Tea Towel Tutorial

Hello, Friends!  Marilyn here with a tutorial on how to create tea towels from flour sacks.  Once you get the hang of this, you could use this idea to scan all kinds of designs to put on your flour sacks.

For example (think Mother's Day gifts here)

• Children's Art Work
• Old Family Recipes

Tea Towel created using flour sacks from Target.  

I created this tea towel for my kitchen using the following:

• Flour Sack Towels: I purchased a set of 4 from Target for $3.99
• Ink Transfer Paper:  Mine is a specialty paper from RPL Supplies.  But you can purchase transfer paper from an Office Supply store.
• Printer:  I have a Ricoh 7100.  If you're using transfer paper from an office supply store, you can use your home printer.
• Heat Press or Iron:  You'll need a hot iron to transfer the image from the paper to the towel.  Follow the instructions on your transfer paper.  If using a heat press, press for 20 seconds at 375 degrees.
• Image:  You will need an image to put onto your towel.  I used an image from My Vinyl Designer.  But you could scan and use your child's art work.  Or maybe an old family recipe.  

Step 1:  Get Flour Sacks

Flour Sacks from Target.  Four for $3.99

I found Flour Sack Kitchen Towels at Target.  They came in a pack of four and cost $3.99.  They are located in the kitchen towel section.  Once opened up, they are have a thin gauze-y feel to them.

Step 2:  Print your image onto transfer paper.

Image from My Vinyl Designer - flipped horizontally for printing onto transfer paper.

I should point out here that the image needs to be flipped horizontally when printing onto transfer paper.

Step 3:  Iron image onto flour sack.

Peel transfer paper off while hot.  Otherwise, it's stuck to your towel.

I used a heat press to iron my image (375 degrees for 20 seconds).  Make sure you peel the transfer paper off as soon as done ironing.  Otherwise, it's stuck to your towel.  And watch out - it's hot!

I hope you enjoyed today's tutorial!

~ Marilyn

Garden Flag

Hello, Friends.  Marilyn here with a tutorial on creating a garden flag.

Garden Flag

Here's what you'll need:

• Burlap Flag - If you sew, you can make your own.  I purchased mine
• Garden Flag Stand - I purchased mine at Lowe's for $7.98
• Silhouette 
• Vinyl or Ink Transfer - I used Ink Transfer
• Heat Press or Iron - I used a heat press

After acquiring your burlap garden flag, you'll need to also get a garden flag stand.  I purchased mine at Lowe's for $7.98.  You'll need to screw a couple of the lengths together.

Garden Flag Stand purchased at Lowe's for $7.98

On my garden flag, I decided I wanted a Split Letter of "L" with our family name in the center and our first names at the bottom.  The Split Letter is created within Silhouette using the Regal Font.  To see a tutorial on creating a split letter go here.

Regal Font that was split

Since I used an ink transfer, I just needed to flip my image horizontally and print onto transfer paper.  If you're using vinyl, you'll need to send to your cutter and then weed out the portions not needed.

After printing onto transfer paper, I pressed the ink transfer onto my burlap at 375 degrees for 20 seconds.  The carrier sheet needs to be removed while hot.  I ink pressed both sides of the flag with the same image.

Completed Garden Flag

The finished flag just needs to be slipped onto the flag stand and you're all done.

And . . . a couple of other monogram garden flag versions :

Created with Opaque Transfer Paper

Created with Square1 Iron-On

Back of Garden Flag

Thank you for visiting today! ~ Marilyn

Our Lady of Guadalupe - Baby Baptism Gift

Hello, Friends!  Marilyn here with a tutorial on heat transfers.  In this example, I'm using a baby onesie and an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Some may know that my husband has a home-based Christian t-shirt business : www.gloryfactory.com (shameless plug)  

His t-shirts are created using heat transfers that many times are created for him via Transfer Express.   Last week he had a special order for a remodeling company that wanted an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the words "God Bless You" on the shirt pocket.  When the heat transfers arrived, he realized that the images were too large for a shirt pocket and reordered.   Soooo, long story to get to this point...  The images were too large for a shirt pocket, but would fit the front of a baby onesie.

Actually, the "God Bless You" part was too long for a onesie as well.  I had to cut it into sections to fit the front of the onesie.

Heat presses always arrive with heating instructions.  This image needed to be pressed at 365 degress for 4 seconds.  After heat pressing, you just pull the transfer off leaving the image on your clothing.

Here's the completed onesie.  I'll use this as a baptism gift.  It will work for either a boy or girl.

Another note:  I have a bunch of these clear boxes for A2 sized cards.  I just re-purposed it as a gift box for my onesie.

What do you have that can be re-purposed?

~ Marilyn