It’s officially the end of summer with Labor Day weekend behind us (although we still have beach weather in Charleston), so I’m sharing what is probably the last summer craft of the season.  My friend was helping host a bachelorette party and needed my help to personalize some insulated cups with straws for the weekend.

I made some similar style cups for my friend’s bachelorette last year in Nashville, but the shape of the cup was different and I had a completely different type of design in mind.  We decided on colors that were prevalent in the bridesmaid dresses they would be wearing soon and it was a perfect end of summer theme!

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DIY Tropical Philodendron Cups

What you’ll need:

Alright, so I started by typing all of the names in Design Space in Bromello font. Since the letters are all separate, you’ll want to connect them to make 1 image.  Click on the name, then click the advanced menu to “Ungroup to letters” (see screenshot below).

Then you can move the letters so they overlap where the script becomes 1 connected word.  Select all the letters and click “weld” so the name will cut as one image instead of individual letters.  Repeat for all the names.  At the end my Canvas looked like this:

Next I uploaded a philodendron image I had previously uploaded for my potted paper philodendron project.

I had an idea of what I wanted the cups to look like, but wasn’t really sure how it would actually turn out so I changed the colors of the leaves & a name to mimic the color of vinyl I’d be cutting them on by clicking the colorful circle next to the item on the right menu and arranged them like I would on the cup.

When I saw it together, I was sold so wanted to start cutting!  I duplicated the leaves to make enough for 2 with each name and clicked “Make it.”  Since I had 3 colors of items (names, light green leaves and dark green leaves) Design Space automatically sorted that into 3 mats.

If something is on the wrong mat, you can click the three dots in the top left of the image on the mat and choose to move to another mat or a new mat.  I’ve really been enjoying that new feature.

Once all your mats are arranged how you want and the settings are on vinyl, cut!  After cutting you’ll want to weed out the excess vinyl using the weeder tool.

The last step is just adding the vinyl to the cups.  Since my design was layered, I started by applying the kelly green leaf, the lime green leaf and then the coral name on top.

To apply the vinyl, cut a piece of transfer tape that is the size of the vinyl piece you’re applying, remove the backing and put on top of the vinyl.  Use the scraper to get any bubbles out, then remove the backing of the vinyl.  Apply the vinyl to your cup smoothing it out and getting any air bubbles out.  Slowly remove the transfer tape and your vinyl is adhered!  Repeat for each leaf & name on every cup.

Once all your cups have all your vinyl pieces applied, you’re done!  I love this color combination and how fun they turned out!  I will definitely be keeping this design in mind for the future.. The cups looked perfect with the bright hats laying on the table for everyone at the beach bachelorette weekend!

Happy wedding weekend, Ashley! And I hope the rest of you DIY brides, bridesmaids or friends feel like you can make these cute cups too!

5 Thoughts on “Tropical Philodendron Cups”

  • For some reason whenever I weld text in Design Space it makes the letters jagged. I used Bromello font and ungrouped the letters then welded like you recommended, but the names don’t look like the ones you have. Am I doing something wrong?

    • Hi Kim,

      I haven’t seen that before and can’t find an example of what might be happening to you online to reference. When you are putting the individual letters together so they overlap before you weld are they jagged where parts of a letter stick out? Or they are smooth until you weld?

      • Thanks for getting back to me! I just tried again in Design Space and the letters are jagged before I ungroup and weld them. And when I weld them they remain jagged. I guess it’s just the font!
        Thanks again

  • Do you have problems getting the lettering off of the sticky tape , when applying to the surface ?
    I’m wondering if the problem I have is for I bought the adhesive vinyl on Amazon. And not from Cricut or a reputable company.

    • Hi! No, I haven’t had issues, but I remove the transfer paper really slowly, starting at a corner and if the letters are sticking to the paper & not the cup, then I put it back down, rub over the design with my fingers and slowly try again.

      Hope this helps!

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