I've Had Fun Making HTV Disney Projects Again

Yes, I know that sublimination is the latest and greatest, but I really don't feel like I need to get into that just yet, especially since there is another machine and process that claims to be even better. I just saw an ad for it. Besides, I still love heat transfer vinyl (HTV) projects.

Our daughter visited us recently for a family wedding. After we got back from the wedding, we had plans for a project she has been working to get done. She and her husband are going to Disneyland a.k.a. California Adventure this fall, and she designed shirts to make, but she doesn't have a heat press. I have a heat press and a ton of vinyl, so she had sent me the designs ahead of time. We cut the vinyl here and used my heat press to make the shirts. Sadly, I forgot to take photos, but her shirts turned out very fun and cute.

After she left, as therapy for having to see my sweet daughter fly back to her own home, I decided to work on my shirts I had planned for a vacation that is still in the "hope to do at some point" category. My husband will need to have recovered enough from his heart attack. 

I spent a fair amount of my free time this week cutting the vinyl and heat pressing shirts. I still have a few shirts to go. I'm not ready to post the photos yet, but I'll post pictures of them later.

Creating an unusual design in Silhouette

Someone at Two Peas needed help creating an unusual shape in the Silhouette software. They needed help figuring out to use the software to make a shape that looks like this:

Their problem was that they were trying to weld non-compound shapes, which cannot be welded. Below are the directions that I gave to create the above shape. They haven't responded since I posted, so they may have figured it out, but sometimes even as experienced as I am, I forget how to do certain things, and get frustrated when something doesn't weld, when I expect it to weld. In most, if not all instances, the problem is that it needs to be changed to a compound shape.

Create a single triangle. I chose the regular polygon, which automatically gave me five sides, but with a slider bar inside. I used the slider to reduce the sides to 3.

Offset the triangle. When I do this, the second triangle is rounded by default. (Sometimes I don’t want it rounded, so I would change this to the sharp corner option in the Offset command.)

Offset the rounded rectangle. Delete the pointy corner triangle which is now at the center.

Select the two rounded triangles and then “Make compound path.”

Create two thin rectangles, and turn them diagonally to match the angle of the left side of your triangle. Move the thin rectangle into your triangle and shorten it to just fit within the inside and outside lines of the double triangle. Duplicate the tilted rectangle, move it to the right of the first one, and shorten as needed. Once it looks the way you want, select all the shapes, then choose weld. That will give you the [above] shape.

 

I posted here to be able to show an image of the end result, but I am leaving this post here, in case I need a reminder later, or perhaps it helps someone else.

Queen & Co. Cart Shaker Card

This is one of the most recent releases from Queen & Co. I love little carts, perhaps because we used to have a cart at a mall several years ago. I used the ice cream and cupcake decorations for this one. The plaid paper was also from the paper pad included in the kit.

Watermelon Card

If I had centered the flower and tags, this would have made a perfect rocker card. It's off balance for rocking, but I like how it turned out. I used the Queen & Co. Watermelon Card kit, but chose not to make it a shaker. The gingham paper is from an older Authentique paper pad.

It's Magical! HTV on Fake Leather (Polyester) DOES work!

I have a professional heat press, which I use to make shirts, but last Christmas, my DH gave me the smallest Cricut heat press that is like a tiny flat iron, just without holes. I found directions on the internet for applying HTV to polyester, and the key is to use very low heat. I used the lowest setting on my mini Cricut press. I also learned the hard way that you have to let each layer cool before removing the plastic backing, and I used a teflon sheet on top when heat pressing. It's not perfect (since I tried to remove the plastic backing too soon), but it still turned out pretty well.  To buy a Disney wallet can easily cost a minimum of $30 to $40, and I'm pretty happy with the results. The flaws are only obvious if you look for them.

The plain black wallet was only $15 from Amazon. I turned clip art from the internet into a Minnie cutting file for my Cameo. End product: a Disney character wallet on a budget that will hold my driver's license, medical and credit cards, cash, and even my cell phone.

Disney Halloween Shoes

We went to Walt Disney World during Christmas week of 2017. I never expected to go back again. It had been over 20 years since we'd been to WDW, and I really couldn't see DH and I going again, especially after his heart attack. However, I asked him, "If you recover enough, and if money were no object, where would you want the two of us to go?" He didn't even hesitate. He said "Walt Disney World!" It has given him the incentive to exercise more, and do the things he needs to in order to help his heart recover, so we're planning to go. That means I am making new Disney shirts and even a few other things for our trip.

I found cute, comfortable (for me) shoes at WalMart that were only $10/pair. I don't know if I will decorate more than this one pair, since they were a major pain to do, but I bought multiple pairs of the shoes, in different colors, so I might. I know we'll be spending a day at Magic Kingdom, and I wanted to coordinate with the Halloween decorations that will be up. I decorated one black pair of shoes with both regular and glitter HTV that I cut with my Silhouette Cameo. The top photo shows the front, the middle image is the side of the right shoe, and the side of the left shoe is at the bottom. The black vinyl bats don't show up well. I may try to apply glitter bats over top, or a gray vinyl, or they may remain as is.

Note: It took me awhile to get around to it, but I applied black glitter vinyl bats overtop the bats that didn't show up. It makes a slight difference. Only slight. Black on black just doesn't show up well.

Be Like A Cat Pull Tab Card

I started this as a shaker, but decided it was too bulky to mail to my sick friend. Since she lives in another state, I dismantled it and took out the shaker parts. I used the Cat's Meow kit from Queen & Co. I think the video that inspired me was one by Jennifer McGuire.

 

 

When you pull the tab, the flap opens to reveal the sentiment. She's a cat lover, so she will love it.