Give New Life To A Kitchen Aid Mixer Using Printable Vinyl and Cricut

Hi, Cricut friends! I’ve received so many requests for this post over the past 3 years. When I first came up with the idea to add vinyl decals to my mixer, I was a Silhouette user. That led to me becoming a Silhouette blogger which eventually led me to Cricut! It’s funny how life works.

Anyway, I was VERY new to the blogging world when I wrote the original tutorial for this project and each and every time I read that post from years ago, I cringe. It was bad. So today I’m updating this post for Cricut users and hopefully it doesn’t suck. Ha!

Here’s what you need:

To start, you’re going to need to go to the Silhouette Design Store and purchase the spring bouquet designs. That’s the only fair/legal way to do it. Amy is a fabulous Silhouette Designer and I strongly believe in paying artists for their hard work. Plus, they’re only .99 cents so for $3 you’ll have the exact flowers I used on my mixer.

Next, head here and download the Silhouette Studio software so you can open and view the designs. Silhouette Studio is free to download, free to use and very user-friendly. You’ll only need to use it for a couple of minutes to open and view the designs.

Step One: Open, Ungroup and Screenshot Designs

The spring bouquet designs will be displayed with two options. One without a white border and one with a white border. Right click on the design and click ungroup to seperate the two then delete the one with the border as well as all of the text on the screen.

Next, click on the line style window (marked by the number 1 in the screenshot below) and make the red cut line transparent by clicking on line color (2) then clicking the white and grey grid (3).

Enlarge the design so that it fills the space entirely and take a screenshot of the white background + design. On a Mac you can screenshot by pressing command+shift+4. If you’re a PC user, check google for instructions on how to take a screen capture on a PC. 

Step Two: Upload Designs

Now you can upload the screenshot into Design Space and clean up the image. Select Complex in the image type window to keep the fine details intact.

Use the tool to click and erase the white background, leaving just the flower visible.

In the next window you will save your image as a print then cut image.

Step Three: Printing

Place all of the floral designs on the canvas and adjust the sizes.

Click the Make It button and in the next window you will see the designs arranged on the mat surrounded by the registration box.

Click continue then select the printer you’re using.

For cleaner printed designs, turn on the bleed option. Place the printable vinyl in the printer and click Print.

Step Four: Cutting

Place the printed sheet on the cutting mat with the designs facing up and load the cutting mat into the machine.

In the materials menu, select Vinyl then Printable Vinyl and click continue.

The machine will take a minute or so to read the registration box and then begin cutting. After cutting is complete, unload the mat and remove the excess vinyl. A weeding tool is very helpful in this step. There are a lot of little fragile pieces.

Step Five: Apply Decals

Carefully peel each decal off of the paper backing and apply it to the mixer. If you mess up and end up with a crease, just peel the decal off and reposition.

FAQ’s:

Is printable vinyl waterproof? Most brands are! The brand that I use is a high quality printable vinyl and not only is it waterproof but it withstands the dishwasher. I highly recommend it!

What about food stains like chocolate, butter etc.? Food stains are inevitable. The best way to protect the decals is to use a clear vinyl overlay like this one. Apply it to the printed sheet of UNCUT decals then cut the two layers at the same time.

What size are your decals? On the original mixer which you can see at the top of the post, I did larger decals and that is the size that I prefer. The large bouquet is around 5.5 inches in length. Just play with the sizes until you find a look you love.

What color is your mixer? Pistachio! It’s a pretty minty blue. 🙂 

I hope this updated post is helpful to my Cricut buddies! If you have any questions or need me to elaborate on a step please don’t hesitate to send me an email or leave a comment!

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