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Personalized Christmas Hostess Gift Ideas with Cricut Explore Air 2

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Making personalized Christmas hostess gifts for the holidays is incredibly easy with the Cricut Explore Air 2. If you’re headed to a Christmas party, keep reading for my great DIY Christmas hostess gift ideas. They’re perfect for holiday parties, or as a personalized gift for family and friends.

DIY Holiday Hostess Gift with the Cricut by Pineapple Paper Co.

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

Every holiday season we are invited to Christmas parties and I’m always given the task of finding Christmas hostess gifts. This year, I am stepping it up a notch by making some easy personalized hostess gifts with my Cricut Explore Air 2. I added personalized touches to inexpensive party items and gifts with my Cricut machine and they instantly became special gifts that anyone will appreciate.

The Cricut Explore Air 2 can cut 100s of different materials, and cuts up to 2x faster than previous Air models. I used my brand new Fuchsia Cricut Explore Air 2 to craft these hostess gifts – and I made DIY Handmade Christmas Cards, too! Check out that post to see the 5 reasons why I love my Cricut Explore Air 2.

Make your own Handmade DIY Christmas Cards with Cricut by Pineapple Paper Co.

I love giving personalized gifts for Christmas. Ever since I got my first Cricut a few years ago, I have made gifts for my friends and family for the holidays. Personalized gifts don’t have to be fancy or expensive. I have a ton of easy personalized gift ideas in this Personalized Gifts with the Martha Stewart Cricut Explore Air 2 post that are perfect for everyone, including teachers, kids, and friends.

DIY Holiday Hostess Gift Idea

This year, there’s one party in particular we are attending that I’m really excited about – it’s going to be a ton of fun! It has a Nutcracker theme with bright and fun colors that the kids will love. I created a Christmas party hostess gift set to give to my friend that is throwing the party. I added special details with my Cricut that are perfect for her and coordinate with the party theme. I really love how they turned out!

Make your Own Christmas Hostess Gift Ideas with Cricut by Pineapple Paper Co.

To include in the Christmas hostess gift, I made Ceramic coasters with Infusible Ink products, Custom Wine Glasses, Personalized Foil Napkins, and a Personalized Gift Tag (to go with some bubbly!)

DIY Holiday Hostess Gift with the Cricut by Pineapple Paper Co.

What you Need to Make a Personalized Christmas Hostess Gift Set

I created this holiday hostess gift out of traditional party and entertaining items, and personalized them with my Cricut. Here are the supplies that I used:

All of the projects for this personalized hostess set were designed with the new Hostess with the Mostess holiday designs available in Cricut Design Space with Cricut Access – they are perfect with the Christmas party theme!

How to Make Personalized Christmas Hostess Gifts

This DIY gift set is full of holiday hostess gift ideas – you can make one or all of them! I have all of the Cricut Design Space pages linked with the projects – just click them to go to the project on Design Space to make your own.

Make your Own Christmas Hostess Gift Ideas with Cricut by Pineapple Paper Co.

You can get the FREE SVG Design for the Christmas Light Banner on my blog, too! It’s part of my Glitter Craft week for Craft Lightning. It is a perfect match to my DIY Hostess Gift set.

Christmas Cricut Infusible Ink Coasters

If you want more instructions regarding Infusible Ink, make sure you check out my Infusible Ink Projects post – it has all of the details!

Here’s the project in Cricut Design Space: Christmas Hostess Gift Coasters

All of the ink colors are set to include current Infusible Ink colors that are available in the Cricut online shop. You can change them to the other Infusible Ink colors as desired! Just change the color using the color selector tool so your Cricut knows what to draw in each color pen.

When you’re ready to proceed, click the green “Make It” button.

When using Infusible Ink markers and pens, you’ll use laser copy paper to transfer your design. My coasters are designed to draw the applicable designs and then cut the circle out of the paper, so make sure you set the Explore Air 2 dial to “paper.” or set the Maker cutting material to “copy paper.”

When the “Prepare” screen loads, you’ll notice that the coasters are arranged in a way that will fit a 12×12″ piece of paper. Since most of us will have laser copy paper that is 8.5×11″, you need to move one of the coaster designs to fit on the paper you’ll be using.

While you’re moving the coaster on the far right of the screen down with the others, make sure you click the “Mirror” button as well. Since you will be using the Easy Press to transfer the designs, you need to draw and cut them in reverse.

Make sure you have the correct pen loaded in tool holder “A” and draw/cut when ready.

When the coaster designs are done, remove them from the mat carefully. Then, continue with cutting the two green designs from Infusible Ink transfer paper.

I used green Infusible Ink transfer paper for the two larger images, because I colored in my designs with the pens and markers and didn’t want to color the large designs. If you use the pens and markers in a large space, your marker lines will remain in the design – and that drives me crazy! I did add some minor details to the Christmas tree with the Bright Green Infusible Ink Marker, though.

DIY Holiday Hostess Gift with the Cricut by Pineapple Paper Co.

Color all of the designs in with their coordinating Infusible Ink markers.

DIY Holiday Hostess Gift with the Cricut by Pineapple Paper Co.

Prepare the coasters by wiping them with a lint free cloth and attaching the designs with heat resistant tape.

DIY Holiday Hostess Gift with the Cricut by Pineapple Paper Co.

Visit the Cricut EasyPress Interactive Guide for the heating instructions and order of the “Infusible Ink Stack” you’ll use for transferring designs to coasters. The temperature setting for the EasyPress 2 and ceramic coasters is 400 degrees for 240 seconds.

I attached the transfer paper designs to my coasters with a small piece of heat resistant tape to hold them in place it worked perfectly!

DIY Holiday Hostess Gift with the Cricut by Pineapple Paper Co.

Heat each design as instructed and wait for them to cool entirely before handling and removing the paper. They will be VERY hot.

DIY Holiday Hostess Gift with the Cricut by Pineapple Paper Co.

In just a few minutes, you’ll have permanent, peel-proof, crack proof designs on ceramic coasters. It’s my favorite “reveal” of all of the Cricut products! It amazes me every time I make coasters. You can also see why you need the white cardstock to protect your EasyPress Mat – the design partially transfers to it!

DIY Holiday Hostess Gift with the Cricut by Pineapple Paper Co.

Personalized Christmas Wine Bottle Gift Tag

This is such an easy project and takes just a few minutes. My secret to easy gift tags is Iron On Vinyl! It works SO well on paper and makes gift tags, cards, and other paper projects quick and easy. You can use this gift tag on a wine bottle or any other gift! It’s adorable and versatile, and the addition of Foil Iron on makes it look like a professionally printed foil gift tag!

DIY Holiday Hostess Gift with the Cricut by Pineapple Paper Co.

Christmas Foil Gift Tag in Design Space: Merry and Bright Gift Tag

Because I’m using this gift tag as a wine bottle tag, I only designed it to cut one gift tag. You can definitely copy and paste the design on your canvas and make a bunch of tags for all of your Christmas gifts. I added our name on the tag to draw with the Cricut pens. You can edit the name in the Design Space file to your own.

Cut the tag and design when ready (make sure you mirror the iron on design!). I love the pop of bright pink in my hostess gift set, but you can use whatever color you like. Keep in mind that the light gold Foil Iron on will show up better on darker colors.

Weed away the extra vinyl from the “Merry and Bright” Design.

Preheat the EasyPress mini to the lowest setting. Place the design on the tag and heat for approximately 10 seconds while moving the EasyPress around on the design. Peel away the backing while the iron on is still warm.

Make your Own Christmas Hostess Gift Ideas with Cricut by Pineapple Paper Co.

Just insert ribbon and tie around the wine bottle, soda, or whatever the hostess would like!

Personalized Foil Napkins for a Hostess Gift

These personalized foil napkins are one of my FAVORITE projects to make. They are so easy and the finished product looks incredibly professional – just like expensive foiled napkins. You can make them to match any party theme (I’ve even made them for Halloween). They are made in the exact same way as the Personalized Foil Gift Tag.

DIY Holiday Hostess Gift with the Cricut by Pineapple Paper Co.

Personalized Hostess Napkin Design in Cricut Design Space: Nutcracker and Tree Personalized Foil Napkins

I’ve included two sizes in the project: for cocktail napkins to be placed on an angle, and for slightly larger luncheon napkins to be placed parallel to the edge of the napkin.

You can copy and paste the design for as many napkins as you would like to make – a small set is perfect for a Christmas hostess gift idea!

Cut when ready – make sure to mirror your designs!

Weed away the extra vinyl from the napkin designs.

DIY Holiday Hostess Gift with the Cricut by Pineapple Paper Co.

Preheat the EasyPress mini to the lowest setting. Since the napkins are so thin, I choose to heat these directly on a hard surface. Place the design on the napkin and heat for approximately 10 seconds while moving the EasyPress around on the design. Peel away the backing while the iron on is still warm.

DIY Holiday Hostess Gift with the Cricut by Pineapple Paper Co.

Look how great they turn out!

Make your Own Christmas Hostess Gift Ideas with Cricut by Pineapple Paper Co.

Custom Christmas Wine Glasses

The final part of my holiday party hostess gift idea is personalized wine glasses. These glasses are perfect for Christmas parties, and match the other gifts and party theme perfectly.

Make your Own Christmas Hostess Gift Ideas with Cricut by Pineapple Paper Co.

Personalized Wine Glasses Design in Cricut Design Space: Nutcracker and Tree Christmas Wine Glasses

I used one of my new favorite products for these wine glasses – the Shimmer Permanent Vinyl. It is SO much better and easier to weed than glitter vinyl, but is just as sparkly! I edited the nutcracker design so it is one color – I love the color blocking look.

Make your Own Christmas Hostess Gift Ideas with Cricut by Pineapple Paper Co.

Size the nutcracker and tress to fit your glasses, and cut when ready.

Weed away the extra vinyl from the designs.

Use StrongGrip transfer tape to move the designs from the backing to the glasses. I put both the tree and star on the transfer paper at one time so I knew my spacing on the glass was correct.

DIY Holiday Hostess Gift with the Cricut by Pineapple Paper Co.

When transferring, start in the middle of the design and work your way to the outside. If you start in the middle, the design will be more smooth on the glass.

Make your Own Christmas Hostess Gift Ideas with Cricut by Pineapple Paper Co.

How to Put Together a Christmas Party Hostess Gift

I placed all of my personalized hostess gifts into a lucite tray for gifting. Lucite trays are modern and make a great serving tray or addition to a party display.

DIY Holiday Hostess Gift with the Cricut by Pineapple Paper Co.

Adding personalized touches to these hostess gift ideas was really easy – I hope you’ll use my Cricut Design Space files and make some of these hostess gift ideas for a Christmas party or even as a special Christmas gift for someone.

DIY Holiday Hostess Gift with the Cricut by Pineapple Paper Co.

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about charynn

ABOUT CHARYNN

Hi, y’all! I’m Charynn, the owner and designer of Pineapple Paper Co. I’m a mom of four kids (two girls and two boys) living in Pittsburgh. I love hand lettering, anything southern, cocktails, and of course, pineapples! I am excited to share my SVG files, printables, and craft projects with you! The pineapple is a symbol of hospitality, and I welcome y’all to my little corner of the internet. Read more…

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3 Comments

  1. Dena Duchek says:

    Hi, My sister got a Cricut about six months ago and shared the info with me and what it does. Being a Graduate of Art, I jumped on the idea to win a Cricut. The first thing I’d probably make is a card. I would be teaching myself and picking my sister’s brain for ideas, lessons, projects, and where to find more, etc. I’d love to win a Cricut!

  2. Amanda Lincoln says:

    Do you have these SVG files for sale? I am having issues with your blog post and cannot tell. I am most interested in the nutcracker/tree designs, especially the cocktail napkins.

    I love your stuff!

    Thanks,
    Amanda

    1. Pineapple Paper Co. says:

      No, I don’t 🙁 They’re all available in Cricut Design Space. Cricut is having problems with Design Space links right now, but the files can be searched within their program! Sorry I’m not more help! They’re working on a fix because it’s affecting a TON of links.