Happy Mother's Day!

I love my mother! She has always been one of my greatest cheerleaders! She was such a fun mother growing up, always willing to let us go in our own directions. But what do you get for the woman who has everything? I wanted to do something special, something from the heart. This is what I came up with! I'm not sure, but this may be a new way of doing transfers!

I started out with a clear piece of shrinky dink paper, only because that is what I had on hand. We were out of wax paper, which was what most of the tutorials I read used. I thought this will do, but as I used it and used it, because I had to make a couple, I started to recognize the benefits of using shrinky dink paper! For one it is completely see through so you know exactly what you are doing! It makes it so easy for centering and placing your image where you want it. For two when you are through, simply wash with a little dish soap and the remaining ink comes off, so you are free to use your shrinky dink paper over and over and over! Also, it took me a little practice, but what I learned was that if I missed a spot or I didn't get enough of the ink off in the first go, I could carefully place the shrinky dink paper over the image and give it a second go!

Here's what you need:

1 Towel (I made one out of linen because I soooo love linen!)
Ink Jet Printer
Shrinky Dink Paper, I imagine that a clear transparency would do the trick too!
Credit Card
Water Spray Bottle (or just use the sprayer on your iron)
Iron
Image to transfer

Just a few notes: I used my hp inkjet printer and a black and white image. I have washed my cloth and could not detect any fade whatsoever, but I don't know how other printer inks work, or how using color would effect the project?

What to do:

1. Start with a pressed Towel. I folded mine the way I wanted it to hang so that It would be easier for me to center the image and have it placed exactly where I wanted it to be. You can see I haven't yet hemmed mine.

2. The next step is very very important, without it you won't get much of a transfer. Use your spray bottle to saturate your towel. You will want to make sure that it is saturated fairly evenly, otherwise you will get areas where the transfer works well and areas where the transfer doesn't work at all well. Also, do not attempt to re-spray your towel after you have already transferred your image. On my first attempt I didn't think to spray my towel and the transfer barely worked, it was so light. I tried the water, but what happens when you spray the towel is the fabric warps slightly and it is impossible to line the image up in exactly the same way again.

3. Print your image. If it is not already reversed, do so in whatever program you are using. The ink is highly inclined to smear until it kisses something that can hold the ink, so be very careful when handling, but no worries, if you make a mistake, simply wash it off and start over.

I found this free image HERE, she offers the image both reversed and not reversed.

4. Carefully center your image over your towel ink side down and press down. You can use your hand to press down over the image and rub it into place, or you can use a credit card and slide it across the image to get it to transfer. I didn't think to take a pic of the transparency before I swiped, but the second picture shows what it looked like after I was done. Notice that it is backwards.
 

5. Let your towel dry. After it is dry you can re-iron it to help set the ink and to get it into crisp condition! Also I washed mine in hot water with Tide detergent just to see how resilient the ink would be. It was perfection! No fade!

I also wanted to create a pretty cork for some of my homemade vanilla to give to my mother. Here is what I came up with! Click Here for a how to on making your own vanilla!

This project could not have been more simple! The hardest part was centering the drawer pull. I kept thinking I could eyeball it, how hard could it be right? But actually, it's sad how bad it looks when it's not perfectly centered! I went through three corks learning this the hard way. To find my center I simply traced the widest end of the cork onto paper, cut it out, folded it into 4ths and found my center.

1. Mark the center of your cork
2. Screw the drawer pull into the cork
3. Voila! You have an amazing cork!

What would a fabulous hand towel and vanilla bottle be without a few fabulously painted wooden spoons?

Click here for my original post on painted wooden spoons.

Thanks Mom for all your hard work, love, and Support. Happy Mother's Day! Wish I were there!