10/20/15

Vinyl Fun and a Heat Press

Hello Krazies!

The holidays are creeping up and if we want to be ready we should start right now, last month.  I've been a little busy myself, reorganizing craft room, relabeling everything with chalkboard labels and I recently got a heat press machine!  Nothing fancy, I was advised against it because it was "Cheap" but the way I figure it is I don't want to dump 1000+ on something I may use a total of 100 times tops. (That's pushing it) Here is the one I got World Paper 5-in-1 Multifunction Heat Press 30cmx38cm,8"And 10"Plate,Mug,Cap


Anyway - here are a few things I did recently

My 2yo grand-daughter has 2 sets of grandparents.  We are Green Bay Packer fans and her other grandparents are Baltimore Ravens.  I was trying to come up with an idea like the "House Divided" shirts and items we see.  I'm too timid right now to layer too much vinyl so I wanted simple.

I designed my image in Cricut Design Space and simply printed it onto Print Transfer for light fabrics that I purchased over at My Vinyl Direct Tip for you - READ INSTRUCTIONS FIRST.  <insert dramatic eye roll here>

I used the print and cut feature so I wouldn't have any of that gunky film left on the shirt after pressing it.  This is my end result:

Isn't it adorable?  The reason the "Divided" looks skewed is because it was.  The first time I arranged the letters I finally got it right and let out a sigh of relief.  No kidding, those letters blew all over the place!   2nd and 3rd time, could not get them centered and level, when I finally managed to get close, the act of closing the lid got air under it and messed them up again.  Finally I just went with it.  I did not read the directions which is why I messed up the 1st 3 times.  Ugh!

A friend saw the project on my personal FB page and contacted me wanting shirts for her sons.  One was having a birthday and flying in to surprise the other.  I did these with white vinyl from My Vinyl Directand they turned out beautifully.   I also did 2 matching mugs with regular vinyl as a thank you for being my very first customer.




This is the exact design my friend wanted.  I tried to design it up a little but she wasnt interested. Here are a few things I've learned:


  • Set your heat press to the correct temperature. If you can't figure out how to change the celcius to farenheit don't guess like I did.  Look it up.  EEK!  I burned the 1st shirt.
  • Use a Teflon Sheet so you can be sure not to get the adhesive on your heat plates (or on your iron)  Even with HTV that has the backing.  This helps prevent burning of the vinyl/transfer and protects your Heat Press. 
  • Make sure you press as long as the vinyl or transfer advises you to. Use a timer (I use the one on my iphone because I can't quite figure out the Heat Press timer....yet. I had all the vinyl off one of the shirts come off in the wash EEEK!
  • Wash your garment inside out the first coupla times.  Transfers have to be washed inside out each and every time.
That's about it until next time.  Have a great time!






Hugs and Happiness!



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