Heat Activated Flower Mugs

 -This post may contain affiliate links. Products used in this post provided by Cricut.-

I already shared projects I made with the new Cricut Cold Activated Color Changing Vinyl, and the UV Activated Color Changing Iron On, so today I am using the final color changing vinyl- Heat Activated Vinyl. 

When I saw the heat activated color changing vinyl the first thing that came to mind was mugs. I think Once I used it I actually had several more ideas that I thought would be fun to make with it, but a mug was the first thing to pop into my head. I think when I thought of something hot that was just the first thing I thought of. With the cold activated vinyl I thought of cups you pour cold drinks into, and so naturally my first thought with the heat activated was something you pour hot drinks into. 

When I got it out and started working with it I quickly noticed that it not only changes color when the surface becomes hot, but also from the heat of your hands touching it. I think that could make for some fun projects too, things that you touch, like notebooks or other things. It reminds me of the hyper color shirts that were popular when I was a kid, or the pencils that change color when you touch them. 

But, back to the mugs. I typically associate mugs with winter and Christmastime. Mostly because I am not really a huge fan of hot drinks, but my kids like hot chocolate when it is cold and snowy outside. But, it has been cold and snowy outside a lot lately and it is officially spring now so I wanted to make a more spring inspired mug set. I chose a couple of floral designs, one more of a scatter/all over print, the other is more of a border print along the bottom of the mug. Opposite of the cold activate vinyl, these start out darker colors and lighten when the heat hits. 

How to Make Heat Activated Flower Mugs

You will need:

• Cricut Machine
• Heat Activated Vinyl
• Plain Mugs
• Transfer Tape

Instructions:

The first thing you will need to do is measure around your mug to determine the size you need your design to be. There are lots of different sizes/shapes of mugs so yours may be different than mine. Even with the Cricut brand mugs there are multiple sizes. I just picked up a couple of inexpensive mugs at Walmart (just over $1 each) because I didn't need the Infusible Ink/sublimation compatible mugs that are a little more expensive since I was putting permanent vinyl on them instead. I stopped a little on each size of the handle and I had a space about 9" around and no more than 3" wide to work with. 

You can find the designs I used in my Color Changing Flower Mug Designs Design Space Project, or you can create your own.

To make mine I started by adding a rectangle that was the size I wanted my design to be. Then I found a couple of images that I wanted to use as a basis for my design and I used the Design Space tools (duplicate, contour, slice, etc.) to fill in the space I needed. 

Cut out the design from the vinyl, choose the cold/heat activated vinyl as your material. 

Weed the design and use transfer tape to apply the design to your mugs.