Category: HTV

New Twist on Carrots

Making a new style out of throw away materials

The one bit of insight you have, when working for someone else, is just how much a business throws out. And the quality of their garbage. And you also gain insight as to what kinds of businesses subsidize other businesses for you marking your product down for their employees.

I personally know of a few companies who have switched to the Lean Operational method of running a business. And even then it still, somehow, manages to amaze me how much gets thrown out.

Maybe it’s the fact that I grew up where we didn’t have as much as other people around us. Maybe it’s the fact that my mom created magic when she made the gifts we were given on less than a shoe string budget. Maybe it’s the fact that I carry on that frugality because our family budget can go farther and do more things when I reallocate and make do with the little I have, so the hard work of my husband can go elsewhere for family provisions.

This craft here is me on a plate, for you. This is me thinking outside of the box. This is me using materials where half of what you see is stuff that most people throw away.

If you are looking for a new infusion to your farm house style or Easter decor, this project is for you!

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Materials

  • 8×10 Canvas Frame
  • Teal and Metallic Gold Acrylic Paint, with paint brush
  • 2 Complimentary Ribbons
  • HTV Vinyl (Permanent Vinyl is another option)
  • Garden Now Open SVG
  • Leaves from Silk Flowers
  • Hot Glue Gun with Glue Sticks
  • Pliers
  • Crafting Knife or Scissors
  • Staples (optional)
  • Sandpaper (optional)

Prepping the Frame

First you want to remove the canvas from our frame so you can paint the frame for your reverse canvas. (If you’re new to Reverse Canvas, hold on for a moment and I will circle back to help you through this process.) Paint the front and sides of your frame with Teal paint. If you keep the paint very thin, you will notice that the paint is dry to the touch in about three minutes. For this example, I went in a circle around the frame twice with the minimum amount of paint (dry brush method, where it look likes and almost feels like you’re brushing on already dry paint) and ended with full coverage of color with no waiting time to apply the Gold paint. It’s really not in my budget to play with Gold Leaf. I would use it for a client. But for the rustic feel I went for, metallic gold paint was enough to add a smidge of class to an otherwise rustic feeling project. And the gold, I used somewhere around a nickel size drop of paint and hit the corners and some edges. Then I set the frame to the side to dry while I added the HTV to the canvas.

First Time Creating a Reverse Canvas: From the back side of the Canvas remove the staples with a pair of pliers. (There are two different methods of putting the canvas back on the frame, which I’ll cover in steps ahead. I just want to let you know from the beginning, if you remove the staples right from the beginning, it can save you from potential problems in future steps. It’s not mandatory, but definitely one of my highly recommended steps.) If small holes next to the staples happen, don’t be afraid, you will not see them later on. If the staples are stubborn, feel free to cut the canvas next to the staple, with a crafting knife, and release the canvas. Set the canvas to the side and move forward with painting your frame, mentioned above.

TIPS: If you’re keeping with the rustic look, there’s no need to sand your frame. If you want a smooth looking frame, you will definitely want to sand your frame before you paint it. If the frame staples are visually unappealing to you, I highly recommend dry wall spackle. You can find some that is purple when you apply it and turns white when it’s dry. It’s very easy and convenient to use, with next to no guess work. A palate knife or even your finger is all you need to apply the spackle. Once it dries, you’ll quickly run over it with sandpaper a couple times. This will smooth out your edges. And when you paint your frame, no one will know that you used putty to fill in the frame cracks. (This is the same method I use when I want to use a frame that for one reason or another was gouged or dropped.

Applying Vinyl to the Canvas

When you go to cut your HTV (High Temperature Vinyl) from your cutting machine, remember to mirror your image. Once you’ve weeded your vinyl, you will place your frame on top of your canvas, so that you can see exactly where you want to press your carrier sheet down on the canvas. (This step is mostly important if you have a few small holes in the canvas that you’re working around. If you’re canvas came off the frame undamaged, than feel free to skip using the fram as a point of reference.) Follow our vinyl’s directions for heat and pressing time. These settings vary. Once you’re vinyl is attached, proceed to reattaching your canvas to your frame.

What if I choose to use Permanent Vinyl? I have successfully used permanent vinyl on canvas. I prefer HTV over 651 (or permanent) because once I have it adhered I do not have to worry for one moment about humidity causing the vinyl to lift. But please do not be shy with using permanent vinyl. You will still want to use an iron to press your Canvas. If there’s any moisture in the fabric, the iron will get that dried out and prepped for your permanent vinyl. Once you place your vinyl, you will want to make sure to have your project on a hard surface that you can press down with a scraper or squeegee. The more attention that you use with burnishing that vinyl down will pay off in the end with a longer life to your craft. Remove your transfer tape and then move forward with attaching the canvas back onto the frame.

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Reapply Canvas to the Frame

There are two ways of doing this; hot glue gun or staples.

Method Hot Glue Gun: Apply a liberal amount of hot glue to the back of your frame. Flip it over and position it over your canvas before pressing down and attaching the two together.

The benefit of this method is that it is so quick! Any skill level of crafter can do this application. The important thing to remember is that you have to move quickly so your glue doesn’t cool down on you. AND you will want to try and manage how much glue you use. Too little and the canvas won’t want to stick to your frame. Too much and you will have guaranteed seepage of glue that you will have to clean up. My recommendation is err on the side of a little too much and keep the glue a little off center. It’s better if it seeps out of the outside edge instead of the inside edge. With an inside edge seep, you will need to try and scrape the glue off the canvas or risk having what looks like slug trail on your canvas.

Method Staples: Flip your frame upside down. Position your canvas on top of the frame. Take your staple gun and staple at the top center of your frame. Gently pull your canvas down and place a staple in the center bottom of the frame. Gently pull the canvas to one side and staple in the center of that side. Gently pull on the other side of the canvas and staple in the center of that side. This is called Stretching Canvas. You will then go through the whole rotation again, moving out from center. On a frame this size, you should have about 5 staples across the top and bottom. And about 7 down the sides.

In my opinion I recommend stretching your canvas with the Staple Method. Anytime you add anything to canvas, if it’s not taunt, the weight of your project will warp the appearance of your canvas.

I’m in a crafting group where many of the crafters there swear by the hot glue gun method. In that group I withhold this information because in that setting it’s more important to have these ladies soak up the success of accomplishing a craft that they might not otherwise have attempted.

Here, I want to give you further information because I want you to make an education decision based off of the goal you are after. If you are making this to sell at a craft fair, or you’re decorating for an event that you want professionalism for, I want to set you up for success in these moments. And I know we are not face to face so I can’t use my tone or non-verbal cues to fill you in on this. I am by no means dogging on the hot glue method. In fact, in this example I’m showing you I couldn’t find my staple gun and so I in fact used a hot glue gun. I know the value of stretching canvas and so even with a hot glue gun, I still stretched my canvas. It took much longer than with a staple gun. And if I were using something of more weight than paper carrots, I can assure you that I would not trust hot glue to keep my standard of professionalism to clients. (I know my limitations with hot glue guns, and I’m woman enough to admit that there are many other crafters out there who are geniuses with hot glue. I have skills, but I am not a hot glue gun goddess.)

I want you to feel comfortable with your skill level and what goals are for this project. If what you have available is a hot glue gun, you’re not at all comfortable with stretching canvas, and you’re new to reverse canvas making–PERFECT! Know that you can make a beautiful and professional looking canvas using this method. If you want the challenge and extra security that staples offer, than stretching your canvas is exactly what you’re looking for.

Once your canvas is attached, you will want to trim off the extra canvas. You can either use a crafting knife and cut away on the outer edge of the frame. Or you can use a pair of scissors, angle you blade into the back of the frame, and trim the canvas back.

With clean edges, it’s now time to add those carrots!

Carrots

This is the part that I’m most excited about. These carrots are made completely from scraps that most of the times end up in the trash or recycling bins.

Most of these segments are made from triangles and parallelogram scraps about 3″ wide. Some wider, some less. All of these were from scraps from an explosion box I made a few months back. The card stock was 5 different textures and shades of orange. In fact, one of the orange papers was actually faded from being left out in front of a window. The segments you see above were not triangles and so I pre-folded them in triangular forms to make it quicker to shape and hold with a small drop of glue.

These single cones I then stacked with each other. On a few of the carrots I placed the glue on the back of the cone. Most looked better with the attachment point being at the front of the cone.

I made a few extra carrots than I had space for on the canvas, because I wanted to have some choices of which ones looked better than others. In fact, one carrot had a herringbone look to it. And since it didn’t have the same feel as the others, that one got set aside for a future project.

Once I got the length of carrots that I was happy with (a few were 4″ long and others were as much as 8″), I went into my bin of silk flowers that have seen better days. In fact, they were part of the flowers that I bought from a wedding planner who was selling all of her inventory. I was after her roses, but she gave me her entire flower collection. These leaves were actually from some geraniums and daffodils. The daffodils were actually really beat up and were just collecting dust, because I couldn’t use them for events. And this was the moment that I could actually give these greens a purpose. Other than purchasing silk ferns, these greens were actually quite perfect.

What makes these carrots so special in the crafting world is that it embraces the cubism element from the art world. I’ve seen a lot of carrots made from yarn and cloth, styrofoam and foam. These paper carrots give talking points and structure. And this structure is what was great for placing in the frame, with the ability to break free from the frame (giving a nod to surrealism).

Finishing Touches

Once I found the placement that I liked for these carrot shapes, I glued them down with hot glue gun.

Due to the light weight nature of this project, attaching the ribbon with hot glue is enough. However, if you’re creating for a professional item, you will want to use a stapler to attach you bottom layer of ribbon to the frame. For the top ribbon attachment, E6000 glue would be better than hot glue. But hot glue does do the job for a non-sellable project.

Please comment below and tell me how this spring time project turned out for you. Pictures are even better. I love seeing what other people make!

The SVG used in this post can be found here

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Don’t Throw That Out Yet!

It doesn’t matter if you’re an Artist, DIY Bride, Crafter, or a Just Because-er, you will create something and there’s just nothing you can do to save that project from the junk heap. Sometimes we get wrapped up in our own emotions of wasted time, wasted materials, dashed dreams of overextended ambitions, and everything else, that we forget even the Master Artists had unsuccessful projects.

If you’ve spent anytime in art history classes, or been around artists long enough, you probably already heard about this. All the Greats recycled their canvas. That’s right! Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Picasso, I could go on and on… they all painted over something they created before. The lesson that we can take from this is that we can create over something that we tried to create before.

Failed attempts vs Final product

This was a wood block that I had to give up on after running through Plan A to Plan F. That’s right, I tried to correct and original problem five other times! Am I stubborn? Yes. Am I determined? You better believe it. Do I succeed at everything? No. But, I give myself permission to set aside what is clearly not working. For this particular project, I discarded about 16 hours of trying to make it work and grabbed a new blank. In less than an hour, I executed my main vision without having to go through another plan letter. Sometimes scrapping a project to start over on the same vision is completely necessary. And that is when your success comes.

Here is where things get good for this block of wood. Even though I had painted it on all sides (in a color I don’t usually work with) there are ways of recovering materials and reusing it in something completely different. I had fully intended on sanding the glitter and acrylic paint off, but inspiration hit and I really didn’t want to waste the time of stripping the wood for a clean base. Instead I challenged myself with this cotton candy pink by adding black, blues and purple to the pink and creating a base that gave off a vibe of sunrise or sunset. And that in turn inspired the three variations of Darkness To Light. (Click here to see all three!)

What is amazing about blending colors and adding textures into your paint is that you can cover over even the raised text from stencil painting and the glitter. Acrylic paint doesn’t cover glitter at all. It always manages to shine through. So if you decide to not go with glitter ontop of a project you previously used glitter on, I recommend taking the time to sand the glitter off. I’m sorry I could not get a picture of the glitter coming through (I gave up after 30 attempts), but my oldest son kept playing with my lights to get the glitter to sparkle. So if you know kids, when they play with lights you know the glitter is still there. However after much finagling, I was able to get one angle where my camera did finally pick up on the raised lettering. But unless I point out stuff like, most people I know pretty much never pick up on the fact that I reused this wood block.

The raised letters are right here on the bottom just above this cloud line.

Normally at this point in a project I spray a couple of coats of clear acrylic spray over the top. It seals in the paint to it doesn’t transfer paint when you knock it against something. And I love using HTV over paint. I get a better end product with it and the vinyl stays on without lifting. (Permanent vinyl tends to lift when you have higher humidity levels.) The clear acrylic spray also smooths out your surface, making it more flat when you adhere your vinyl. Coming up the next few shots, you will see what the raised textured acrylic paint did to the vinyl. But this is something that spray acrylic and HTV really does overcome.

Instead of my usual route, I went with the unsealed acrylic paint and permanent vinyl. Going into this, I knew that there were a few obstacles that I was going to have to overcome; transfer tape stripping the paint off the wood block and the vinyl not adhering to the uneven surface.

Transfer Tape Stripping of the Paint

This is the #1 problem most crafters complain about when they work with paint and vinyl! You will find it everywhere, on every forum where people are asking for help. You will get the standard answers of use a transfer tape with less tack, use transfer paper, use press and seal…. I’m telling you that you don’t need to do any of this! The reason is that the problem isn’t the level of stickiness. The problem is that you’re pressing your transfer material onto your paint with the same force that you’re using to adhere your vinyl. Both have tack. They’re both going to stick. So please don’t spend more money chasing a solution that is still going to be part of the problem. I know because I’ve tried all the different tack and I still pulled up paint before I learned this.

Solution: DO NOT burnish your transfer tape with your vinyl.

Instead: gently lay your transfer tape in position and very lightly press it to your surface. The goal here is keep your vinyl in position while you use another tool to press down ONLY on the vinyl. With Darkness and Light being larger letters, using my fingers was enough to transfer the vinyl. For my thin letters here, I used my cutting machine’s scoring tool. This gives the ability to press down as hard as you like. You will not adhere your transfer tape to your paint. And you’re not going to scratch your unprotected paint either. Absolutely none of my paint peeled or flaked off. You can zoom in on the following pictures and see for yourself. All of my built up layers of acrylic stayed the same as they were before I applied my vinyl.

Vinyl Adhering to an Uneven Surface

There’s generally two problems under this category. One actually getting your vinyl to adhere and not lift (you’re not going to get a complete seal). The other problem is purely cosmetic, you’re not going to have that glossy (or matte) smooth finish.

For the cosmetic, unsealed raised paint is never going to give you a flat smooth vinyl esthetic.

As I stated earlier, there are ways around this. But the way that I painted and left it unsealed…this is what it looks like. If you choose to work with vinyl on an uneven surface and want to try for the perfect finish, I recommend finding an appropriate sealer to help minimize the highs and lows of your surface and then aim for placement to go where there is the least amount of height disparity. Chances are that you’ll probably still won’t get that flawless look, but you’ll get close. Just remember that the more layers of sealer you put on top you will have to allow more than enough time for it to fully dry or cure before applying the vinyl. Vinyl needs to have a dry surface to adhere to because your sealer has to breathe to dry/cure. (This is most definitely not the project you want to use the wet method of applying vinyl. Save that for a glass or plastic surface that don’t need to breathe.)

That being said, there is a solution to maximizing the potential of your vinyl adhering properly.

Once you’ve removed your transfer tape, go back through and reburnish your vinyl. Transfer tape hides alot. You never see what is not fully burnished until you remove the transfer tape. As you can see here, there was plenty of places where I didn’t press down on the vinyl enough the first time, or because the text is so thin the transfer tape pulled some of it up. In reality, for this project it was both of those things.

With nothing protecting my vinyl, I didn’t want to scratch or crease it with my scoring tool. So I flipped my tool over and used the other side. It is wider than my thin text, but it also didn’t have a plastic seam running down the middle. So I had a smooth surface to go back over my vinyl and burnish it again without fear of scratching my vinyl or my paint for that matter.

Here is the final project!

I’m sure that the question will be asked, “Did your vinyl lift?”

At the time of writing this blog, my vinyl has sat untouched for over 48 hours and looks the exact same as the finished project picture above. I have every reason to believe that I’m in the clear and the vinyl will stay as is. You are more than welcome to ask in the comments below for a future check in. I’m more than glad to fill you in on the status.

I am going to add one observation I’ve had with vinyl though. Where you put your project is totally going to effect the longevity of what you made. For example, I have bathroom art which has vinyl on top of acrylic and were sealed. the two pieces that I have in there, the vinyl on the piece nearest the shower lifted after 6 months. So much so that I had to apply some glue underneath to keep the vinyl on. The glue solved the problem and I haven’t had lifting since. The piece that is about two feet further away had one small piece lift, but not enough for me to get glue in there to reattach it. Since the same vinyl was used on both pieces, I know it wasn’t the vinyl itself. It was the humidity from being close to the shower. Vinyl does not like humity. So be aware of where your final placement is going to be. And let that information help you make decisions on which materials you are going to use for your project. Again, there are always solutions on how to fix things. But being aware is so very important for the longevity of your creations.

This was important to point out, because I will never put this Darkness to Light project in my bathroom or near my stove in my kitchen (where it would become exposed to steam). The uneven surface creates little pockets where steam/humidity can come in and loosen the adhesive bond.

Now that all is said and done, I am so happy with the outcome of this recycled project!

The scrapped project brought me so much tears and frustration. I actually hid it in my craftroom because of how many emotions is evoked in me. But it’s transformation brings me so much joy! Sometimes it’s hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that there is ugliness and frustration under the new design. It makes me wonder if all the Great Artists felt like this when they painted over something previously made.

Thank you for walking through this transformation project with me. I hope it inspires you not to give up on something that you’ve made that just doesn’t hit the mark on any level. These projects can see new life in a new direction.

Please comment below, sharing with my any transformation projects you’ve made. Or if you’re stuck on something and would like some perspective to help get unstuck. I’m here for you.

See you next week!

Find all 3 Darkness to Light here

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From Iron to Press

Background photo created by senivpetro – www.freepik.com

This past week I was following a Facebook Group dedicated to Brides who are DIYing their wedding. And my heart went out to several of these ladies. I remember DIYing my wedding and clearly remember the stress of putting together something beautiful and feeling that dreaded time crunch. It was difficult to cut that stress and maintain some proper brain function to problem solve. Sometimes it was just the lack of sleep that amplified the struggle a little more.

So Brides, if you are struggling with Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV), this week is for you. And if you’re a crafter, new to HTV, you will enjoy some insight between tools and how they stack up with application.

There are two common problems with HTV that can be daunting if you don’t know the cause. One is movement of HTV while pressing. The other is a halo around your words or image. (You may need to zoom in on the wood sign photos to get a clearer visual on what I’m talking about.)

Your HTV Moves

There are a couple of different reasons why your HTV moves. Depending on the material you’re using, the carrier sheet might not be tacky enough to hold it in place. For example, this picture was from my first attempt to applying HTV to wood. There was just not much for the carrier sheet to grab onto. I sanded that wood down smooth and stained it. So think of it like you standing on a sheet of ice. Yes, you can stand in place on ice. But the moment there is a force that comes against you (wind, another person touching you), you’re going to move. With nothing to grip to, chances are your carrier sheet is going to shift on you once you start to press.

Solution One: position your carrier sheet and secure it in place with painter’s or masking tape. But make sure that you are not ironing or pressing over the tape, the heat will cause the adhesive to stick to your project. If you need to have your heat source on top of your tape, use teflon tape. This tape was designed to be pressed without depositing adhesive. (Tip: I always dog ear the ends of my teflon tape so I don’t have to dig and fight to pull the tape off.)

Another reason why HTV shifts is from the movement you apply before the vinyl has time to adhere to your project surface. This tends to be the most likely cause of shift for DIY Brides. Chances are you are using an iron because that is the heat tool you have on hand and saves you to money to use elsewhere.

I also used an iron for the first 4 months that I began using HTV.

Solution Two: prevent your iron from shifting your HTV by lowering and raising your iron straight down and up. I know this seem contrary to what you read from other writers who talk about how the iron does not have uniform heat. This is true. The iron doesn’t have uniform heat. Your steam chanels won’t adhere your vinyl. And if you forget to turn your steam off, it will also warp the vinyl.

The best results with an iron came when I place my iron straight on, press down with maximum pressure for about 5 seconds. Lift straight up and move to the next section. Place straight down and press with maximum pressure for 5 seconds. Repeat until you’ve given your whole vinyl this initial press. By doing this, your vinyl has a great initial contact and gives you a little more freedom to glide your iron over a single spot. When I say glide, I mean remove all your pressure and slide the iron over to your new spot with the amount of pressure of you using a finger or two to push your iron over. If you iron your vinyl like you iron your shirt, the vinyl is going to shift. But you do have to move your iron to make sure you get a smooth application.

Using an iron takes far longer than the 15-30 seconds promised on packaging and websites. That is the recommended press times for heat presses. However, if you take the extra time to minimize shifting, you will definitely get an excellent quality that no one will ever guess that you used your clothing iron to apply.

(If you find that your vinyl is not secure, so you see the grains of fabric of your material, you will need to go back through and maximize press again. Follow it up with another gentle glide and you’ll keep everything looking smooth.)

I use this same process when I apply HTV onto a wood project; maximized pressure followed with a gentle glide (even with a mini press).

Alternate Heating Sources

There are the three types of heat sources that I have used with HTV.

Not my photo. This is not an endorsement, nor am I promoter of this iron. This is a stock photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

The iron is not my favorite but I have to admit that this is where I started. I have no regrets. And I value my experience at this stage in my HTV crafting.

From there, I moved up to the mini press. I cannot tell you how excited and happy I was for this new tool. I didn’t have the fun money to spend for anything more elaborate, but I remembered how this was a game changer for me. One shirt took me 5-7 minutes to press with an iron. The mini press brought that time down to about 3 minutes.

When I had the opportunity, I invest in my 12 x 15 inch heat press. And it quickly became my heating source of choice for everything. I use it for clothes, canvas art, small thin wood… if I know it won’t melt, I use my heat press. The only time it takes me longer than a minute to press is when I’m layering my HTV.

I know many DIY Brides don’t have the budget to get the heat press for making your decor at a quicker pace. But I did want to bring to your attention that if you are stressing over the time it is taking you to press your HTV with an iron, there are other options available. And they do come with the added bonus of eliminating the problem of your HTV shifting on you.

Halo or Ghosting Effect

If you look closely you will see the around all of the letters that there is a halo next to the gold vinyl. This is actually the HTV adhesive that has been exposed because the vinyl shrunk under the heat. Translation, my mini press could have been lowered to medium heat and I should have pressed for less time. I over compensated because this was my first time using HTV on wood. I wanted to make sure that the vinyl was going to stick forever.

Every Bride wants the details to be perfect, right down to not seeing that halo around the HTV that you applied to your decorations. The trick to not overcompensating on the heat is that HTV will tell you if you haven’t pressed long enough. So always err on the side of not long enough and add up to 5 seconds at a time of additional pressing.

HTV is good at telling you is when it’s not “done”. When you go to peel off the carrier sheet, the HTV will stick to the carrier sheet and it just will not let go. At this point you can go a little heavy on the couple extra seconds. However if it releases from the carrier sheet but isn’t fully adhered, lower the sheet and finger press the vinyl flat, then apply just a couple more seconds. When you get the sheet to release, you may find a stray wrinkle. Just smooth it down gently with your finger tips (while the vinyl is still hot), using a feathery touch. If you’re too hard, you’ll smudge your vinyl in the opposite direction. So the the lightest contact is all the pressure you need to smooth it.

HTV is such a wonderful medium to use when personalizing decorations, clothes, and other items. At first, I know it can seem daunting, especially if you start to feel that it’s giving you some attitude and you don’t have vinyl to spare. Take a deep breath. This is going to work out. Your projects are going to be amazing.

If you have any other questions or you seem to have an issue with HTV that doesn’t seem to be caused from shifting or haloing, please reach out to me. Let’s figure this out! Because if you can see in your mind what you want to do, there is a way to get that exact image.

Find “Just Married” Here

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