How to cut heat transfer vinyl like a pro!

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One of my favorite things to do with my Silhouette machine is to cut heat transfer vinyl {HTV}.  HTV is the iron on material that can be cut to create any letter, shape or design to make a custom creation for any occasion.  I'm a sorority girl, and my husband likes to joke that it's not really an event unless there is a t-shirt to document the occasion!  Over the years I've made dozens and dozens of t-shirts for our family 5k Turkey Trot Thanksgiving morning. I've created stockings and pillows and custom bags, not to mention gifts for family and friends.I've learned a lot of things about heat transfer vinyl over the years and while I'm not an expert, I do have a few tricks up my sleeve!

These are just a few of my favorite HTV projects through the years.

Santa glitter pillow, Nana canvas bag, Sophie dog silhouette stocking

Africa design, 12 month onesies, Turkey Trot T's

More Turkey Trot T's {there is a new design every year!}, more 12 month onesies, Space Mountain vintage shirt

I posted a tutorial on how to design, weed and iron on your HTV here. I love being able to design just about everything with my Silhouette design software. As I get more comfortable with HTV, I have become more adventurous and made some fairly complicated designs.  I've learned a few things.  And thanks to my friend Melissa at Silhouette School {if you own a Silhouette and aren't following her, you are missing out on some real gems. She's ah-mazing!} she gave me a few ideas and tips when I got a little stuck earlier this week. I'm always learning!SO...how do you cut heat transfer vinyl like a pro? Well, first off, start with the right materials. Expressions Vinyl has some pretty amazing HTV that cuts like butter! I always like to have rolls of white and black HTV on hand because you just never know! It never fails, but I always second guess myself on two things.  1. Yes, the image has to be mirrored before you cut it. 2. The shiny side of the HTV goes down. Every.single.time. I question this.  It's worth checking and double checking these two things. Trust me, I know.I have learned that as I get more complicated in my designs and with my fonts, that cutting on a mat is a lifesaver and it doesn't hurt to check the box that says double cut.  You can absolutely cut without your mat on simple designs, but it doesn't hurt to put it on there {and it may make it a little more stable too}, so just do it.  The double cut feature may be helpful to me because my blade is about a hundred years old, but again, it can't hurt, so just check that box.Remember how I mentioned that Melissa helped me out of a jam earlier this week?  This library date shirt was what I was working on.  I saw a shirt that was similar on The Middle last season and loved it, so I thought I would try to recreate it.  It took me about six months of randomly thinking about it from time to time to figure out how I would get HTV to work to get this smudged typewriter look.  I gave up the idea several times thinking that I would need to screen print the shirt, but on a whim, I decided to see if I could find a smudged font {this one is called Underwood 1913}. The font was free, so with a quick download, I was able to install it in my Silhouette software.  I used dates that are important to our family {minus the 1987...I was 9 then...I'm sure it was a good year.  I think}. 
I tried to cut the HTV a few different times without any luck.  What finally worked is ratcheting up my blade {yep, it's old and dull}, putting the vinyl on the mat and using the double cut feature.I am what I like to call spatially challenged.  I am grateful to be married to an engineer who can see things. I usually have him look something over for me, but when I am working on a project during the day and he's at an actual job, then I have to hang on my own.This West Philadelphia {born and raised} shirt gave me a little run for my money today.  {You're singing the song right now aren't you?} The shirt for the most part is super straightforward, the only thing that was a wild card was the curved Philadelphia.  Here is a tutorial for how to curve your font since I don't have one. You have to mirror your design when you cut your HTV, my Philly on the curve was mirroring upside down not backwards. It's complicated so stay with me.   I fixed it by typing the Philadelphia in the text creator {as a straight line} then mirroring that BEFORE I put it on the circle to curve it. 

And finally, one of my most favorite shirts ever because it's of one of my favorite places ever, is this Africa graphic that I made this past spring. I made a pretty complicated design in the HTV, but glory of glories it cut and left me with something awesome.

I only have one word for this one...patience. It took me a few hours to weed this shirt out {you will need a weeding tool}.  The hardest part for me on this shirt was deciding what part I wanted to be positive space {left in} and what I wanted to be negative space {weeded out}.  If you have a complicated design, like this one

or even one like this one {these pics were taken three years apart and yet I used the same table and the same globe!} just stick with it.  It will be worth it!

Hopefully these tips will have you cutting heat transfer vinyl and whipping up sorority girl worthy t-shirts in no time!  Like a boss. 

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Graphic t-shirt using heat transfer vinyl

Graphic t-shirts are hot this summer!  You can find them everywhere, but why grab one at the store when you can make one? While I was at SNAP conference last month, I picked up some Expressions Vinyl. I have been digging these racer back t-shirts from Wal-Mart of all places {can't beat the $4.97 price tag!} and now I've been embellishing shirts til my hearts content. I love making custom t-shirts, and nothing is more custom than one you create on your own.  Heat transfer vinyl is so easy to use that you will be whipping shirts out like a pro in no time!

It's no secret that I have a soft spot for Africa.  I've been there twice in the past year but the souvenir t-shirts aren't very awesome, so I decided to create one of my own.  I found a graphic that I liked and used this tutorial to create my image on my Silhouette.  Don't forget to mirror your image! I am not going to lie, it took like a half an hour to cut this bad boy out, but man was it worth it!

The hardest part when you are making such an intricate design is deciding what to weed out and what to leave.  I started by peeling the back off {the largest part of uncut vinyl} and seeing what was left. Then I just started working from there.  I couldn't believe how well the expressions vinyl cut in my machine!  Settle in with a good show on Netflix because the weeding process will take you a few hours but it's totally worth it!

I decided to leave a few of the scraped off pieces to make the shirt look like it was screen printed. The heat transfer vinyl is sticky, so you can lay it flat on your t-shirt and decide if you like it where it's at.  If you don't, simply pick it up and move it.  I used a small piece of cotton on top of my HTV and ironed it on the highest setting for about a minute covering the whole surface.

I've used a lot of HTV and I was really impressed at how easily this stuck to the material.  All I had to do was pull up the plastic sheet once it was cool and my image had been transferred.

I can't believe how easy that was to make my own custom graphic t-shirt. Every time I'm amazed! Seriously, for a design so intricate I was blown away at how easy it was to create. I am obsessed with expressions heat transfer vinyl now!  It's all I'm going to use from now on.

Do you have any custom graphic t-shirt ideas? Share them with me.  I may just try them!

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Custom gold foil neoprene laptop case tutorial

I've survived blogging for five years without feeling like I need a laptop, but the need has become real, and we ordered a chrome book for me to use for blogging just a few weeks ago.

I have several trips coming up for blogging in the next few months and it's getting harder and harder for me to keep up with blogging from my PC.  While I still very much prefer the old school ways of sitting in my den typing on my computer, I have started to get used to being portable.

My husband {with the consult of several computer guru's} questioned me on what I needed a laptop to do and then they decided on the best computer for me.  Because to be quite honest I walked into a store, started playing around with laptops and could have bought any of the the ones that were placed in front of me and been quite happy.  I'm thankful for people that know more than me and are willing to do the research because plainly, I just don't care.

My sweet husband also started clicking on accessories for me {a mini mouse that I have yet to use} and a black neoprene laptop case.  Not one for plain, I decided to fancy up my new laptop case with some custom gold foil geometric shapes and I'm here to share the tutorial with you.

How boring is this laptop case?  My husband is an engineer so function is always his first thought. Not so much mine.  I immediately started thinking of ways that I could make this case my own and make it not quite so boring.

I had an idea in my head and started wandering the aisles of Hobby Lobby because that's what everyone does when they need inspiration right?

I found this huge assortment of Deco Foil in the stamping aisle {though it says it's for fabric}. I went back and forth trying to decide if the technique I had in mind would work with these materials and I finally settled on getting the deco foil adhesive and gold deco foil.

My original idea was to create a freezer paper stencil like this but I did some reading and wasn't sure I could iron on the stencil to the neoprene, so I went with the image that I created in my Silhouette software and cut it out of wax paper using my Silhouette machine.  

Wax paper likes to roll, so I ironed it on a low setting to help keep it flat.

 Once the wax paper was ironed, I placed a clip board {you can use anything hard to keep your bag stiff} inside the bag and laid my stencil down where I wanted it.

I carefully used the deco foil transfer adhesive according to the directions and filled in the stencil. I carefully removed the wax paper stencil and put my case in a safe place to dry.

The instructions say that the deco foil adhesive takes 30 minutes to dry.  I found that they are liars. I actually let the adhesive dry over night.  You are looking for the milky adhesive to turn clear.

Once the adhesive turns clear, carefully place the foil paper on top and use a firm finger to rub on the adhesive to transfer the foil.

This is a close up of the finished project.  I actually did this technique on both sides of the bag, so the whole process with drying time, ended up taking several days.  It's not a slow process, but the end results were worth it.

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. I certainly made it my own don't you think?

Now I'm wondering what else I should put gold foil on.  I'm thinking a t-shirt.  Stay tuned!

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Custom LOVE sweatshirt

I bought this H&M sweatshirt for $1 at a garage sale this summer knowing I wanted to put my own spin on it. I don't know about you, but I tend to hoard craft supplies until I have the perfect craft, and even then, I go back and forth with ideas second guessing myself.  

I had a few different ideas all of them involving arrows of some kind. I'm sort of obsessed with arrows right now.  In the end, I like the idea that I settled on and was able to make the image using picmonkey.com and then transferred the file into my Silhouette software. You can follow this tutorial on how to use any image in your Silhouette file.I made my first video tutorial.  Next time I will fire the videographer.  All he did was roll his eyes at me the whole time.  He was far too busy to be bothered to get my head in the shot.  Teenagers...

Let me know if you have any questions.  Would you like to see more video tutorials? I can't get any worse at them!

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How to make custom t-shirts with heat transfer material

I love my silhouette machine.

One of my favorite things to make with it, are custom t-shirts.

As any good sorority girl knows, if you don't have a t-shirt, it didn't happen!

My parents are gathering my siblings and I in Gatlinburg, TN this summer for a family reunion.

They asked me if I would make t-shirts for the whole family for the event.

I received this heat transfer starter kit from the lovely people at Silhouette.

It included all these great things inside:

an idea/instruction book

3 12x9 sheets of smooth heat transfer material

2 12x9 sheets of flocked heat transfer material

10 exclusive heat transfer designs

instructional DVD

Silhouette hook tool

I started by opening up my Silhouette software.

I designed my event logo using various font sizes

The most important thing to remember is to mirror your image horizontally!

Since I had multiple shirts to make, I made a copy of the image, so that it would cut out several on one page.

Feed your heat transfer material into your machine shiny side down without a carrier sheet.

Once your image is cut, weed away the part of the transfer paper that you don't need.

I used the Silhouette weeding tool to remove some of the smaller details.

Once you weed out your image, place it face down {with the shiny plastic up}.

Your image should be on the right side now.

Cover the plastic with a cloth and iron.

Press down for 45-60 seconds in each spot.

Once the plastic is cool, carefully peel it back.

Iron as needed until all of the image remains stuck to your t-shirt.

That's it!

Now we are ready for the Foster Family Reunion!

These are some other shirts I have made using the heat transfer material.

Camp cabin t-shirts

Disneyland Souvenir t-shirts

Family Turkey Trot t-shirts

baby onesies

12 month onesies

As you can see, the possibilities are endless!

There are so many fun designs you can create.

And it doesn't just stop with t-shirts!

This month, Silhouette is running a heat transfer promotion.

If you don't already have the machine, you can take advantage of these great deals.

If you already have a silhouette and have been waiting to try the heat transfer products, all of them are currently buy 1 get 1 free!

To take advantage of these great deals, 

shop here

and enter HOLY at checkout.

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