A personalized, insulated Lunch Box (with Cricut)

When we were back-to-school shopping a couple months ago, Haley picked out a pretty nice insulated lunch box for $10 at Walmart. I’d been thinking about ordering her one from Pottery Barn Kids, but had sticker shock when I went to pick one out. (I do love their stuff – but, man, they can get really expensive by the time you add personalization & shipping!) So, I was thrilled when she found this one.

Arctic Zone Lunch Box from Walmart
Arctic Zone Lunch Box from Walmart

My only reservation about it was that a lot of kids at school would be likely to have the same one. We had this issue last year – and wound up writing her name in large letters with a Sharpie so she wouldn’t grab the wrong one from the pile after recess. It was functional, but not super pretty.

My first plan was to use my sewing machine to embroider her name on the front of the lunch box (in true PBK style), but when I tried to hoop it, I realized that it wasn’t going to work. The only spot where I would be able to put her name was through the insulated portion of the lunch box and it was too thick to fit in the embroidery hoop for my sewing machine. Bummer.

So, on to plan B – I was thinking about embroidering another piece of fabric that I could then sew to the front of her lunchbox (which I still think would be a good option). But then I remembered my Cricut and decided to give that a try instead.

I had everything ready to go with solid blue heat transfer vinyl and a simple sans-serif font … which was quickly changed to glitter vinyl with a cursive font and hearts once Haley got involved. Ha!

We cut the vinyl and ironed it on the lunchbox with no issues. I used a lower temperature on my iron and didn’t press quite as long as I would have if I were making a t-shirt. The vinyl adhered to the lunchbox just fine – although the insulation does feel a little thinner where I had the iron. If I were to do it again, I might either be more cautious with the iron or try permanent self-adhesive vinyl instead – but honestly, it’s not that big of a deal for the types of lunches she takes if the insulation is a little thinner in that one spot, so I’m not worrying about it.

In the end, this turned out to be a really fun, quick project. She is thrilled with it and I’m happy that we were able to do it for way less than PBK prices!

Filed Under: Crafts and Sewing

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