Hello!
Sorry for my absence for so many weeks. I wanted to be able to stay on top of all the things, but alas I was swallowed whole by responsibility!
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Ever since I started making homemade projects and gifts I wanted a way that I could put labels in them. It started one time when I saw a "Crocheted with Love by Grandma" clothing label at a craft store. I thought: What an awesome idea! Only problem is that I am no one's grandma, I'm not even anyone's mother at this point. So I couldn't go with the pre-made tags, I needed something personalized.
I did a lot of online searches for companies that made these labels and their prices are terrible, but I'm cheap and you couldn't personalize those as much as I wanted. So I found another way!
And now the Tutorial:
What you will need:
- Ribbon(polyester) -- choose the size that will comfortably fit your design.
- An image program. -- I used the Gimp, It's a free download that does many of the same things as Photoshop. The Gimp is not the most amazing program, but it does what we will need.
- Iron-on transfer papers
- An iron
- Logo/phrase or image
- Scissors
First use your image program to write what you want or to create the image you want. Then flip that image. You want it flipped so that when you iron it on, it will be correct. Then print out your flipped images onto the iron on paper.
I made a lot of tags all at once. The above picture is what one column of my printed page looked like: backwards.
Turn on your iron to the highest setting that you can WITHOUT using steam. If your iron doesn't use steam at all you might want to do a couple test runs as too much heat will burn your transfer.
Then cut the transfer page. You'll want to cut so that you do not have too much extra paper around your image.
Place your image face down on your ribbon. I did not cut my ribbon yet, because not all of my projects are ready. But you can cut your ribbon first, just be sure to give yourself room on either side of the image to sew into your project.
It's an old ironing board, sorry for the aged look.
The ribbon I used fits my larger labels, but I didn't want to put names on here so the rest of the tutorial is my Heroicon name. The iron on papers have a red grid on the back to help you line things up properly.
Iron these on. Make sure to leave the iron on long enough that the transfer has adhered to the ribbon. You might need to test how long that is. Slowly move the iron around as if actually ironing for a few moments.
Let it cool. For about 5-10 minutes.
Peel off the paper. If you have waited like was recommended you should be able to bend the ribbon over and moving the bend across the transfer, the stiff paper will peel itself off.
Once you are satisfied with your tags you can sew them into your projects. If your projects are still in the works, like a few of mine, you can roll them back onto the spool. This saves space and I am less likely to lose one medium sized thing, than the 13+ labels printed.
This is perfect for handmade Christmas gifts. I'm making all my gifts and I know a few of my nieces and nephews are too young to remember where they got something later in life. What I hope happens is they think: I love this blanket/hat/thing and I know my aunt gave it to me when I was really little.
Thanks for checking this out. Hopefully I will have more for you again soon!
