Do you have a favorite blanket? This Mickey Mouse mandala blanket would be perfect to give as a gift. Better yet, make two of them so you have one to keep for watching your favorite Disney movies! I am going to show you how I did this one.
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Mickey Mouse Mandala Supplies:
- Red Fleece Blanket
- Heat Press
- Weeding Tool
- Black Sparkle Glitter Iron HTV by Siser (see links below for easy shopping)
- Gray EasyWeed HTV by Siser (see links below for easy shopping)
I prefer to use Siser brand vinyl for my iron on projects. I feel that is the best quality brand of iron on vinyl out there, and it weeds the easiest. For permanent vinyl I like StarCraft vinyl.
Over the years I have gotten Siser vinyl from a variety of places, including My Craft Source. When you shop at My Craft Source be sure to use code ShawnMosch to get 5% off your order!
Another retailer that I work with is Vinyl and Tulle. Use coupon code SHAWNMOSCH to save 10% off your order! They ship WORLD WIDE!
Madame Blanks is my recommended source for for my Canadian followers! Use coupon code SHAWN10 to save 10% off your order of StarCraft products!
I love that I can order large rolls or small sheets when ordering Siser online. This can give you a larger variety of choices and allow to to save money on larger orders. To make sure you are getting the best price for your vinyl, make sure to check out my Vinyl Buyers Guide.
Mickey Mouse Mandala Design
I found the Mickey Mouse mandala image in Cricut Design Space. To find this same image, click on Image in Design Space and search Mickey or type #M13417CF1 into the search bar. This is the image ID number for the Mickey Mouse mandala image. Make sure to include the # at the front of the number in your search. Once you have found the Mickey Mouse image, click on it and insert into the Design Space canvas.
I made mine 11.5″ wide since I wanted the Mickey image to be nice and big. As I was looking at the image I started to think about the blanket that I was going to place this image on, and since the blanket is red I did not want the red color to be showing through all of the mandala openings on Mickey’s ears or on his face, so I created a second layer.
To do this I right clicked on the image and selected Duplicate. The other way to do this is to click on the Duplicate button in the upper right corner of the screen. I have pointed out both options for you with a blue arrow in the image below. Duplicate is like doing a copy and paste of an image all in one click.
Now that we have two copies of the Mickey Mouse mandala design, we can change the color of the second one to gray. To do this, click on the square by the word Operation on the top panel. I have indicated it with a blue arrow in the image below.
I was originally going to do it out of a cream color to look like a skin tone, but I did not have any cream colored vinyl so I went with the gray. In the end, I think it worked out really nice.
Using Contour
Now I want to make the gray layer a solid colored Mickey Mouse shape. I want to hide all of those little pieces of the mandala design. Using Contour is a quick and easy way to do this. Select the gray Mickey Mouse mandala design and then click on the Contour button in the lower right corner. I point out where Contour is with the blue arrow in the image below.
When you click on the Contour button a new smaller window will open up that looks like the one in the image below. This new window allows you to turn on and off, or hide, parts of the design. So if you wanted to just turn off the little triangle cuts inside of the nose of the Mickey Mouse mandala you could do that. This is one of the ways that you can customize images to give them a whole new look.
You can either click on pieces right from the image, or you can find the image outline in the listing on the right side panel. I suggest playing with Contour and seeing which way you like the best. For this image we want to turn off or hide all of the pieces, so instead of clicking on each and every piece one at a time, I am just going to click on the Hide All Contours button, which I have indicated with a blue arrow in the image below.
Once you click Hide All Contours, you can close out of the Contour window by clicking on the X in the upper right corner. Now your Design Space canvas will look like the one below.
Now you can stack, or layer, the black Mickey Mouse mandala design over the top of the solid gray Mickey shape.
But wait . . . there’s MORE
I could have stopped right here and just hit Make It to start cutting my layers, but I started to look at the image and there was something I did not like. Since I was going to be putting this on a red blanket, I wanted the red fabric to show through for Mickey’s tongue.
So we are going to use Contour again. I clicked on the gray layer, then on Contour to get back to this window. I could either scroll through all of the little images on the panel on the right side, or just click on the tongue in the image, right where that blue arrow is pointing.
Now you can see that there is an open hole where Mickey’s tongue should be, so the red fabric will show through. See what I mean about being able to change the look of a design to really make it your own by using Contour!
Cut the Mickey Mouse Mandala Design
The next step in the process is cutting the iron on vinyl, which is also called heat transfer vinyl or HTV for short. HTV comes with a clear carrier sheet attached to it, which makes placing it on your project very easy. You want to make sure that when you go to cut your HTV the clear carrier sheet is facing down on your Cricut cutting mat. This means you will be cutting your design from the back side of the HTV, so you want to make sure to mirror your image before you cut it. If you do not mirror your image it will be backwards when you press it on the blanket.
There are two ways to mirror your image. In Design Space, and I show both of them in the images below. Before you click Make It you can select your image and then use the Flip button on the top panel and select Flip Horizontally. The other option is to click on the Mirror button in the mat preview screen.
Since we set up our Mickey Mouse mandala project with two layers, when we click Make It the Cricut will automatically separate those two colored layers to go on two different cutting mats. It will even tell us which one to load into the machine first. I like to use the Siser brand HTV, and I cut it on the iron on setting with my Cricut.
I prefer to use Siser brand vinyl for my iron on projects. I feel that is the best quality brand of iron on vinyl out there, and it weeds the easiest. For permanent vinyl I like StarCraft vinyl.
Over the years I have gotten Siser vinyl from a variety of places, including My Craft Source. When you shop at My Craft Source be sure to use code ShawnMosch to get 5% off your order!
Another retailer that I work with is Vinyl and Tulle. Use coupon code SHAWNMOSCH to save 10% off your order! They ship WORLD WIDE!
Madame Blanks is my recommended source for for my Canadian followers! Use coupon code SHAWN10 to save 10% off your order of StarCraft products!
I love that I can order large rolls or small sheets when ordering Siser online. This can give you a larger variety of choices and allow to to save money on larger orders. To make sure you are getting the best price for your vinyl, make sure to check out my Vinyl Buyers Guide.
Mickey Mouse Mandala Video
If you would like to watch a video to see the whole process for setting up this Mickey Mouse mandala in Cricut Design Space, I put together a short video for you below.
Putting the Mickey Mouse on the Blanket
After your two layers are cut, you need to weed away the excess vinyl that you do not need. For the gray layer that is pretty easy. Just remove the tongue and then remove the outer portion of the vinyl. Press the area on the blanket where the Mickey Mouse mandala will go. This warms up the fabric and gets it ready for the vinyl. Press the solid gray layer onto the vinyl following the directions for the brand of vinyl you are using. I place a piece of parchment paper over the top while pressing. Once the design is cooled I remove the clear carrier sheet and it looks like the image below.
Weeding the actual mandala design did take a lot more work. I started with some of the larger areas in the center to help me see the design. If I was ever confused on what pieces should be removed and what should stay, I referred back to my image in Design Space to see what parts of the Mickey Mouse mandala were black.
Place the black glitter vinyl over the top of the gray layer. If you need to pull it back up and center it better you can. I tried to start at the center of my design and smooth it down moving to the outer edges. Place the parchment paper over the top and press this layer right on top of the first layer. Once it is cooled you can remove the carrier sheet.
I hope that you enjoyed this post, and that you stop back every day from now until Christmas to see what other Disney Christmas crafts I have planned for you! I am doing 25 Days of Disney Christmas Crafts to inspire you to add more Disney to your life while using your Cricut for crafting. If you want to see the whole line up of crafts you can go HERE.
