Friday, April 25, 2014

Hittin' the Road: Route 66 Tote Bag Tutorial

I may have mentioned 1 or 100 times that I am moving to Texas.
I am busy packing my house...but I am also busy planning road trip and diving into all things Texas. When I received the Heat Transfer Material from Silhouette I knew I wanted to make something that paid homage to my home state of California but also celebrate my new adventure in Texas. After perusing the Silhouette Store, I found these graphics for Texas  and California (for only 99cents!) and I knew what I was doing...
Travel Tote Bags that celebrate Route 66 and The Great American Road Trip!
plain toate are dressed up with cute heat transfers
   
I have used the Heat Transfer Material once before...a long long time ago, and I was so excited to give it another whirl. It was so much fun...I have so many more ideas...and BEST yet...I have a couple of super cool original totes!

Whats your destination?


Supplies
  • Silhouette Heat Transfer, Smooth. I used Maroon and White
  • Silhouette Portrait or Cameo
  • Natural Tote Bag (I purchased a 3 pack in natural from a craft store)
  • Desired Graphic I used these: Texas  and California 
  • You also need an iron, ironing board, and a clean cloth 
  • Tweezers (or a pin) and scissors may be help full
    A silhouette Cameo and heat transfer material

    Make it!
    • After selecting your design, open the design in the Silhouette Software.
    • Size your design correctly
    • Once you are happy with the size, you need to MIRROR Image the graphic/design BEFORE you cut.
    make sure to flip/mirror the image

    • Adjust the rollers to the material/paper size
    • Load the heat transfer paper into the Silhouette. You do NOT use a cutting mat. Load the material into the Silhouette with the shiny/plastic side down.
    • Hit "Send to Silhouette" and select the Silhouette Heat Transfer in the drop down menu
    • And...CUT!
    we are almost ready to make the tote


    • Once the design is cut, remove the material that you will NOT be using. The portion of the design you use, will remain adhered to the shiny plastic.
    • I used  tweezers to remove the material from my smaller letters.
    look how easy it is to make great grpahics with the silhouette


    • Position your design on the tote bag, face down (the design/writing will look correct now, not mirrored)
    Personalized tote bags are great for travel
    • Heat the iron NO HOTTER than 300F
      • NOTE: I had a bit of trouble with my iron an it would get too hot...so try a small test piece if you can with your iron.
    • Place a cloth over the design and press, apply firm pressure to the design for 45-60 second per area until the design is transferred to the tote bag. 
    I adore this graphic
    • Remove the cloth and slowly peel off the plastic covering.
      • (THE BOX OF HEAT TRANSFER PROVIDES GREAT DIRECTIONS!)
    Texas and Californai Route 66 bags


    Signature
    This post is written and created at 504 Main by Holly Lefevre
     
    disclosure: affiliate links are included in this blog post

    3 comments:

    1. Love this Holly! My husband has a ton of R66 stuff....I see Father's Day project !

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    2. I am ashamed to say that I have never once used my Silhouette! I love these bags...but you'd better get some burnt orange when you move to Longhorn country. You're sporting Aggie colors. gasp!

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    3. These are awesome, Holly! I love anything like this.

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    Thanks for stopping by and joining the conversation! I sure hope you come back for more!