DIY Backpack Charms

Candy fanatics are going to love these cute DIY Backpack Charms inspired by their favorite movie, Ralph Breaks the Internet.

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My kids love backpack charms.  They always have 3 or 4 of them on their backpacks at all times.  They especially love it when they make their own DIY backpack charms.  These newest charms are inspired by the movie Ralph Breaks the Internet.

Ralph Breaks the Internet Movie Review

I was able to take my youngest to a prescreening of the movie and she was super excited.  As a family, we love the original Wreck it Ralph and we are so excited for this new movie.  We were hoping it was going to be as good as the first, and I have to say, it was even better!

This movie has something for everyone.  The princess lover, the techie, the gamer, the sports fan, everyone will be able to find something about this movie to love.  It is full of fun, humor (that even adults will appreciate), real life issues when it comes to the internet and how it works.  But my favorite thing is just how much these 2 friends care about each other.  They want to help each other and want the other to be happy.  We can not wait to go and see it with the whole family.

One of my favorite things about the movie and the original, is all the cute candy that Vanelope wears in her hair and the candy that is part of the Sugar Rush Game.  Inspired by all those sweet treats, we made these DIY backpack charms that my girls can not wait to show their friends.

DIY Backpack Charms

To make these DIY Backpack Charms you will need:

Fresh Cut Sweet Shoppe Bundle

Cricut Maker

Cricut EasyPress

Cricut EasyPress

Masking Tape

1/16 inch Basswood

Cricut EasyPress

Iron on Vinyl

Cricut EasyPress 2

EasyPress Mat

Weeding Tools

Cricut EasyPress

I have been wanting to use my Cricut Maker to cut wood since the knife blade was released.  To say I was intimidated would be an understatement.  But as I’ve seen more and more people creating some super fun projects using basswood, I thought I would give it a try.  I found my piece of basswood at Hobby Lobby in the crafts/wood/model cars section.  This is the piece of wood that I bought for this project.  It is 1/16 inch thick and this piece was 24 inches long.

How to cut wood with the Cricut Maker

Here is how you cut wood with the Cricut Maker. Use a true control knife to cut the board to fit onto a cutting mat.  Use masking tape to secure all 4 sides of the wood to a strong grip cutting mat.  Insert the knife blade into clamp B of the cutting mechanism.  Move all the white star rollers to one side of the rod.  Load the mat into the machine.

I used some of the candy files from the Fresh Cut Sweet Shoppe Bundle for these DIY Backpack Charms.  I uploaded them into Cricut Design Space and sized them the desired size.  I then ungrouped them and added a 1/4 inch circle to each of the background layers and used the slice tool to cut out a hole for the key chain part.  I changed the colors so all the backgrounds could be cut on the same cutting mat.  Then changed the colors of the top layers so they could be cut out of different colors of Iron On Vinyl.

After clicking make it, I double checked to make sure all the designs were on the correct mat and cut the background layers first.  I selected basswood for the cutting material, and selected 1/16 inch size.  Since the mat and knife blade were ready to go, I clicked the go button and let the Cricut do it’s thing and cut out all the wood pieces.  It does take a while for it to cut the wood.  It makes several passes, so make sure you have 10 – 15 minutes to cut your pieces.

The wood pieces came out perfectly!  I was really surprised with how well they turned out.  My only recommendations would be, make sure designs aren’t too small and that the wood doesn’t have a lot of knots in it and is pretty straight.

How to Iron On Wood

Next I cut out the iron on vinyl top layers.  I made sure to remove the knife blade and replace it with the fine point blade (the normal cutting blade).  Before cutting iron on vinyl, make sure to mirror image each mat before cutting.  Edit the material to be iron on vinyl and then they are ready to cut.

Weed out any of the unwanted vinyl on your designs and get them ready to apply to the wood background pieces.  You could also use regular adhesive vinyl if you’re more comfortable with that, but I like iron on.  And it’s fun to iron onto wood!

Place the wood down onto the EasyPress Mat.  Set the EasyPress to 300 degrees and set the timer to 40 seconds (these settings are for wood and everyday iron on).  Lay the iron on vinyl design onto the piece of wood.  Once the EasyPress 2 is ready, place it onto top of the project and apply light pressure.  Hit the go button to start the 40 second heating time.

Remove the plastic protective sheet while it is still hot.  There is no need to make sure the project is entirely cool before removing it.

Gently add the key ring, tassel and clip to each of the backpack charms.

The only thing left to do is add it to a backpack!

Last time the girls and I made DIY backpack charms, they came home from school with requests from all their friends who wanted one too.  I’m sure we will have the same thing happen with these cut candy charms!

Maybe I’ll have to add one to my purse when we head to see Ralph Breaks the Internet!

Happy Crafting!

Liz