Dollar Tree Travel Coffee Mugs - Cricut

 This is a Super CHEAP project.  50 cent travel coffee cups from Dollar tree, scrap vinyl.  It is a major pain in the butt to weed.  But I'm not strong on patience.  It would be easier if you use bigger cups, and make the design bigger.

Some have said you can remove the Take It To Go logo with acetate and a magic eraser.  I tried, it didn't go great for me.  (I ended up painting those cups).  I decided to just put the design on the blank side, and leave the take it to go on the opposite side.  

Step By Step How I Did This:

I started with this blank logo, which someone shared on a facebook group.  You can right click on it, and choose "save as".


The Starbucks font is Gibson.  You can download it for free here:
http://www.fonts101.com/fonts/view/Uncategorized/48928/Gibson

(Do that now, before you open design space.  If you need to know how to install a font, try this post:  )

Now open Design space, new project, and  choose upload.  Upload the blank logo.  From the menu, choose simple.

 This screen will default to the wand - see in the upper left?  Click on all of the white spaces, and it will magically erase the background.Make sure you get the eyes.  Choose preview, at the bottom, and you can spot the places you missed.

This is what I was left with. I saved.  The grey image doesn't look perfect, but I've found from doing this a few times that it will cut better than it looks.  Not a LOT better, but enough better.

Add the image to your project.  Then chose Circle from the shapes menu.Place the circle over the black part, leaving white space between the green and the grey.  Select both items, choose slice (bottom right of the screen)

 Delete all the extras - leaving just two grey items.  On the layers panel on the right, switch both items to cut, rather than print and cut.

Open a text box, type in your text, Choose the Gibson font.
(Be smarter than me, change it to white while it's still all together)
Now with the text box selected, choose ungroup.  That will place each letter in it's own text box.  

Drag each letter around the circle, rotating them to make them fit around the circle.

Select all the letters, choose attach.

Now you have two options.  You can cut the letters out of white, and layer them on the green, or you can slice the letters out and let the background of the cup show through.

To slice, select your letters and weld.  You can only slice with TWO items selected at a time.  If you do not weld your letters, you will have to cut one letter out at a time.  If you weld the letters, you can slice them all out of the circle at once.

For these cups, I want a 3 inch decal.  So Select All, Choose Group, then in that top toolbar where it shows the size, type in a 3 and hit enter.

The cups I am using are the 2 for $1 "Take It To Go" Cups from the Dollar Tree.  I am leaving the Take It To Go on one side, and decorating the other side..

For the vinyl, I'm using 651. I buy it on Amazon, because...  free shipping.  I love Amazon prime!  You can choose 6 different rolls, you chose the colors, for $21.50 here: http://amzn.to/2ClMK4I, or FIFTEEN rolls, you choose the colors, for $35 here - http://amzn.to/2DL3778.  Thats .47 cents a foot - and if you have amazon prime, free shipping.  I ordered this when I first started with the machine, and I haven't made a dent in it - it should last me a very long time.  (I recommend ordering 2 rolls of black - I always use more black any other color)

For transfer tape, I tried, for the first time, the contact paper from Wal-mart.  Normally I use the contact paper from the Dollar Tree. I still love the Dollar Tree stuff, the brand from wal-mart is just a bit stickier, and a bit thicker.  

I like to transfer my designs all at once when possible.  So I transfered the green to the transfer tape, then added the black center to the transfer tape - putting the entire design together before it touches the cup.  When transfering the design, flip the design upside down, and run the scraper tool over the back, then pull the white backing up gently, starting at one corner and pulling diagonally.

Now to place on the cup, fold lightly in half, non sticky sides together.  Not enough to crease, just enough to find the middle. Stick the middle to the cup, then press down one just one side. Once the one side is down flat, flatten the other side.

That's it!  The longest part of this process for me was the weeding.  This really was a pain to weed.   

(yes, I did realize, after taking this pic, that I had put the green ring on the Daleck cup sideways..  I was able to remove it and put it back on correctly.  It takes about 48 hours for the 651 to seal permanently, so it was an easy fix - for the most part)