- Hello and welcome. My name's Angie Holden and I'm the blogger behind
the Country Chic cottage. Today we're going make
sublimation wind spinners. So these spin in the wind. So, what is a wind spinner anyway? Let's talk about that first of all. So when you hang these outside, the wind will catch on a portion of this, usually the middle portion,
and spin it around. This makes a really cute
addition to your outdoor decor, and they do come with the clips
and they're like a 360 clip, so it will spin all the
way around indefinitely. Like you don't have to worry
about it getting tangled up or anything like that. Now, with the sublimation wind spinner, we can put whatever we
would like on these. So this version I added
a photo to the center and this version is just like
a floral butterfly pattern. So you can add whatever
you would like to these, and they make amazing gifts. Mother's Day's coming up. Or just add these to your own garden. Now I am doing an eight inch wind spinner. That is so I could press it all
at one time with my printer. So all I have is a printer that prints up to eight and half inches wide. So I wanted to press it all at one time with my printer in order not
to have any seams or anything. Now, you can absolutely
piece together something on a larger wind spinner. They make these really large. But with even with these smaller ones, they come with a hole in
the top and the bottom. So you could actually make
them long with your printer. So just kind of chain them together. So you might do a variety of
photos and chain them together into like one long chain that
would then spin in the wind. So, really fun and cute idea for sublimation and
it's very unique, right? And so you may be saying to yourself, but Angie, how do I sublimate
this with my heat press when it looks rather round
while you're spinning it here? That is because we are
going to sublimate it flat and then we are going to bend
it after we sublimate it. So let's take a look first at the supplies we're going to use. The supplies you're going
to need ours follow. So you'll need the wind
spinners themselves and they do come with the
clip like, to help them spin. And I bought a package of these. I'm going to sublimate
two of these on the video. They do come in a package of like, five. Protective paper, heat resistant tape. I am going to use my Easy Press for this just for illustration purposes. I often have people ask if
the Easy Press will work for sublimation, but I am
going to use a firmer mat. So this is the Artesprix 12 by 12 mat that's way firmer than the Easy Press mat. And I am going to do that. Because these are intended to spin, these layers move and I don't want those to be uneven in my sublimation. Then I have heat resistant gloves as well as my sublimation prints. These are sublimation ink
printed on sublimation paper on a sublimation printer, and I do have two files available if you want to download those. One is like a floral
with some butterflies, and I went ahead and printed
it a little oversized so I'd have some playing room, but about the size of my wind spinner. So these are eight by
eight inch wind spinners. You can get them in a variety of sizes. If you have a larger format printer, or you want to do a different design, you might consider a larger wind spinner. And then for this one I
did a photo in the middle and I did like a geometric
pattern around the outside. Again, this pattern is
available for free download. So I'll have the download
for both patterns in the description below this video, and you can sign up
there to get the patterns for both of these. And then you can use a program like Canva to put your photo in the
middle of something like this to create this look. And I do have a video all
about free software options, and that includes Canva,
that you can use for this. And I will link to that video
in the description below. So if you don't know
how to create a design for your sublimation printer, that would be the place
to go and check that out. Then finally you'll want a lint roller or something to clean
your sublimation blank before you start sublimating. So now that we have our supplies, let's take a look at applying this print to our wind spinner. The first thing you're going to want to do is remove the protective film. So these do have a protective film on both the front as well as the back. So I'm going to go ahead and
remove it from both sides so I don't forget. And yes, I have forgotten before, so we're going to remove both sides of this protective film, and then we can prep this and get it ready for the sublimation process. But don't skip this step. I find doing these one side at a time is a little bit easier. So I'm just going to lint
roll over the top of this, remove any debris, and then
we can add our first print. Now, these prints are mirrored
and we can add this print and then you can just kind of locate it. You can see through the wind spinner and all these little gaps, you can kind of tell where it's located. So just locate it. Just remember that the holes
are at the top and the bottom. So be sure to take that into account when you're locating everything. And then when you get it into place, we're just going to add
some heat resistant tape. Probably about four pieces. And then we want to add protective paper to the top and the bottom. So, all of these areas, all these gaps, the sublimation ink is probably
going to come through those. So you do want to be sure
to protect everything well. Regardless if you're using a heat press or an Easy Press, you don't
want to skip this step. And we're going to flip this
over, put it print side up, and then I'm just going to
fold this paper over the top. And now this presses at 385 degrees for three minutes and 45 seconds. And I would probably do
like medium pressure, so I will press down on the
Easy Press the entire time. Now, these are about the
size of my Easy Press, so I do want to make
sure I get the Easy Press in the right location. A lot of times I just go
ahead and trim the print just so I can see it a little bit better when I am like, putting
the Easy Press down. Put this back in here and now
I can see the entire thing and my Easy Press will
cover this entire thing. So we'll just put this down. And I'm just using the
standard size Easy Press today. Then we'll just put the Easy Press into place and we will start the timer. So this is a long one, so you will need to
press down quite a while. If you want to use a standard heat press, that will absolutely work. Just put it in there for the same amount of time as indicated. (Easy Press beeping) When it's done, you'll lift up, and then this is going
to be very, very hot. So I'm going to put on
my heat resistant gloves, and then we'll peel this back. And you will notice all this ink that got on the protective paper. Then you can just peel back
your sublimation print, and you'll see your gorgeous
design on your wind spinner. Then you're just going to want to repeat the exact same steps for the other side. Remember we do want to
get rid of this paper. We can probably use this side, but the side that has ink on it, we'll want to get rid of that. And I'm going to go ahead
and sublimate the other side with the exact same print. In this case you can put different
prints on different sides and I will show you one
of those in a second. (upbeat music) Then we just need to turn
this into the wind spinner. It is a little warm still, so
you can wait for it to cool. You just want to hold
the front, the sides, and sort of push and
pull at the same time. So what you're wanting
this to do is fan out. So we went to twist this where it fans this way, and then this where it's
going to fan this way. So we just twist and
then you can keep pulling each of these until you're
happy with the look of it. So you can twist this as much or as little as you would like, and just kind of play
with each one of these until you get your wind spinner. So, the middle I want at like a 45, and then each of these I can keep twisting to where they're even bigger. And then we'll come
around here to this side. Repeat the same on this side. So you're just bending the metal to where you have your wind spinner. Here's the next version I
sublimated and it is different on both sides, and I did like a photo in the middle with the graphic pattern around the outside, and I'm going to do the same thing to it. So I'm just going to kind
of press this middle. And you can press it as far as you want. I just kind of like it at like a 45. And then I'm going to adjust
these to where I want them. So same process. You can kind of bend these
to where you want them. And what I like about adding the photo to the middle is that
you can see the photo as it spins and then the pieces
just kind of spin around it. So I really love the idea of the photo in the center of one of these. And then I did want to note the hook comes with these and you can put either the hook side or the
clip side on the wind spinner. This one I put the clip side. I feel like maybe it'll
hold a little better, and then use the hook to hang. And then the hole in the bottom, you can put multiples of these in a row. So you could add more designs to the bottom and make
a longer wind spinner. So now I'm left with two wind spinners to put in my own garden
or to give as gifts. Again, you can get the files,
as well as the supplies, I will put in the
description below this video. If you're on computer, scroll
down and click show more. If you're on mobile, swipe up on the video or click the arrow to
expand the description. You'll find a list of links. Click those that interest you to get the files, that
includes the graphic file that I put around the photos, as well as the floral butterfly pattern. So I'll have both of
those patterns for free. You'll click that link,
you'll sign up for the email. Then the files will be
sent to your email address and you can start using
those for sublimation or wind spinners or anything else. You can use the files for
anything after you download them. So I hope you enjoyed this and will add some sublimation
projects to your garden. Now these are supposed to be UV coated by the listing on Amazon. I have not put them outdoors
for any length of time. So I may find that I want a
higher quality wind spinner in the future after I have
these outdoors for a year or so. But hopefully they hold
up well in the UV light. That's the only thing I'm worried about. Otherwise, they sublimated great. They bent really great. They look amazing. So if you are going to make some sublimation wind spinners, I would highly recommend
this Amazon listing that I'm going to put below. I really think that they
are a pretty high quality, especially for an Amazon blank, and I really enjoyed doing them. So hopefully this video helps you, and it might even add to your obsession with sublimation crafting, right? So if you like this video,
give us a thumbs up. If you have any questions
about anything we've covered, the sublimation wind spinners, drop down the comment section, ask away. And if you haven't already, head on over to our YouTube channel, hit that subscribe button. We have videos just like
this one every single week, and trust me, you don't
want to miss any of those. So thank you all so much for joining me and I'll see you next week; bye-bye.
