Andie Thueson » Wellness » Give Back » Teaching Kids To Give

Teaching Kids To Give

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Materials for project were supplied by Expressions Vinyl,  All thoughts and opinions expressed are 100% mine. 

Teaching your kids to give this time of year is a wonderful opportunity! With so much focus on giving and being thankful it helps kids to look outside themselves and focuses on others! By using my Cricut Vinyl Cutting Machine I was able to transform a basic mason jar into a tool to help my kids focus on giving in a fun and pretty way! I loved this idea so much that I actually had all my Activity Age girls (8-11) make these for a project! We spent and entire activity decorating and making our jars. Accentuated with Vinyl, cut on my vinyl cutting machine. And now through Christmas they’ll be saving their excess coins to donate to the Salvation Army in December! They are soo excited and had so much fun decorating their jars. It’s a small thing they can do on a daily basis to focus on giving to others!

Directions for cutting Vinyl with a Cricut! Make this easy DIY Giving Jar!! Step by Step Directions!

 

Do you have an old school Cricut laying around?!? You know the one that you… That you used back in the day to cut paper for scrapbooking… Did you know that you can use your Circut as a Vinyl Cutting Machine? It’s super easy to do! I’ll walk you through it step by step!! I now use my Cricut for cutting Vinyl more than anything else! It’s so easy!! One of these days I’ll upgrade to a fancy dancy new Silhouette or Circut Designer but for now my Cricut work great!

Materials Used: Expressions Vinyl  is where I get all my Vinyl!!!

Glitter Vinyl — Colors Used for Activity

Pink {Melon} Glitter Vinyl 

Blue {Mint} Glitter Vinyl 

Gold {Ultra Gold} Vinyl 

Transfer Tape

Vinyl Application Tool

Place Vinyl on Cutting Mat

Step 1: Cut Vinyl if needed to 12×12 Square and place on cutting mat.

Setting For Cutting Vinyl on Cricut

Step 2:  Program what you want to cut on your screen… I programmed mine to cut “Giving Jar” at 1″ size… I find that having Speed at Med (3rd bar) and Pressure at Med (3rd Bar) is optimal for cutting vinyl!

 Cut Vinyl

Step 3: Cut Piece of Vinyl to Size for easier handling

Weeding Vinyl

Step 4: This process is called “weeding” as you remove excess vinyl from the words you want to have stay. Remove slowly so you do not remove want you want to stay!

Completed Weeded Vinyl

Step 5: This is what your words should look like once they are completely “weeded”

 Transfer Paper for Vinyl Transfer

Step 6: Place Transfer Tape onto cut Vinyl – See how I cut my individual words and stacked them so they aligned how I wanted them to.

Place Transfer Tape on to Object

Step 7: Remove backing from transfer tape and place on object you wish to have Vinyl adhere to.

Apply Pressure to Apply Vinyl

Step 8: You’ll want to apply pressure with a flat straight edge! You can use a Vinyl tool for this or a credit card works as well.

Vinyl Project Done

Step 9: Once you have applied pressure carefully remove transfer tape and then you’re done!! It’s that easy!!! You can now cut vinyl like the pros! 😉

The girls had a blast also accessorizing their jars with stickers and gems! But really any excess craft supplies you have on hand will work! Just think like a tween! The more stuff the better! 😉

Decorate those jars

2 Comments

  1. What do they plan to do with the money after they save it up? Do they have different organizations they plan to give to?
    I love that sparkly vinyl, never seen it before 🙂

    1. Andrea, They are going to bring the change to the Salvation Army bell ringers! I do this a lot and the girls love dumping their jars into the pot! But really any charity would be AWESOME! 🙂

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