Hello!

It’s great to see you all. Well, it’s almost the season of love, and what better way to celebrate it than a modern Heart design, that can be used on a T-shirt, Cushion or Pillow, even oven gloves, and of course as we have shown below, on boxes, pictures and you could even use it on walls too. Just adapt the process for the application and Vinyl you choose, and don’t forget, you can use self adhesive or HTV on wood and we have 2 great tutorials and free cut files within our other blog pages for this too! CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE MAIN BLOG MENU

This time we have decided to focus on re using the waste (weeded) parts from the vinyl- to create 2 different items from the same piece, and we have created a video for both the HTV and self adhesive samples we have on show here for you, (above and Below) as well as a focused blog with full instructions on the HTV below. And of course the free cut files too!

We have focused on our very popular Galaxy pattern for both these projects (self adhesive and HTV) as we have just launched a new layout on the Pattern range page click here to see– to make it much easier to find the designs you want- and we have a spectacular 3 for 2 deal on them at the moment. To celebrate we have even brought you some new designs and even more Galaxy designs which you can find by clicking here.

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 HERE***

HTV Video Below

Self Adhesive Video Below showing a different way to use this.

What you’ll need:

• Cricut maker. Available Here
• Or Silhouette Cameo 4. Available Here  (Instructions for the cameo and Brother machines at the bottom of blog!)
• Cricut Easypress and Easypress Mat Here
• GM Pattern Galaxy 9 HTV Vinyl Available  Here
• GM High Gloss HTV Vinyl Available Here
• LED weeding pad. Available Here
• Squeegee.  Available Here
• Weeding tweezers . Or Weeding hook. Available Here
• Scissors.
• T-shirt, Hoodie, cushion cover or blanks of your choice.
• Silicone Paper, this is like the baking paper you can buy in the supermarket on a roll for the kitchen- DO NOT USE TEFLON
• Cut files Download link below, for all machines, Silhouette and Brother instructions are at the bottom of the page.

Love Hearts Cut File 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 each 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, we recoloured the heart to red, so we had 2 colours that will cut on a different mat, during the next steps below, saving you from having to keep coming back to these screen. 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)

3. Be sure on this next screen below, to mirror the LOVE cut files as these will be in High gloss which is reverse cut, but if using our Pattern HTV do NOT MIRROR as it is transferred after weeding to the application tape see later steps below. We did not mirror the red heart as we were using the pattern vinyl.

4. Next you need to set your settings on the next Cricut cut screen,  load your mat with material on. We used the  Cut setting – Everyday iron on—- ,  Pressure setting-Default . For both the Pattern and High Gloss vinyl. Please remember to test cut if you have not used this vinyl on your machine. Again proceed to make it. Remember to place your vinyl on the mat as shown rub with the squeegee to ensure it sticks to the mat, before you press the Cricut symbol or triangle button on the machine to cut.

**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 cut our Vinyl please test cut for your chosen machine found on our Application guide, and also Blog.  Load the Vinyl chosen individually for each layer.

TOP TIP- WHEN USING A NEW VINYL ALWAYS CHECK YOU HAVE THE CORRECT SIDE ON THE MAT- SOME VINYLS INCLUDING THIS BLACK HIGH GLOSS, ARE MORE SHINY ON THE ADHESIVE SIDE THAN THE CLEAR SHEET SIDE. TAKE YOUR TWEEZERS- OR WEEDING HOOK, AND PEEL THE CORNER TO CHECK, AS SHOWN BELOW. THE CLEAR SHEET SIDE ALWAYS GOES ON TO THE MAT, THE HTV SIDE ALWAYS FACES UP.  IF, WHEN FOLLOWING THIS RULE, THE COLOUR OR PATTERN IS FACING YOU ON THE MAT THEN YOU KNOW THIS IS NOT A REVERSED (MIRRORED) DESIGN AND YOU CUT AS NORMAL LIKE SELF ADHESIVE AND USE A HEAT TRANSFER APP TAPE TO APPLY AFTER WEEDING- SEE BELOW- WE INCLUDE THIS WITH OUR PATTERN HTV FOR YOU.

5. Press the down arrow on the machine when it has finished cutting to eject the mat, Flex your mat away from the vinyl when removing to make this easier. Repeat step 4 to cut the red Galaxy 9 pattern vinyl, making sure you do not mirror the design.

6. Switch on your LED pad, take the tweezers and weed the Black High Gloss HTV, before preparing to weed the Galaxy. To start with weed the outside edge of the galaxy to reveal the large heart outline first- now you could just use this as it is and skip to step 9 on transferring it to apply should you just want a solid heart. However for this tutorial we will proceed to the next step.

7. Now we want to make 2 projects out of this next bit, so if you just wanted the outer hearts, you would remove the smaller ones and discard them, however we want both- so to make it easier we are removing the outer part, very very carefully so not to tear it- to use after.

8. As you can see we are removing the outer edges, rolling the removed bits into the design so we don’t damage this design so we can reuse it, gently go round the outside lifting it in, being careful as you go, removing the outside edges first before moving inwards.

9. Once you have the design lifted, put the spare to one side for later, take the milky sheet of transfer paper that came with the pattern vinyl, peel the backing off, apply the transfer application sheet provided to the front of your design, rub with your squeegee from behind when turning over before carefully peeling the backing. Put to one side for later.

10. Now to save the waste, we use our LED pad for this as it creates the perfect amount of cling to allow us to do this easily, but if not re use the backing the HTV was originally stuck to now it is empty. Lay the heart out on the surface as shown below, taking time to smooth and lift and re smooth until you are happy.

11. Once you are happy, take the milky sheet of transfer paper that came with the pattern vinyl, peel the backing off, apply the transfer application sheet provided to the front of your design , rub with your squeegee and carefully lift it as before, move to one side for later.-TOP TIP if you haven’t got enough transfer paper to do this as you cut it too small, put this step to one side and reuse the one you have the hearts on when you have applied it to your garment. If after applying to the transfer sheet you have any bubbles or crease, don’t panic- use your tweezers to gently peel back and re smooth until you are happy.

12. Switch your Easy press on, and set the temperature to 160’c and the timer to 15 seconds, please refer to our  Application guide,  Preheat the cushion cover, t-shirt or other garment you have chosen, once the press is ready for 10 seconds to remove any moisture.

13. Lay the design already on the transfer tape in the correct place on your t-shirt or chosen item, 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.

14. Applying firm pressure so that your arms are locked and pressing hard into the garment, apply the press to the design for 15 seconds covering each area once only to not over heat the vinyl. Because we are layering the bottom right corner with the word love, we have reduced the press time for this step just in that bottom corner to 10 seconds.

15. Once all areas have been pressed firmly, wait a few seconds to peel the carrier sheet away from the garment, if any areas have not stuck quickly repress firmly for 2-3 seconds on that area only, remove the carrier sheet.

16. Cool your easy press down to 150’c and set the timer for 8 seconds. Once it has cooled, place the wording on the garment and cover the design with parchment paper as shown to protect the pattern HTV, Press firmly as above for 8 seconds once each area only. Wait a few seconds to allow it to slightly cool and peel the cover sheets off. If after removing the sheet the garment or design is looking a bit untidy then recover with a sheet of baking parchment and quickly repress smoothing over it like an iron would but quickly so not to over heat.

17. Repeat Steps 12-16 to create the second design as shown below.

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)