on Weld (lower arrow). This will group all the petals and keep them in place on your mat in the next step. Now click on Make It at the top right of the screen (top arrow).

This will take you to your mat layouts. When working with Iron-On it cuts the image backwards, so you always want to click toggle the Mirror setting to on. Do this for each layer. When finished, click on Continue at the bottom right.

Follow the instructions to begin the process to cut out your images.

Cutting:

Material Details-

For this project I’m using the Boho Sampler of the Cricut Everyday Iron-On, which has the colors Teal, Navy and Wine and includes the StrongBond Guarantee. This guarantee is that your iron-on material will stick and continue to stick after many washes (50+ wash cycles!).  Cricut’s StrongBond™ Guarantee means that when you use your selected iron-on material as directed, you will be completely satisfied with the results. If you are not, they will replace the inron-on for free. How cool is that? Cricut wants its customers to know that they strive to have the best materials available for our projects and stick by that with this StrongBond guarantee.

Process-

Okay, so to prepare for cutting, place your Iron-On shiny side down on the mat.

Load the mat, check your design space settings, then follow the instructions to cut out each layer as indicated on your screen.

To peel the Iron-On off the mat, flip it over and hold the Iron-On to the table while peeling the mat up. This prevents the vinyl from curling or bubbling up.

Cut out the teal and navy petals as well.

Now weed your Iron-On leaving only the petals on the clear backing sheet.

Using Cricut EasyPress 2 to Apply Iron-On in Layers:

Prep –

The first step is to plug in and turn on your EasyPress 2 and change it to the correct settings for your materials. (You may notice a USB port; this is for firmware updates.)

There is a quick reference guide online where you select the Iron-On material you’re using, the Base Material you’re applying it to, and what type of surface your are working on.

Cricut EasyPress 2 Interactive Quick Reference Guide

You can see I did that below and it gave me the temp of 315°F for 30 seconds. (The EasyPress 2 goes all the way up to 400°.)  Always keep the EasyPress 2 in the Safety Base that it comes with when not in use so it can remain hot but won’t burn any work surface.

For this project we are layering Iron-On, so there is a technique called Quick Set that I’ll be using for each layer before we do the Final Set. The Quick Set is done by pressing the EasyPress 2 onto the image for 5 seconds then peeling off the clear plastic while it is still hot. This will keep it in place but won’t cause it to melt as you’re placing the multiple layers like it would if you did 30 seconds for each layer. I hope that makes sense.

Application –

Put your pillow cover centered over your EasyPress Mat, this will protect your work surface. Place your first layer of Iron-On in the center of your pillow cover. When your EasyPress 2 is at the right temperature (mine took maybe 30 seconds to get to 315°F), press it down evenly onto the clear plastic sheeting for 5 seconds. Place the EasyPress 2 back into the EP2 Safety Base and quickly remove the clear plastic sheet while it is still hot.

Do this with the Teal and Wine Red layers as well. Once the red layer is quick set, you’ll want to place some plastic sheeting back over the entire flower, making sure it covers every petal so they don’t melt onto the heat plate! Now, do the final set by pressing the EasyPress 2 down gently for 30 seconds. If you click the Cricut logo button on your machine it will count down the 30 seconds that you previously set for you! This is such a great feature because it is so easy to get distracted.

The ceramic-coated heat plate really helps to get these perfect transfers all at once and heated evenly.

And there you have it, a beautiful Modern Flower Pillow Cover!

Finished!

Now just let it cool and place your pillow form inside to enjoy your beautiful new pillow!

What do you think? I just need to say, this Cricut EasyPress 2 made this project much faster and easier! I used to use my old iron, but no more. Can’t wait to use the EP2 for all my Iron-On projects!

If you like this project, please save the image below to Pinterest so you don’t lose it. Feel free to share on social media as well using the icons on the left side of the screen.

Thanks for reading. Happy crafting!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.