Cute DIY RV Pillow Decor Using Infusible Inks or Iron On One or Two Sided!

I wanted to add some personalized light decor in our RV and I wanted to test out sublimation with infusible inks that were not from Cricut to see if they worked as well or not, I was very pleased with the outcome and you can make it too, here's how!

DIY Cricut Mountain Silhouette RV Pillow

Too cute DIY RV Camper Christmas Personalized Pillow Idea

Cute DIY RV Pillow Decor Using Infusible Inks or Iron On you can make this Mountain Reflection and holiday pillow!

Cute DIY RV Mountain Reflection Pillow using Infusible Inks

I designed this silhouette image using multiple Cricut images on Cricut Access, welded some and sliced others to create the reflection on the water. If you have Cricut Access here is a link to the image so you can use it! I made this to fit an 18 inch pillow case, you can change the image size to fit your own pillows, add a name, date etc! Have fun with it!

Since our RV is small everything needs two purposes, so on the reverse side I designed a holiday pillow and used metallic Iron on for extra sparkle.

I created a two sided pillow with this Cute DIY RV Camper Holiday Pillow Cricut Foil Iron On

Difficulty: Easy

Time: 1 hour or less per side

Materials for Infusible Inks: this link is to the materials I used, and other options you can use for your convenience

• 1 Infusible Ink sheet in the color of your choice (or other brands of infusible type inks, this time I experimented with the Lucky Goddness brand and was impressed by how easily it weeded and transferred, they have a wide variety of colors and patterns and are cheaper per page which is great!)

• Your pillow case must be 90% polyester to use with infusible inks.

• Heat Press Cricut Easy Press or other brand that heats up to 385 degrees minimum.

• Heat mat, Cricut or other brand, for use with a heat press

• Weeing tools

• Several sheets of Butcher paper
  

• Several Inside Blank sheets of White Cardstock (80 lb/216 gsm) or 4 layers butcher paper per press.

• Lint Roller

Materials for Iron-On option: link to the materials for your convenience, scroll down for steps!

• 2 Iron on sheets in the colors of your choice, I used metallic Red and Silver

• 1 pillow case in a cloth that can take the heat without melting (300 degrees) such as cotton, denim, polyester, etc

• Cricut Easy Press or other heat press that heats up to 300 degrees minimum.

• Weeding tools

• Heat mat or ironing board

• Lint Roller

Materials for making it a two sided pillow: additional sheets of White cardstock, butcher paper and Teflon Sheets.

Steps Infusible Inks:

1. Click this link to go to this image on the Cricut Access website, modify / change the image size if needed to fit your pillow, click on make it, select infusible inks for the materials, click the toggle button on the left side to turn on "Mirror Image".

2. Place your infusible sheet on a green standard mat with the ink side facing up (shiny side should be facing down).
   

3. Tip: When using an infusible ink brand that is not from Cricut you should change the pressure setting to "Less". Cut the image following the on screen instructions.

4. To remove the infusible ink sheet from the standard mat I prefer to flip the mat over, hold it at an angle, grab one corner that is outside of the image I want to transfer and peel the mat away from the sheet which causes less curling of the image.

5. Weed the image, I find that when using Cricut Infusible ink sheet I have to twist to get them to crack at the cut marks, other brands like this one from Lucky Goddness are more pliable and will easily weed like vinyl does.

6. Heat press:

   1. Set your Cricut Easy Press2 to 385 degrees for 60 seconds if using Cricut Infusible Inks.

      1. For Other brands: check their instructions, with the Lucky Goddness I did 385 degrees for 70 seconds, I usually do a few extra seconds on all brands just to be sure I get a great transfer.

   2. Layout all the materials you need to press the image.

   3. Use the lint roller to remove any dust/lint on the side of the pillow you are transferring the image to and insert your white cardstock (or 4 layers of butcher paper) inside the pillow case to prevent the ink from bleeding through to the other side, then place it on your heat mat.
      

   4. Place your weeded infusible ink image on top of the pillow ink side down (shiny side up). If you feel like it might move around you can place a few pieces of heat tape on the edge outside of the image area.

   5. Place a sheet of butcher paper on top of the weeded image.

   6. Press your heat press straight down for 60 seconds, do not move the image around so it does not smear, do not use a regular iron as the movement will cause the ink to smear the image.

   7. Allow it to cool until it is cool to the touch before moving the pillow around or removing the transfer sheet, I turn on the ceiling fan and walk away for about 15 minutes... Hot ink will smear, cold ink will not! I know this will be difficult but please be patient!

Enjoy your pillow or see below for how to heat press another image to the back side!

Double sided Pillow using Infusible Inks or Iron On

Once the pillow is completely cool you can heat press another image to the other side but must take a few extra precautions to prevent any reheating of the original image, if it heats up it will transfer again losing it's depth of color. Another option is to use Iron On for the other side.

Additional materials & Steps for both methods: more white cardstock, butcher paper and 4 teflon sheets.

For Infusible inks: you are following the same Infusible Ink instructions above with two changes:

First: Instead of placing just one sheet of white card stock inside the pillow case you are now adding a sandwich layer of:

White Cardstock

4 Teflon sheets

White Cardstock

Second: place one additional piece of white card stock between the already transferred image and the heat mat itself, if you don't you risk having the image transfer to the heat mat, ruining it for any future use and ruining the pillow too.

Iron On Steps:

1. Iron on materials are also cut material facing up/shiny side down with mirror image on and placed on the standard green mat.

2. Cut, remove and weed the image.

3. Use your lint roller to remove any dust/lint from the pillow case.

4. Heat Settings will vary by both the pillow material and the iron on materials you are using, for example I used a metallic foil iron on with the Circut polyester pillow so my settings were (5 second preheat 295 degrees followed by 30 seconds press). Since there is no way for me to know which materials you are using here is a link to the Cricut Heat Guide just select your materials and it will tell you the setting and time you need to follow, provide instructions such as if it needs to be preheated, or if it is a cool or warm peel. You can also use this site to verify if the material you want to use for the pillow will accept an iron on image, if the material is not listed in the drop down it's unlikely to adhere very well.

5. Create your protective sandwich inside the pillow (white Card stock, 4 Teflon sheets, Card stock), then place another piece of white card stock between the pillow already imaged side and the heat map.

6. Place your iron on weeded image shiny side up on the pillow where you want to press it.

7. Press it and following the instructions from the heat guide to press and then remove the transfer sheet when it is fully cooled so that the infusible side is not hot and will not smear. Tip: before removing the transfer sheet lift up a corner, make sure it is fully adhered, if it is not you can reheat the iron on material as often as needed to get a fully adhered image transfer.

Now if this makes you nervous you can always create a second pillow case, they don't take up much room and that lets you have one pillow insert with multiple designs to change out for the seasons! I hope you enjoy this project and that it inspires you to create something beautiful today!

This is the Cricut heat guide page

Note some links may be affiliate links, they do not cost you more to use but may pay me pennies on the dollar which helps cover the cost of this website!