Printable Heat Transfer Vinyl on Canvas

Hey there crafty friends! Connie here from @kutiekairadesigns with a fun project for you today: printable HTV on canvas *gasp*! We recently moved into a new apartment and I have a small craft corner that I am still working on making pretty. I want make unique custom pieces to put up a collage wall of cuteness above my desk. I like incorporating different mediums and textures into my collage walls to make it pop. The possibilities are endless with adding printable HTV on canvas and I am going to share all my tips and tricks with you today!

Things you will need:

-Canvas (I used 11X15 inches but any size works)
-Silhouette brand printable heat transfer vinyl for light fabrics
-Cutting machine (I use a Silhouette CAMEO 3)
-Printer
-Heat press or iron
-Pressing pillows or books

Step 1: Design and Print/Cut Your Image

I used designs from the Silhouette Design Store. The floral design is by Crate Paper #246067 and the 'create' file is by Kolette Hall #158188. The size of my printable HTV is 8.5 x 11 so I used as much of the space as I could. For a successful print & cut, you *must* keep the design with the black registration marks and netting, within the red cut rectangle, and within the gray print rectangle. If any portion of your design is outside of those areas, sadly it won't work. But don't be scared! It is really easy to do and you will be hooked on print and cut in no time.

Once your design is ready, send it to print to your local printer. But as always with HTV, do not forget to mirror/flip horizontally. 

The printable HTV will work with any inkjet printer. 

Once it prints, place your HTV on your mat. *Craft Hack* If your mat is losing stickiness, just use washi tape to secure your medium on the mat. I love that I can get extra life out of my mats by using this trick. The best part is that the washi tape is so light that it won't rip or ruin any of your materials! 

 These are the settings that I used to cut. If you aren't sure, always do a test cut so that you don't ruin precious material.

Once it cuts, use your fingers or a tool to weed (or remove) the excess material that you don't want on your final project.

Now you are ready to apply the vinyl on the canvas. Preheat your heat press to 360 degrees or your iron to the highest cotton setting! 

Step 2: Transfer the Design to the Canvas

Honesty time! The first time I tried this project out, it was an epic fail. As you can see, the heat press has an angled plate and the raised canvas is flat. Basic geometry shows us that there is no way earth the flat canvas will be heated/pressed due to the angles. So when I lifted the design up, the left side of the image did not apply at all. 

The second time I tried this project, I put my thinking cap on and realized I had to angle the canvas to match the angles on the heat press. I used my handy dandy best friends (aka pressing pillows) to lift it up. You can also use a book or other hard surface if you don't have pressing pillows (but really, you need to invest in them. They are worth every penny!)

In this picture, you can see how adding the pressing pillows allowed me to get the perfect angle for even heat and pressure. 

I think an iron would be the best way to apply the transfer on the vinyl. Since we just moved not long ago, I think my iron got stuffed into a storage box so I couldn't find mine to try! Boo! But either way works! 

With the heat press pre-heated to 360 degrees, press for 30-35 seconds and slowly peel away the backing sheet when the design is warm. I wanted more of a distressed shabby chic look but you can also repeat the process and add a second identical layer on top for a more even, opaque look.

Can you imagine the possibilities? I was thinking of all the great things you can do! Decor for nursery's, wedding gifts, family portraits on canvas as a housewarming gift. If you try this out, please tag me on Instagram so I can see your lovely creations!

Ribbon Paper Clip Bookmark with HTV

I love ribbon! There are so many different colors, sizes, finishes, patterns and designs. It's one of those things you quickly collect and before you know it, you have rolls and rolls of it! I have been thinking about different ways to spruce up my ribbon with heat transfer vinyl (HTV). I have a ton of beautiful HTV and I wanted to merge the two and create something beautiful.

Things you will need:

-Paper clip
-Ribbon (3/8 inch & smaller...mix it up!)
-Gold HTV 
-Iron/Heat Press
-Silhouette/Cricut Machine or any stamp die cuts

Step 1: Design & Cut

Chevron is one of my favorite patterns! Choose a chevron file or just the drawing tool to draw your shapes. I always like to draw the "ribbon" on the software (the colored rectangles) to the correct width to ensure that I size my pattern precisely. 

Cut and weed your design (as always don't forget to mirror with HTV!) and use a heat press or iron to press the vinyl onto the ribbon. I love using my pressing pillows because it helps get a more even press--especially on such thin mediums. Peel the backing off and viola! Pretty HTV ribbon! 

Step 2: Create the Paper Clip Bookmark 

Grab your paper clip (I am using a larger ring below since it is much easier to demonstrate, but same technique) and loop the ribbon into the paper clip. 

Next, put your fingers through the loop to grab the two loose ends. Pull them through until they are on the other side.

 Tighten until secure! (*Note:* If you are using several layers of ribbon like I did, be sure to loop all the ribbon at the same time)

Now you have an adorable paper clip bookmark! So many planner lovers on Instagram use these fancy clips and I LOVE them. Who knew they were so easy to make?!?

Paper clip in action!

Get creative with your HTV ribbon and use it for other things like this adorable key chain! Same technique and process I just used a key chain ring and wrote my name. You can also use it for gift wrapping. Can you imagine the possibilities of customization for gift-wrapping!!

Look at the pretty details!

Be sure to share your creations with me on Instagram @kutiekairadesigns! I would love to see your beautiful creations.

As always, happy crafting friends :)

-Connie

Hand-Dyed HTV Toucan Tea Towel

I am so happy that springtime is finally here! I love nature and birds and toucans have always been my faves. When I saw they were trendy and *in*, I knew I had to create something toucan and it had to be cute! I love the bright colors of toucans and they just so happen to be perfect for the season.

Things you will need:

-White muslin material (if you wish to DIY, if not premade is fine!)
-Pompom trim (2 feet)
-Fabric dye (I used Rit in Teal)
-Sewing machine
-Cutting machine (I use a CAMEO 3)
-Siser Heat Transfer Vinyl (in glitter: Jade, Red, Copper, Lemon Sugar, Black)
-Weeding tool
-Heat press or iron

Making The Towel (Optional): 

You don't need to be a master seamstress to create this towel. It is super easy! First, cut a rectangle shape out of your material. I chose to use muslin because it is cotton, super thin yet sturdy! Cut your rectangle to be approx. 16 in. x 26 in. Don't forget to leave a little bit of room for seam allowance. Since it is very hard to find solid color material, I decided to dye my own. It was my first time dyeing fabric and it was a lot of fun and a lot easier than I imagined. I am hooked!

Once your towel is dyed and dried, use your sewing machine to sew a clean border around your towel.

Sew your pom pom border around one of the short bottom edges. You can use the machine or hand sew if you prefer.

Cutting And Applying The HTV Toucan:

Use your machine to cut out your design. I bought this toucan file from the Silhouette Design Store.

As always, don't forget to mirror your HTV and weed out all the extra parts.

Apply your HTV toucan onto the towel. Use an iron or heat press to heat the material onto the towel. Apply each color one at a time until you apply them all.

HOW CUTE IS THIS?!?! This little toucan tea towel makes me so happy! I just love it. Get creative with the colors, designs, and pom poms. These towels would be super fun to give as gifts at weddings, birthdays and housewarming parties! Can't wait to see what you create. Be sure to tag me on Instagram @kutiekairadesigns so that I can admire your beautiful work!

The finished towel in my kitchen! 

Happy Crafting!

-Connie Wilson 

Felt Bunny Jar with NEW Siser Adhesive Vinyl

I love Easter/springtime because of all the cute things like flowers, pastels, and bunnies. My 3-year-old daughter is OBSESSED with bunnies and quite honestly, so am I. I love making candy jars because they are adorable and perfect for gift giving! I just got some of the new Siser adhesive vinyls so I wanted to try them out for this project.

Things you will need: 

-Jar with a lid
-Electronic cutting machine (I use a CAMEO 3)
-Felt (I used white and light pink)
-Gridlined transfer tape
-Siser EasyPSV removable vinyl (I used black & carnation tea)
-Siser EasyPSV permanent vinyl (I used sea glass)
-Glue gun
-Scissors
-White PomPom

Step 1: Cut and Weed Vinyls 

I used my CAMEO to cut out my vinyl eyelashes, nose, and "some bunny loves you" quote. I found the Siser vinyls to be a little bit thinner than the Oracal ones so I had to adjust the cut settings. I used settings: Blade 1, Speed 3, Force/Thickness 12. Weed the inside of the letters using your favorite weeding tool. 

Step 2: Cut & Glue Felt Ears

Use a pencil or pen to draw your ears on the felt. Cut out two bigger white ones and two smaller pink ones for the inside of the ears. Once you cut them out, use a hot glue gun to glue the pink ears onto the white larger ones

Step 3: Apply Vinyls & Glue PomPom Bunny Tail

My favorite transfer tape is the EV gridlined tape! I love that I can see the lines to help me line things up. Use transfer tape to apply the eyelashes, nose and quote on the back. 

Once you have applied the vinyl, use a hot glue gun to adhere the pompom tail on the bunny jar. 

I MEAN! How cute is that?!?!

Step 4: Glue on Ears and Flower Crown

Since we want the jar to open up easily to retrieve the goodies, be sure to glue the felt bunny ears onto the outer rim of the jar. 

I wanted to create a floral crown for the magical bunny jar. Since there is a huge gap between the ears, I decided to cut a thin strip of felt and glue the flowers on there. Now, I just connected the strip to each of the ears so that it sat nice and even on them as seen in the picture below.

And there you have it! An adorable bunny candy jar to give away--or to keep for yourself ;)

Get creative with the colors, flowers, and candy! 

Mason Jar Lid Cork Coasters with Glitter HTV

I love drinking ice cold drinks! But water dripping down the side and potentially ruining surfaces is *theee* worst. Today I am showing you how to create some adorable mason jar lid coasters jazzed up with glitter heat transfer vinyl. They're super simple to make and the customization is endless.

Things you will need:

-Electronic cutting machine (I use a Silhouette CAMEO 3)
-Mason jar lids
-Cork sheets
-Hot glue gun
-Heat transfer vinyl (I used white glitter)
-Iron or heat press

Step 1:
Measure the inside of the jar lid so that you can easily glue the cork sheet into place once it is done. As you can see below, the circumference of my circle is 3.250 all the way around.

Step 2: 

Design the image that you want pressed on the cork. I went with a simple circle border and a W (for my last name!) as the center of the circle. I placed the W image inside my jar lid size just to be sure that it fit. Make sure you remove the outer circle because we don't want to cut that. As always with HTV, don't forget to mirror! 

Step 3:

It's time to cut your cork sheet and HTV! My machine has settings for the cork sheet and I always love to refer to the EV size chart to ensure that I don't waste any precious vinyl when I cut. You can check out the handy chart here. 

Step 4:

Once you cut your HTV, make sure to weed out the portion you don't want pressed. 

Place the HTV image on top of your cork circle and use your iron to press it on. I was impressed with how easy it was to press the cork! Make sure you apply even pressure so that the adhesive applies evenly. 

Here is that your coaster will look like once it is done! I love how sparkly this vinyl is!! 

Can't wait to make more of these to gift to friends and family! Be sure to tag me on Instagram @kutiekairadesigns if you create these so that I can admire your work!

Happy crafting :)

Easy Way To Knockout Text To Avoid Bulk in Silhouette Studio (Great For Layering Vinyl!)

I love Valentine's Day! Maybe it's because pink is my favorite color and I am obsessed with hearts, and chocolate and flowers! I mean, what's not to love.
I created this super fun pail and filled it with treats and goodies and added a fun layered text phrase on the front to spice it up. I used a really cool method to ensure that no bulk showed when layering. I wanted to have a white background to make sure my letters popped, especially since the design on the pail is pretty busy.

Layering vinyl is super easy and you can layer vinyl-on-vinyl without "knocking" out the image behind BUT I love to do it when possible to avoid bulkiness. I am only using two colors/layers here but imagine if I were using 5-6 colors. This technique is great to have in your toolbox because it will help you with headaches along the road!

Things you will need:
-Pail/bucket
-Things to fill your bucket
-White glitter adhesive vinyl
-Red glitter adhesive vinyl
-Clear gridded transfer tape
-Scraper tool & weeding tool

First, go ahead and write out the phrase or name that you want to add on the bucket. I decided with "you're sweet valentine" because I wanted to use the pun to my advantage and fill it with sweets :)

Next, you will want to create a small rectangle to the left of the phrase. Make a copy of the rectangle to the "right" and use the arrow keys on your keyboard to slide the duplicated rectangle to the opposite side of the phrase. Make sure you don't move the arrows up or down, just side-to-side. This will make sure the rectangles are even--if not, the layers will be off at the end! 

Make a copy of the entire design and move it over to the side, you will need it later!

Now, we want to create the white outer bubble/background so that our red letters stand out on the busy background. To do this, we are going to use the offset tool. I offset to .055 which made the bubble affect around my image. You can adjust it more or less depending on how much "white" you want to show. 

Once you have the offset ready, select the entire text image and either right click on your mouse or go to object--> make compound path. (Getting technical here for a second: You can also go to 

 object--> modify---> subtract all to achieve the same thing, but the first trick I showed you is a bit easier!)

When you hit "make compound path" it will look like the picture below (I changed the text to black to make it easier to see on the software but in real life I used white vinyl). 

Here is a digital version of what it will look like when cut and layered!

Now that the designing is done, cut out each piece in the colors you want, in my case white and red and align the top piece(white rectangles) to the red rectangles and watch it fit perfectly like a puzzle piece!!!

So very satisfying, right?!?! 

Look at that perfect match with none of the background showing at all! Why "eyeball" it when you can get perfection every single time with this trick!

Now you can apply the completed layered imagine in one piece on your bucket and fill it with fun treats :)

Can't wait to see what fun things you create with this new-found trick up your sleeve! Be sure to tag me on Instagram @kutiekairadesigns if you do so I can admire your beautiful projects!

Happy Crafting!

XO Connie