How To Sublimate A Tumbler: Step - By - Step Tutorial

welcome back to the sublimation life today we're going to look at how we make a perfect vibrant tumbler with perfect rims beautiful seams and beautiful colors I'll go ahead and show you the exact process from start to finish on how to make a tumbler from this to this the first thing I'm going to show you are the products that I use of course we have a sublimated ready tumbler that you're going to use to sublimate your image onto the tape that we use is a Cricut heat resistant tape I'll go ahead and Link all this in the description box for you down below you're going to need some painters tape optional but highly recommended a burnishing tool this one is just from the dollar store it's very convenient though and works perfectly I have a cutting blade for cutting purposes when I'm cutting along lines you'll also go ahead and need a ruler if you don't want to use a ruler and cutting blade you can also just use a regular pair of scissors this tool here it's an optional tool but it works amazingly it's called a pinch perfect there is a link in the descriptions with a discount code if you want to try it out optional but also helps also you're going to need some sort of software to be able to print your images I specifically use inkscape and I'll show you exactly how I go about using that and then I'll show you the exact steps step by step on how to go from this tumbler to this tumbler let's get started here we are in the inkscape app this is my preferred method of printing my designs for me it just works the best but there are other options just depends on what you prefer to use now if you are using inkscape you might have this version or you might have a different version if you're following with this version just follow along the exact same way if you're following along with the version that has a large white canvas with a rectangular black bordered outline it's going to be the exact same process your buttons just might be in a different section but it's the exact same process and I'll try to explain that along the way the most important thing to remember either version you're using is it this box whether it has an outline or not is your template of what you're going to be printing on so your image must be in this box if it's out of the box it won't print correctly it has to be in the box now the first thing we want to do is adjust our paper size because like I said this is the template for your paper and this is not an 8.5 by 11 which is what I typically print on for a different version you're going to go to your upper left hit the file and it'll go down to document properties and click that for this version you can go up to this little wrench with the paper and either way you're going to have the same options right here the first thing I like to do is change my measurements to inches because that's what I measure in formats I go to the US letter 8.5 by 11. and I'll go ahead and change my orientation to landscape and it'll print out the correct way you can do the portrait if you like but you have to flip your image just to make sure it's in the box now that's typically all you need to do in this section so we'll close out of that window and you'll see this has changed a little bit I'll go ahead and zoom in slightly so we can see the next thing we're going to do is go ahead and bring our design into inkscape same thing if you're doing the other version It's the file open and then bring your image in this version here we just go to this little folder click that and it automatically brings up what I'm using because that's the last thing I worked with there's options for 20 ounce and 30 ounce tapered and straight we are just using the Straight 20 ounce version today I'm going to go ahead and open that this box will come up whatever version you're using you'll just press ok and now your image should be right here for you so now you should have your design in the inkscape canvas now we just want to resize our design to fit what we're going to print on for this version and also the other versions this is going to be the same exact thing we're going to use our upper toolbar here for this version and the other versions this part's going to be the exact same when we're changing size you're just going to use your upper bar here right here is the width right here is the height and this little lock is to lock the ratio in for me I'm not going to do that because I have a specific size that I use as you can see it's preset to 9.3 by an 8.2 but I actually like to use 9.33 by 8. now be aware all tumbler sizes are completely different you need to measure your own tumbler to get the exact measurement that's going to work for you now you can see my image for this version it kind of resets my paper size back so I'm just going to go back and reset it and now your image should fit perfectly back into that template now like I said this part is very important when you're using inkscape because if your image is not in this box or that black outline it will not print correctly if it looks like this half your image is going to get cut off about right there so make sure it's in the center of the box to get an accurate print from here in this version you'll go up to your little printer icon click print if you're in the other versions you'll go up to file go down press print and check your presets once we have our image printed we'll go ahead and wrap our tumbler alright so now that we have our design printed out we can go ahead and start preparing it to wrap around our tumbler when I do go to wrap my tumbler I do like to cut off a part of the Border but I keep the other part on this ensures that everything lines up properly around that tumbler yeah [Music] all right as you can see I cut off the right side and the top of the borders uh this is because I like to have an extra flap this white part to be able to pull tightly when I'm wrapping my tumbler and I'll explain the bottom part here just shortly now before we move on I do want to show you the importance of printer settings as you can see this was a before print I will try to zoom that in for you and let it Focus you can see how light it is there's some lines some roller lines Pizza Wheels as you would call them and this is before the print settings were adjusted to this this is the print settings adjusted and I do have a tutorial on the exact settings I use to get your settings and prints to be nice and clear and crisp now let's go ahead and bring our tumbler on over and then there is also an additional tool that I like to use now and then when my hands are sore if I can't get the paper pulled tight enough or even if you have arthritis in your hands it's just a really great tool to have a really quick trick I like to do before I get the tumbler wrap around the tumbler I like to go and make sure my image is the right length and there's a really super easy trick you go ahead and take your image facing outwards take your tumbler place your image on top of your tumbler and normally you're going to have your bling part on the upper side but right now I'm just going to fold it over and under like that and pull the other image over I'm just going to pop that down make sure it's all lined up and this if you pull it and wrap it you just make sure your image is long enough and it's lined up properly that ensures that you're not gonna get that white line down the middle where the seam should be and just make sure you have a proper length now let's go ahead and get the wrap wrapped around the tumbler I am going to show you this tool really quick it's called The Pinch perfect super handy and it helps pull the image really tight if you can't get it tight enough in the descriptions there's a link on where to get it along with a discount code let's go ahead and show you how to use this really quick I have a secondary image just to show you how to use it with these ones you will cut the side borders off and the top order but you can leave the lower border on you'll go ahead and take your tumbler turn it upside down take an image and it'll also be upside down with the lower border up you'll go ahead and wrap your image and like so give it a little tap there and you can see there's a little tiny Gap there and it's kind of hard to pull it tight he'll take your pinch Perfect Tool there's little grips right there if you can see that those are grips that pull the paper tight you just go ahead and take that wrap it right around the tumbler and those grips will be along the seam and just like this you go ahead and grab the knobs and it pulls your paper tight and that way you can tape your image and the the seam will be closed for you so that's the benefit of having the pinch perfect again if you can't pull it tight enough or arthritis it's just giving you trouble it closes up the seam really really well really nice for you just like that now let's go ahead and show you the way to do it without the pinch perfect this is generally the way I do it most of the time unless I'm having a hard time or if I'm tired that day the first thing you want to do is go ahead and wipe your tumbler off and get all the fingerprints off oil grease anything that might be on there that way it's not impeding on the ink staining onto the tumbler all right so you have your image laying flat like this borders are set we'll go ahead and take our tumbler the inner part is on the top side where you cut off the Border we'll go ahead and lay in the middle we'll take our design here and now this time the side with no border is going to fold in and should be against the tumbler the side with the Border you're gonna pull on over turn it onto its top and just tap it to make sure that this is a very flat plane right there your paper should be lined up exactly with the top of the rim now I said I was going to explain why I leave the bottom on there and this is why if you can see him there you can see that there is a little excess amount of my image sticking out and this right here is actually where the fold is and where the seam will be right there you can actually make sure that your seam is going to be lined up if it's lined up like that most of the time probably 99 of the time your design is going to line up perfectly as well now if it's say like this that's a little dramatic but you can see it's not lined up so you can go through and correct it and just make sure that that lower seam is completely flush and that's going to ensure a proper lineup of your seam especially with the seamless images now from here I like to go ahead and this is why I like to leave this extra piece because from here we need to make sure we pull it very super tight to ensure that the whole image is completely flat against the tumbler so pull really really well we'll go back make sure our seam is still lined up really properly there and it looks pretty nice and flush I'll go ahead and give it one more good pull and then we'll put tape along the seam I like to put one here one here and one there a little trick I like to do with this I will go ahead and put it on the flap side just a little piece of it hold that flap piece of tape and then pull really hard on the tape and again that just pulls everything really tight and make sure everything is really nice and flat [Music] all right so we have those three pieces of tape right there just go back make sure your seam your lower part of the image is completely lined up and it looks really good in there now we're gonna go ahead and put the heat resistant tape right along this as well and then we'll also do a round layer right here and then one along the bottom as well okay so now when we're putting this on go ahead and have it centered right over the seam and we're going to go ahead and just place on the flap again but don't fillet all the way down because this part we want to kind of roll our finger over the tape to make sure everything goes on really smooth and keeps everything really tight so it's kind of smoothing along with your finger pretty good pressure foreign so you should be kind of right here right now you will have little extra ends I just like to fold those over again I'll explain why I do these extra ends a little bit later and then from here you can either use your finger or your hand to just smooth everything out or use a burnishing tool just to really smooth everything out make sure all the air pockets are out now that we're here at this point so we've done our three little pieces and our seam line this is a very important step this is where people talk about the fingernail trick if you haven't heard of that there is a primary seam right here a secondary seam right here and then one a little bit off to the side the one off to this side is not as important as these very two right here if you can see here and I hope you can right here there's kind of a little lip where your finger will catch on and that is where we're going to run our fingernail right up along that seam to make it super defined this is going to ensure that there's no air in between the paper and the tumbler if there is you're gonna get that blowout spots so you want to do it on that one and then this one right here as well [Music] okay so you can see if you can that it's really defined right there and also right there and again that's just going to make sure you don't get those blowout spots or what as a lot of people call incorrectly ghosting ghosting is actually when there's an image on top of an image that's kind of faded that's actually ghosting these are more blowout spots because there's air pockets um so just make sure you get that really good go over it a couple of times if you need to just to make sure those seams are really pushed in now this one we're gonna go ahead and put our heat resistant tape right around the upper rim and then around the bottom we'll go ahead and do that as tight as you can so same thing I like to hold it put as close to the room as possible we'll hold it and then you're going to kind of pull at the same time as you're laying the heat resistant tape down and the better you get at this the quicker it's gonna go usually this takes me a couple of minutes at this point to do it it just you get the technique down and then you are going to go super fast with it same thing I leave a little tail right there and then I'll go ahead and just smooth it out really well just like this don't worry if there's a little over layer it's fine don't fold it just leave it the way it is all right now we'll do the bottom side now remember you have an excess right here paper do not fold that a lot of people will fold it in that actually creates more air pockets and you'll get that kind of edgy bottom look where we want to get a nice crisp smooth look so do not fold those in but I'll show you what to do to make sure it looks really really nice so when we're putting the bottom part on you can kind of see through the piece of paper here you want again to just go right along that bottom line right here you don't want to overlap too much again just like you did the upper Rim just go right along there hold it and pull really tight [Music] okay so now you have your lower one done go ahead and just smooth it out really really well as well just like that and go ahead and kind of just re-burnish those seam lines where we were talking about earlier with your nail just make sure everything still is really pressed in and nice all right so a heat resistant tape layers are on you don't have to do the painters tape if you don't want to however I do because there are times where the heat resistant tape actually starts to lift up and then your image is going to become loose the painters tape just reinforces everything and make sure that the paper and the image stays in place because if it moves you'll kind of get a smeared splotchy look and we don't want that either you're going to do the exact same thing don't worry about doing the three lines here but do the seam and then the wrap around the rim and the bottom [Music] all right and then also go ahead and same thing pretty much every time you put a new layer on smooth it out really really well that way everything's really smooth and there's no air bubbles or air pockets [Music] all right so now we're down to the bottom here and this is where I'm going to show you how I wrap the bottom so we don't get those jaggedy edges you're still going to do the same thing um with this heat resistant tape that you did you didn't go all the way down you just went to the rim but this time you're just gonna go so much slightly right after where the heat resistant tape is and I will show you why it's going to make it look really nice though please [Music] okay so now we have the bottom on now I said don't fold it and you're still not going to fold it you're not going to bend it in but you're going to take your hand and ever sew a slightly right after we can kind of see it start to kind of crinkle do that and wrap your hand around that again don't fold it but let it crinkle just a little bit and this is going to kind of give it a little curve where it'll go on to the little bottom and that way you don't have that white little lip that's sitting right there [Music] all right so kind of like that it looks a little bit ripply that's great that's perfect just make sure it's not bent in and this is what you should have maybe a little bit cleaner um this but this is what it should look like by the time you're done wrapping it again you don't have to do the painters tape but for me personally it is a big huge help and a great step to do so let's go ahead and throw this into the convection oven and see what it looks like once it's all finished up all right as you can see we're here with the convection oven it is a Farberware convection oven French door you can put in multiple at a time the door opens like that it works really super well I do prefer this over a press presses can be really um finicky at times with the pressure plates inside whereas this it's all around the Heat's evenly distributed so it works really super well um you do want to know that you want an internal thermometer some of the ovens can run a little bit hotter or lower so you want to make sure you're at the proper temperature um we're going to be at 350 degrees as you can see the thermometer does save 350 degrees and that's what we want sublimation happens at 350 degrees so if you're under 350 you're not going to get the best results if you go over 350 you're more likely to burn the image versus make it nice and vibrant if you're at 400 degrees it's much too hot and that is burning your image off of your tumbler or fading it and it's going to look Brown if it looks green then it's undercooked when we put our tumbler in we are going to put it in and then we're going to rotate it a quarter turn every single minute for five minutes so you'll take your tumbler put it in with the seam upwards one minute goes by quarter turn one minute quarter turn one minute quarter turn one minute quarter turn the last one should have your seam back on top again so you're gonna do the seam twice so we'll go ahead and put it in five minutes exactly I'll go ahead and start when it gets back to the minute so we're putting our tumbler in for the first time as you're turning it you do want to make sure you're using um pink gloves that way you're not touching the very hot tumbler all right so we're at our very first turn and we're going to turn this a quarter turn just like that I'm not going to stop and show you this every single time but I wanted to show you what I meant by the quarter turn also another side note to make sure you're in a very ventilated area if you're doing it inside windows open a fan or if you're outside even better [Music] all right so we've been in there for five minutes rotated a quarter turn and we're gonna go ahead and let this cool off and then we'll head over to the table to get it revealed alright so our tumbler is all cooled off enough to handle usually I don't let it cool off but to be able to show you today I did let it cool off to where it's enough to be able to handle um if you can see you can kind of see the design fading through the paper some papers are too thick to be able to see it but if you can see your image through your paper the sublimation process worked pretty well for you um so let's go ahead and peel this back and see what we get and as I said I was going to show you what the tabs were for it's just easier to pull instead of trying to pick at it especially when it's really hot so it's just an easier way to get the um the tape off all right so now that we're done fighting with the tape also another reason I like to peel it right when it comes out because it's still gooey the tape is and it comes off super easily um so I'll just take off this last piece here and we'll go ahead and see what the tumbler looks like and you have a beautiful gorgeous tumbler with very vibrant colors beautiful your Rim up here is nice and perfect you can see a zero seam I don't even know where the seam is supposed to be actually so I can't even really point it out to you and then the bottom where people have the most problems that's what you have right there so to make a perfect perfect sublimation tumbler that's exactly how I do it down from my print settings which you can find in the other tutorial how I print it where I print it how I wrap and the baking process as well so go ahead and test it out for yourself see how you like it let me know in the comments if you enjoyed this tutorial if it was helpful for you go ahead and Boop that like button subscribe to the channel and share for others so that you can get helped as well have a wonderful day and happy crafting

Channel: The Sublimation Life

Views: 4,416

Keywords: JenniferMaker, DesignBundles, How to sublimate a tumbler, How to wrap a tumbler, Sublimation for beginners, Sublimation 20oz skinny tumbler, Design space, Cricut made, Cricut maker

Id: aSlSaqsOVKk

Length: 25min 56sec (1556 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 06 2023