A New Use for Heat Transfer Vinyl

Yes, these are my suitcases ready to go out the door for the big Tim Holtz cruise. I decided to try and see if the heat transfer vinyl would go on the suitcases and it did. Seemed to bond well. I guess no one will mistakenly pick up my suitcases!!!  Going to spend the night in Springfield to avoid driving there in the middle of the night since my plane leaves at 6 AM. Today shopping in Springfield, tomorrow, shopping in New York City with my sister and then the next day we leave on our 10-day cruise! Can't wait.

Altering Things

I bought a pencil case at the dollar store to take my pens and scissors and miscellaneous stuff in for the Tim Holtz cruise I'm going on. The more I looked at the little plastic case the more I thought it needed some help. I grabbed some scraps of paper and some matte gel medium and started pasting. When the entire thing was covered I let it dry and then rubbed some Ranger Ink on it to antique it and I thought it looked pretty good. I punched the letters for my name from Tim's alphabet dies.

I had saved a "Laughing Cow" cheese container to do something with and decided to cover it with scraps too so I could put it in my box to carry little clips and things. Did I check to see if it fit? Of course not...I just started pasting. When it was done and I went to put it in the pencil box it didn't fit. A quick search around my shop and I found an Altoid tin and altered it. It fits just fine and is now filled with some clips and pins. What a great way to use up some old paper scraps and make something ordinary a little special. I wasn't sure if the gel medium would stick to the cheap plastic on the pencil box but it did fine.

Yes, More Heat Transfer Vinyl

This poppy is ironed on the pocket of a black tshirt. I colored a small piece of white with red and orange Copic markers using the airbrush attachment and then colored another piece with green. I stamped the flower with black StazOn ink on both pieces and then cut them out with scissors and ironed them on. I am very happy with the way it turned out. More possibilities of things to put on tshirts and whatever.

More Vinyl on Shirts

Yes, I can't seem to stop playing with the heat transfer vinyl. The first shirt is a design I put together using a design from, I think, a Cricut cartridge. It was just supposed to be the heart with wings but I stupidly did not notice a tiny sliver of vinyl along the top of where I cut out the design and I ironed it onto the shirt. I then spent two hours trying to figure out something to cover up the vinyl because it would NOT come off no matter what I tried. I'm happy enough with it and it is only a $5 t-shirt. The underline at the top covers up the sliver quite nicely.

The second one is my first venture with airbrushing the vinyl using the Copic marker airbrush system. You have to peel the vinyl off of the sticky transfer stuff and lay it upside down and tape it firmly; airbrush the entire piece and then put the vinyl back on the transfer stuff with the color down...then you cut it with your cutter. The ink is permanent and really makes a nice effect compared to the flat vinyl colors. The second image was adapted from a Tim Holtz stamp.

The Apron Project

I got all the aprons done and ready to embellish. I did three for a friend to give as gifts. This is one of them with a layered vinyl design on the front. Love playing with the heat transfer vinyl. I have plans for one apron, three are sold and I hope I can sell the others eventually with or without vinyl on them.

More Off-Loom Beading

My sister said I should put up a photo of one of the amulet purses I made for her. She is a huge fan of Los Lobos, particularly the lead singer, David Hidalgo. As one of those sort of "out there" ideas I decided that I would do a beading project featuring him. I used some bead chart creating software to chart the design from a photograph I found on the internet. The back of the purse has "Los Lobos" done in a font similar to their logo. For sure this is an amulet purse that no one else will have.

The glare on the beads sort of mutes the image some and it is a lot more defined than the photograph shows. This is in the category of things to try when you are retired and bored.