Christmas Pillows with Cricut

Today, I'm talking about something that I wish I could have shared a month ago - Christmas pillows! I'm sharing these now because all of the pillows are with their owners! I didn't want to post any spoilers before giving these as gifts. I love doing homemade gifts around Christmas time, and these pillows were fun to work on and served as great presents! I'll walk you through what I did as well as the end product! I've shared several cricut projects before, so I won't walk you through the nitty gritty of using HTV vinyl. But, I will share the materials I used along with a little of my creative process.

I always start cricut projects by doing research. Research might not be the right word here, because what I'm really doing is scrolling through Pinterest for inspiration. For these pillows, I was looking for quote and design inspiration. I ended up choosing to make 5 different kinds of pillows. I made pillows that say Holly Jolly, Noel, Joy, Merry & Bright and Jingle. The designs all came together a little differently. In most cases, I create some sort of preliminary design, run it by my family then make adjustments before printing.

I decided on white pillow cases and this was the hardest decision by far. Ultimately, I decided on white in hopes of working with everyone's Christmas decor. I tried to pick something that wasn't too bold or too plain knowing that all of the pillows are going to homes with different decorating styles. I got the pillow cases and inserts from IKEA. They had great options and by far, the best pricing! Here is a peak at all of the pillows:

The night that these were finalized, I had my two little girls that I babysit with me and they loved this craft! I've been babysitting these girls since they were 2 & 5 (Now their 9 & 12 😳) and it is always so fun to get a little time in with two of my favorite girls! I was so lucky to have their cute hands hold the pillows while I took pictures. They were calling themselves pillow models & I think they rocked it.

I've never really thought of cricut projects as kid friendly crafts, but with supervision it totally works! The girls were easily able to weed the vinyl stencils and with help they even did some ironing! It was amazing to see the magic of cricut projects through their eyes - it is crazy cool to turn a blank pillow case into a cute Christmas pillow with some simple ironing!

I mean, look at all these pillows! I'm sure glad I had little hands to help with this project! The girls called their final job stuffing and fluffing. Once the decals were ironed on, one stuffed the pillow insert in and the other fluffed the pillows up. Then, my little helper elves had to have a pillow fight. Because what else is there to do with 15 pillows, right?

More pillow pictures! You can notice on the Jingle pillows that I used a jingle bell to dot the 'i.' This was an idea I had early on in the design process and it turned out so cute! It was also a great opportunity for the little girls to practice sewing! As a teacher, I may be more interested in this than the average person but I love that this provided the girls with an opportunity to work on their fine motor skills. Sewing needles are not something I would pull out in a classroom setting but with 2 kids, it's easy to talk about safety while using a needle and monitor them while they are sewing. I've cooked with the girls before, so I know they're good with safety rules, but they handled the sewing needles like champs!

And, that's a wrap on Christmas pillows! I'm already thinking about what to make for next year. Another pillow to compliment these? A Christmas sign? Let me know if you have any suggestions!