SubliCraft Showcase (Part 2): Accessories To Produce For Your Side Gig
Let’s dive right into the SubliCraft seat belt wraps and luggage spotters. Both items bring customization to affixed items in a simple way. The seat belt wraps work exactly as named, in that they wrap around any standard seat belt as a decorative piece. The luggage spotters are similar in that they wrap around any luggage handle, mainly as a way to make one’s luggage stand out from the others. Customizing either item is still as simple as doing so with the items shown in the first part. We’ll concisely cover how these wrappable blanks are easily customized with the same machines as used before, though you can always check out part 1 of the SubliCraft Showcase to review through the basics of how these blanks are customized.
To make preparing your image to these items easier, you can refer to its imprint area or download their templates on our website. On Adobe Illustrator, you can start a new document the size of your paper, then create a rectangle that’s a quarter-inch larger than the belt wrap or luggage spotter's imprint area. Import and scale down your image to the rectangle, then organize it below that layer. Select both the image and rectangle, right click on them and Create Clipping Mask. Your image will now be ready to be applied without any risk of it clipping off the item.
Once your image and any extras are ready to print, send it to your sublimation printer. If you own a Sawgrass printer, send it to Sawgrass Print Manager and continue using these settings: Substrate to Polyester, Paper to your paper’s profile, leave Mirror checked, and change the Color Mode in the Color tab to Photographic or Vivid depending on your document’s level of saturation. Once ready, you may click Print. With the transfer printed, let’s turn on our heat press and make sure it’s set to 60 seconds at 385 degrees Fahrenheit with medium pressure. Once it reaches temperature, cover the lower platen with a sheet of parchment paper, then add your transfer on top, cutting the printed images individually. Bring your items in with their white surface facing toward the printed images, then attaching each one together with heat tape.
When pressing multiple wrappable items, it’s best to trim your printed images beforehand to prevent the items from overlapping. Flip your items paper side up, cover them with another parchment paper sheet and press. When the time reaches zero, open your machine and allow your items at least 20 seconds to cool down. Then you may quickly peel them off the transfer and they’re now customized with your image. Whether you’re customizing seat belt wraps or luggage spotters, either item will now be more colorful than before thanks to your unique work. Custom seat belt wraps will be perfect for any school or daycare customers looking to bring more flair to their buses, while the luggage spotters can help people to connect with your style or another’s brand with the right design.
The last item to cover are the SubliCraft coin purses, which are small enough to still hold enough extra coinage, and soft enough to prevent the coins from scratching items inside a larger bag. Unlike the other items in this SubliCraft Showcase, their white surface spans from front to back, allowing you to apply full bleed patterns, or completely different images on both sides. You can follow the same procedures as with the SubliCraft blanks before, and we recommend having two imprint rectangles ready on a single document to have them fill in for the item’s front and back sides.
Once your images are ready, you may print with the same print settings as before, and apply the printed transfers with the same press settings and procedures. Though due to the somewhat thick nature of these coin purses, you’ll need to press their sides one at a time, being sure to also press them with a pressing pillow below to accommodate their zipper. If you’ve printed for both sides of the purse on one document, be sure to trim the transfer in half before continuing. And after you’ve finished pressing the coin purses, they’ve now been transformed into more colorful custom items. As sublimation continues to grow as a popular heat transfer, so too will SubliCraft! Whether they’re smaller accessories or larger drinkware, SubliCraft will continue to offer these items at affordable prices that any crafter can experiment with in their endeavor of running a small business.
To share your custom sublimation accessories with us, alongside an emerging community of heat transfer enthusiasts, be sure to join our HeatPressNation Creators Facebook group. For any questions, you can contact one of our friendly MyExpert representatives at support.heatpressnation.com
