Patriotic Bag with 3 Kinds of Cricut Iron-On {tutorial}

This post is not sponsored, but some supplies were provided by Cricut. Affiliate links are used for your convenience. 🙂

Good morning! It’s time for another round of Craft Lightning, and this month it’s all about patriotic crafts. I love everything red, white & blue, 4th of July & Americana ~ especially this time of year. We have Memorial Day & 4th of July coming up, & I can’t wait to celebrate this amazing country we live in & the men & women who have given their lives to protect our freedoms. It’s truly a wonderful thing to be an American. 🙂 Annnnnd with all the festivities, I am going to need a cute bag to tote around all of our supplies in ~ like a blanket to sit on, some flags to waves, drinks & snacks & so much more. So let’s get started, and I’ll show you how easy this Patriotic Bag was to put together in 15 minutes or less! 🙂

I love iron-on! It’s quick (especially with the Cricut EasyPress!) & is so fun. Buuuuut when using iron-on the general rule is not to mix different types of iron-on. Using everyday iron-on over the top of glitter iron-on is a big no no. It just won’t work out very well. Buuuuut you CAN use all the different types of iron-on together as long as you don’t overlap them. Annnnnd there’s a little trick to what order you’ll want to apply your iron-on. I let you in on it in just a bit.

For this project you will need:
glitter iron-on
everyday iron-on
foil iron-on
canvas tote
Cricut EasyPress 2
Cricut EasyPress mat
Cricut Maker or Cricut Explore Air 2
this Design Space file

First, I opened up Design Space & chose a cute image to work with. You can find tons in Design Space. Then I added a square (click on the shape button) & sized it the exact same size as my canvas tote.

Then I sized my image to fit just right.

I deleted the extra square, & then I changed the colors of the design to match what I wanted for my tote.

Then, I cut out all my iron-on using my Cricut machine. Don’t forget to mirror your image first. You can see a more in depth tutorial on how to cut iron-on right here.

Now it’s time to apply your iron-on. You’ll want to apply the iron-on that has the highest heat setting first. For this project, it was the everyday iron-on at 340 degrees. TIP: You can find all the heat settings & time settings for just about any material & iron-on combination using the Cricut Interactive Quick Reference Guide. It’s awesome!

Next, I applied the foil iron-on. Since, it’s heat setting is 290 degrees. Just a note, the foil iron-on is a cold peel material (meaning you remove the backing paper after it has cooled). So I did not remove the backing paper until after all the iron-on was applied & the iron-on backing was cool to the touch.

TIP: Always have the iron-on backing paper on top of your design before applying heat. Remove backing paper when completely done with your EasyPress. Finally, I applied the glitter iron-on last since it’s heat setting was 270 degrees.

Just a note, all these iron-on materials called for a 5 second preheat, 30 second firm press on the front of the design, & then you’ll flip the tote & press for 15 seconds on the back.

The glitter & everyday iron were warm peel (which means you remove the backing while it’s still warm to the touch). So I removed them while everything was still warm.