How To Design A Project With Cricut Infusible Ink Pens And Markers?

Cricut infusible inks are available in two products: pens & markers and transfer sheets. With the Cricut infusible ink pens and markers, you can draw on a sheet of copy paper and then use a heat press to transfer the image from paper onto the project. You can relate transfer sheets with the sheet of heat vinyl that is cut and pressed onto the project. But the pens and markers are a little different from the standard Cricut pens with which you directly draw on your projects.

We made this post about Cricut infusible ink pens and markets. You will see what they are and how to use them to print designs onto shirts. We are given some tricks for you.

What Are Cricut Infusible Ink Pens & Markers?

The Cricut infusible ink pens and markers contain infusible ink designed to work with the Cricut machine. You need to load them directly into the accessory clamp of your Cricut machine, and the machine will draw for you. You can also use your hands to draw with them. The infusible pens have 0.4mm tips for drawing clean and sharp lines. They have a 1mm tip for thick lines to color in images.

How Do Infusible Ink Pens And Markers Transfer Designs?

This is interesting how the infusible ink pens work. When we draw something with infusible ink pens, the ink on paper is in a solid state like normal ink. However, the infusible ink is slightly different as it follows a chemical reaction when applying heat. The ink turns out into a gas. During this process, the ink pulls off the copy paper and gets infused directly onto your project. And once your project cools down after removing heat, the ink again turns solid and gets attached to your project.

You should note that this doesn't work on every type of material. The infusible ink sticks best on poly-based materials such as poly-coated ceramic coasters. Fortunately, the Cricut provides a range of blanks compatible with infusible ink. For instance, you can get tote bags and T-shirts for men's, women's, and kids' sizes.

Which Cricut Machine Is Compatible With Infusible Ink And Markers?

They are compatible with the Cricut Maker, Cricut Joy, and the Cricut Explore series.

How To Use Cricut Infusible Ink Pens & Markers On A Project?

There are such basic steps to using infusible pens & markers. You need to follow a few steps for that:

1.   Select The Pens/Markers Compatible With Your Cricut Blank 

You can select any infusible ink or markers compatible with the Cricut machine and blank you use for your project. For my project, I used round ceramic coasters as blank. And I tried a combination of thin pens and thick markers and also colors from both the basics and neon so that I could make a unique color and style for my project.

2.   Create Your Design

To create your design:

1. Open the design space and create one.

2. Ensure that the images you use are single-layer shapes without fill, as the infusible ink pens and markers can only make your designs.

3. If you want your images to be in full color, fill them by hand once the Cricut outlines your design. 

To do a pre-designed project, click the "Projects" button on the left and then find it in the infusible ink category. If you need to create your project, click the "images" button on the left and find the "Draw" option to select the single-layer image you can draw with your infusible pens and markers.

Before making a project, ensure that all line types are set to "Draw." You can check it by selecting an image or a layer and then looking at the linotype drop-down menu in the toolbar on the top. You can choose colors of your infusible pens or markers to draw each line and shape. You can select your specific colors by going to the color swatch square on the right side of the screen. Then, click the "Make it" button to send your design to the Cricut drawing. Remember your designs to set to mirror while pressing your blank. For this, you can use the Mirror toggle under each mat thumbnail in the prepare screen.

Then, on the Make screen, choose "Copy paper" as material, and you will be drawing on it from then. The Cricut machine will instruct you on which pen or marker you should load into clamp A to begin. You won't need a blade in Clamp B. And then, load a single sheet of laser copy paper on the LightGripMat and load the mat on your machine. Now you have to press the flashing button to start drawing. Once you draw all lines with a single color, the machine will stop and let you switch to another pen before starting again.

When the machine finishes drawing with all your chosen colors, unload your mat and remove the paper from the mat. You can also color your design by hand.

3. Finally, Apply Heat

The last step is to transfer your design to the blank. So, cut your design so there is some extra white space around the edges. Then, pre-heat EasyPress to make the accurate settings according to the heat guide. First, clean your blank with a lint roller for fabric or a lint-free cloth for coasters to ensure no lint is left on your project. Now flip your design and tape it on the surface of the blank with heat-resistant tape. Tape the coasters to the back, as you don't want the tape to come at the face of the coasters while applying heat.

Then, put a piece of cardstock on the top of your EasyPress mat to protect it, and then put your project onto the cardstock. For round ceramic coasters, you must place them upside down on the mat and right-side up for the fabric. Now place your project with a piece of butcher paper and then place Cricut EasyPress 2 on the top of the project and hold for the required time. I set my EasyPress to 400F and 240 seconds.

Wait some time to cool the machine, and then carefully take it off your project and put it back on the stand. Don't touch your project until it's completely cooled. It took 15 minutes for the coaster to cool down. But for fabrics, it won't take long to get cool.

Once you are done with your project, remove the tape and the copy paper. And voila, you have completed your Cricut infusible ink pens project.

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