Personalizing glass cups with vinyl is one of the easiest DIY projects! I use the Cricut Maker 3 to cut my vinyl, but you can use a similar machine or even cut by hand if you’re feeling extra crafty.
You can personalize your glass cups for a season, as a gift, or just for fun! Check out this post for tips and inspiration.
Cutting the Vinyl
Here are the details for my process. As always, customize based on your tools, supplies and needs!
Machine: Cricut Maker 3
Vinyl: Cricut Permanent Vinyl (Smart or regular) or Oracal 651 Permanent Vinyl
- I usually use white or black, but you can use whatever colors you have on hand or like!
- You can also use other brands, but these are the top rated. I’ve had success with zero peeling, even after 1 year and runs through the dishwasher.
- I also prefer the non-glossy finish, but it’s up to your personal preference.
For simple designs, I like to design directly in Cricut Design Space. For more complex designs, I will use Adobe Illustrator, export as PNG, and then upload into Cricut Design Space as an image.
Through this post, I’ve done my best to describe how I made each design. I will also do my best to update later with project links so you can make also. Enjoy!
Glass Cups: Vinyl DIY Ideas
Seasonal: Halloween Ghosts
Adding some fun vinyl is the perfect way to get in the holiday mood! I made these ghost cups last October, and now I use them all year round. We even made a bunch to give out, filled with candy and tied with cute bows around the straw.
For this design, I found a couple images online of ghost shapes I liked. I uploaded each as an image in Cricut Design Space. Since I was making many cups at the time, I cut out a bunch of the ghosts and then randomly placed them like they were stickers. No transfer tape needed!
I used 7-8 ghosts for each cup.
Wavy Names
I made these wavy name cups as gifts! One set was a wedding gift, and the other was for a birthday present. You can make these to gift to others, or for fun at home in your kitchen.
To do this, I chose a bold font (BFC Indie). I warped this to my desired curviness before copying. In the copied text, I created an offset layer (curved edges, about 0.1). Then, subtract the copied text from the offset layer, until only the outline of the name remains. Copy and paste to your liking.
Wedding or Anniversary Gifts
These cups were some of the most difficult to make, and yet the most beautiful. I switched it up, using black vinyl instead, and the result was so elegant and elevated.
I wouldn’t make these again without some changes since the letters were so thin. However, if you’re interested in replicating something similar, I designed this directly in Cricut Design Space.
Howdy Party Design
These howdy cups were perfect for a western themed birthday party! I was inspired by a design on Pinterest, and I recreated the logo for my friend’s birthday in Adobe Illustrator.
We put the same logo on koozies for drinks and everyone loved. To recreate, you can draw your own, or upload a similar image from online to Cricut Design Space.
Astronauts for Space Lovers
These astronaut cups were the cutest things ever! I used a cartoon astronaut from Pinterest to design my own logo in Adobe Illustrator. I personalized the balloon to match the initials of the couple I was gifting the cups too.
It was an extra special gift for my best friend who works at NASA in Houston!
This was a little complex, but I kept the lines simple and thick. After cutting, transfer tape is a must! Otherwise, I had no problems applying the vinyl to this cup and they turned out super cute.
Stacked Names
These cups work best for shorter names. I used the Normande Roman font in Cricut Design Space, and just rearranged the letters to my liking. I found it was easiest to make different text boxes for each line, and then center align all of the boxes. I love how clean and yet elevated these came out!
Other Tips for Glass Cups Vinyl DIY
- Hand wash! Although some of mine have gone through the dishwasher, I recommend hand washing to be safe (especially for some of the more intricate and thin designs).
- Make sure you are using permanent vinyl! Of course, you can use removable if you’d like to remove and re-do the glasses each season, but in general, permanent vinyl is much more reliable.
- In this post, I am using these glass cups with bamboo lids from Amazon! I did get a box completely shattered once, but I requested an exchange and Amazon sent me a new box the next day. Still looking for the best supplier, but this is what I have so far.
- Make sure your text and lines are thick enough. I love cursive fonts, but often the lines are too thin and application becomes very difficult. I struggled with this, especially for the wedding cups.
If you like this post, check out my other vinyl projects like this personalized vinyl tumblers for summer!
