Harry Potter Back to School Backpack Tag with Cricut

Summer in the Pacific Northwest is a funny animal. It doesn’t warm up and get going until we’re into July and just as we are getting into a swing of things, back to school strikes!  I am trying to take control of the back to school season by creating a few things for my kids (like these Harry Potter backpack tags) to ease them into this new season. Maybe they won’t notice that summer is never quite long enough…

When Marissa asked if I wanted to participate in her Happy Harry Potter Series again this year I knew that I wanted to make something for my son. He is a HUGE Harry Potter fan and as he’s gotten older I realized that I haven’t been making him nearly as many things as I used to.  I recently put both my girls names on their backpacks using my Cricut and some heat transfer vinyl, but he is a little old for that now and I needed to think outside the box.

I decided to make him a backpack tag. It’s the same sentiment, however it is a little more appropriate for his age and his budding tweenager self. I found a simple black and white image of the Hogwarts crest and worked a little magic erasing (via PhotoShop) on the inside changing the H to an E (for my son’s name). Then I imported that bad boy into my Cricut design space. You can get this design here.

I made sure the click the cut file version and NOT the print one. I always make that mistake and then ended up annoyed that it isn’t working right.  Then I imported the outside edge file and added the circles so that I would have a place to put the keychain ring when I was finished.

I cut the outline of the shield image out of the Cricut faux leather using the custom setting on my knob, and then choosing faux leather from the screen on my computer. After that cut I used some black heat transfer vinyl and cut out the inside piece of the crest.

I laid the inside piece over the faux leather and gave it a once over with a hot iron. I stuck a tee shirt over the whole thing while I was ironing, because I didn’t want to ruin anything and it worked out great!  Once it was attached I stuck it under a heavy box so that as it cooled it would remain flat.

This is the point where I realized I was going to need an eyelet/grommet thing to keep the faux leather from ripping clean through the first time someone grabbed onto the tag. So off to the store I went. I picked up a pack and hammered that bad boy into place. Then I stuck a keyring through and attached it to his back pack zipper.

Bingo, bango, it was done!  I think I want to see about adding a couple more charms (is there a more manly word for charms) to the key ring to really take it all the way to Hogwarts, but for now I have one very happy little boy kid and a pretty proud mama!

This year’s Happy Harry Potter giveaway winner will give a fun package including:

• $50 Amazon.com gift card
• Make Love Not Horcruxes Book Bag and Custom Hogwarts House Tie Necklace from Rae Gun Shop
• Bookish Swag from CrateJoy which has loads of HP and fandom related subscription boxes.
• Four Stunning Harry Potter Printables from Sisters What!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.