Eish! The struggle of heat transfer vinyl.

Eish! A South African word that is used to express surprise, annoyance, pain, etc.
Now that is how I felt using heat transfer vinyl (HTV)!

The materials I used was blue HTV vinyl, weeding tool (this is my lifesaver!), denim pencil case, and my favourite the Silhouette Cameo.

Materials Used

It all started out easy doing a design on my laptop, using the Silhouette Cameo program and using  a design from Silhouette Design Store. (kitty cats.studio and design by Sophie Gallo)

 Now the main thing to remember is to mirror your image before you cut it on your Silhouette Machine.

Remember: Mirror your image!

HTV is different from your normal vinyl and that is the reason almost don't see the cutting lines. The first time I thought that my machine didn't cut and went into a panic state. But don't fear, if you look closely and in good light you will see the cutting lines.

Where is the cutting lines?

Now the next step is the weeding. You will need some patience and make sure you weed everything.  Not always easy, because I did struggle to see what should stay and what should go.

Weeding = Patience

Then came the big struggle... the ironing! Well, easier said than done. I just bought a new iron, nothing fancy. The iron let me down! First not enough heat and then it just doesn't wanted to warm up at all. Frustration and some cursing followed. The HTV just wasn't sticking and all the little parts moved around. Somehow the "u" got lost and the cat's tail folded in. Back to my Cameo Silhouette and cutting.

Last resort was to ask my neighbour to borrow her dry iron. And there was the magic -finally everything stuck!

The simple technique for HTV took so much longer. Didn't go as smooth as I planned. But what a great learning curve. I'm definitely more prepared what to expect with my next HTV project. 

All and all I'm happy with my pencil case for school ❤ Keeping all my stationery together for teaching. 

Would love to hear of your experiences with HTV.