GM Crafts Free Cut File with Applying HTV on Wood Tutorial Follow Your Dreams, Dream Catcher.

Hello!

Happy New Year to you!

This weeks blog, is a heavily requested file, from a demo  we brought to you a little while ago, Please see the video links below. Everyone loves a dream catcher, and what better way to start the year than with this “follow your dreams” file!

This file as you can see below, we have used originally with our Fantasy Self Adhesive Vinyl and this range can be found by clicking here.

This week, as promised, we have created a detailed blog below on applying our High Gloss HTV onto wood. Many of you already do apply HTV onto wood, but for those that don’t, this blog is filled with hints and tips to assist you to do this.

And as always with our cut files- you can use any cutting machine (the Joy may struggle with this if the details are too small with some vinyl) And you can use it with card, any vinyl, and even material should you wish, or even an embroidery machine. The possibilities are endless.

We would love to see what you make!  Have you found our  You Tube channel yet? The video showing this and all of our other tutorials are  available on there, as well as exclusive demos, inspiration and more!  Join us on Facebook , Instagram or Tiktok or  send us an email to [email protected] we would love to hear from you!

***WATCH THIS BEING MADE ON YOUTUBE BY CLICKING HERE***

Watch this being made with our High Gloss HTV on wood below.

Also see this being made with our Fantasy Self Adhesive below

What you’ll need:

• Cricut machine here
• OR. Silhouette Cameo 4. Available here 
• Cricut Easypress and Easypress Mat here
• GMCrafts LED light panel here 
• GM High Gloss HTV here
• Weeding tweezers . Available here
• Squeegee. Available here
• Scissors from your own stash and a piece of wood of your choice. ( Or if you prefer a plain t-shirt Jumper or tote bag etc)
• Rubbing alcohol and lint free cloth should you wish here
• Cut files, which are free below! Including, Cricut, Silhouette and Brother cut files

JANUARY FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS CUT FILES CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

 

Instructions;

1. Before you start you will need to download the cut files for your chosen machine, link above. Unzip the file to use it by right clicking it in your downloads.

2. Upload the PNG into the design space. Click “Upload Image” on the left-hand Design Panel, and navigate to the  files you want to open. Select ‘Insert image’ and select image type ‘simple’ when prompted. Next you’ll be asked to delete any space that does not get cut, you can skip this part by pressing ‘continue’. When asked if they’re print-then-cut images or just cut images, select cut images. Click save. When it has been uploaded, Insert the image onto the canvas and resize to suit your project,  then click make it to move on to the next screen. On the next screen, If using the Cricut Maker 3 then you will need to choose to cut on the mat (unless using smart media)

TOP TIP- I MEASURE MY WOOD AND ALLOW A BORDER OF APPROX 2CM AROUND MY DESIGN AREA ON MY WOOD- SO IT WAS 26CM WIDE BY 32CM LONG AND I HAVE REDUCED MY DESIGN SLIGHTLY BY APPROX 2-2.5CM TO MAKE IT FIT NICELY IN THE MIDDLE. DUE TO MY WOOD BEING NATURAL AND UN SANDED I DID NOT USE RUBBING ALCOHOL ON IT- HOWEVER IF IT WAS SMOOTH OR SANDED I WOULD SUGGEST THIS AS YOUR NEXT STEP TO ALLOW IT TO DRY.

3. When on the next screen above, CLICK on the mat, then ensure you MIRROR the wording as shown below. Click continue in the bottom right on the next screen. In the next window make sure your settings are all set to the successful settings from your test cut and ensure your machine is linked before proceeding to cut. Cut settings: (**please test cut) Press the flashing Cricut symbol on your maker to cut, after loading the sheet into the machine. Apply the settings needed for your chosen Vinyl, we made it with our GM HIGH GLOSS HTV on the maker 3, and used the EVERY DAY Iron on setting on the Cricut maker 3 with DEFAULT pressure as our Blade is well used, but if your blade is new please  test cut and decide from there.

**A reminder that these settings, including the blade setting, are specific to the materials and machine we’re using, adjustments may be necessary if using different materials and machine**

We always recommend before proceeding, you test cut your materials when first using so if you have not recently used this product in your machine. Please test cut for your chosen machine found on our Application guide, and also Blog.  Load the Vinyl chosen individually for each layer.

4. Place the Vinyl on the mat, remember to mirror the wording. Press the up arrow to load the mat, and press the flashing light to proceed to cut on the machine.

5. Once cut, switch on your LED pad and remove the waste Vinyl surrounding the designs (weeding) We use a pair of weeding tweezers to do this as shown below.

6. Switch your Easy press on, and set the temperature to 150’c and the timer to 10 seconds, (Please note settings are for this when pressing a single layer only  and Warm Peel ) For other Vinyl please refer to our  Application guide, When applying onto wood it takes longer, so the usual guidance we use is slightly different for wood. As a general rule of thumb- due to HTV designed to originally be used on fabric (which has absorbent fibres, and weave to adhere to) when applying to wood- it will take more time, and each piece of wood may vary slightly so please do follow our guidance below which takes it step by step.

7. Place the easy press Mat under the wood  and preheat once the press is ready we normally recommend for 10 seconds to remove any moisture. However with wood it can need slightly more to remove the moisture, we did this for 20 seconds, as our wood is a untreated natural piece.

8. Lay the design already on the transfer tape in the correct place facing up, and ensure it is on a hard surface, or Cricut Easy press matt and on a hard surface,  check our guide here for more information on applying and using HTV successfully. We always use our squeegee to rub the transfer once applied to the wood to ensure it is firmly held in place.

Press each area once only for 10 seconds firmly using your upper body weight over the press – due to this being wood we then smoothed the press in an ironing action over to ensure we pressed each area slightly more after. This wood is un sanded so there are a few raised bumps from the cut that take a little more effort.

9. Carefully lift and peel back very slowly one edge to see if the HTV has stuck correctly,  if any areas lift once doing this- repress for a few more seconds.

10. Allow the cover sheet to cool slightly for a few seconds to warm peel the cover away. If after starting to removing the sheet the vinyl lifts, again repress that area firmly for a few more seconds, because this is wood- and the grain can take longer to accept the adhesive- this will be normal in some areas of the piece more than others. A little patience- allowing it to cool each time a little before checking and you will get there.

11. One of the really good things we found with the High gloss once applied to the wood- you can see when it’s ready as the application tape has lifted slightly from the htv in areas- showing us it is ready.

12. Very gently roll back the application tape on it’s self to remove- watch out for any areas that may need a slight repress.

Look how glossy this Vinyl is when applied! You will get the wood grain, and any uneven bits show when applying HTV- if you want a smooth finish ensure your wood has been sanded first- ours wasn’t we wanted a rustic finish to it. If after removing the sheet the  design is looking a bit untidy then recover with a sheet of Silicone Paper or baking parchment and quickly repress smoothing over it like an iron would, but quickly so not to over heat.

Don’t forget your finished design can be matched by using any material cut using a cutting file, card, self adhesive vinyl or even HTV. We’d love to see your makes on our social media pages! Or email them in!

Silhouette Cut File

Instructions:

Before you start, you need to download the cut file,  Upload the cut file into Silhouette Studio and resize as necessary,  (when resizing bring all  layers into the design software and select all  at once to get the correct offset layers and save the adjusted file, so you can cut layers individually at that correct scale you have chosen) Remember to test cut if necessary and cut settings are found here along with test cut guidelines for every machine.

Brother Cut File

To import these files into the Brother Canvas Workspace:

After downloading, please log in as usual to your design space account, open a new project mat, then left click on the SVG  icon in the top left bar in canvas, this will then allow you to import your files. Once you left click this icon, a pop up box appears with you to choose where to import file  from, choose to import the file from your downloads list or where you have chosen to save when unzipped.

Cut settings are found here

Just incase you need the link CanvasWorkspace (brother.com)