Showing posts with label heat press. Show all posts
Showing posts with label heat press. Show all posts

Thursday 27 February 2020

Psalm 29 - Enthroned Above The Flood Quiet Book Page

Psalm 29 reassures us the God is both powerful and in control. He sits enthroned above the flood.



Memory Verse: “The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord is enthroned as King forever." Psalm 29:10 NIV


Materials needed to create the Enthroned Above The Flood quiet book page:

  • A4 felt background sheet - I used blue
  • a Noah's ark and animals image - I used this printable from the article Sharing Time: The Prophet Will Tell Us in the LDS kids magazine Friend
  • felt in white, green, red and as close as you can get to gold
  • Kam snaps
  • ric rak
  • 30cm of 2mm round elastic
  • wooden cloud buttons - I bought these from AliExpress (not an affiliate link)
  • dotted mesh material
  • 40mm wide rainbow ribbon - I bought this from AliExpress (not an affiliate link)
  • gold pleather
  • clear craft glue if using pleather to make sewing easier - I used polyacetic acid & ethylene resin based glue
  • decorative beads
  • a throne template - I modified this Colouring page Saint Nicholas' throne from edupics.com
  • hot glue gun and glue

Firstly, get the Noah's Ark and animals transferred onto white felt by the sublimation printing and heat press method - see my post on Sublimation Printing on Felt - Test. Cut out the ark and animals and sew the ark onto the background page along three sides leaving the top open to form a pocket for the animals.

Prepare two wooden cloud buttons by threading 15cm of the elastic onto each and tying a knot to create a loop of elastic. Slide the knot to the back of the button and hot glue in place. Cut the ends short.




Cut your mesh material to size to fit inside your page with extra length (and width if you want to finish the edges first - I didn't but I wish I had). Fold the top over itself a couple of times and pin and sew along the top edge as shown above, placing the elastic of the buttons underneath at either end. Make sure the end is poking out the bottom so you can pull it up and over the buttons to hold the rolled up mesh in place later.




Measure your ground and make a few layers of grass for the animals to sit in. I used ric rak to edge the top of the grass as there would be too many layers of felt along the bottom if I doubled the felt as I usually do. Use kam snaps to attach the grass to the page. At the back, use small squares of spare felt to strengthen them and prevent them ripping a hole when being pulled.




Cut a length of rainbow ribbon to fit your page and melt the edges - see my post on How to Stop Ribbons Fraying. I rounded the edges, but you don't have to. Mark where the button holes should be on the ribbon, then sew and cut.




Use the a colouring page as a throne template to make your throne. Simplify the lines by joining some together and rounding off the top.




Before sewing the pleather, I used the glue to attach the pleather to a sheet of felt. My pleather was stretchy which makes it very difficult to sew. Allow the glue to dry before sewing in place. Then sew the red felt on top and cut out the front section of the throne. Decorate with beads at the top.




Make a slot for threading the throne onto the rainbow ribbon by doubling a piece of felt and sewing onto the other half of your sheet of felt. Make sure it is slightly wider than your rainbow ribbon to allow it to pass through easily. Hot glue the throne to the sheet of felt with the slot facing out and centered at the back. Cut out the throne once again.

Thread the throne onto the ribbon and button it on, or store in the ark pocket.

Complete!


Difficulty Level = Intermediate.

Pleather can be difficult to work with.


Key Learning Areas and Skills

  • Psalm 29 - God is in control even when it might seem like He is not
  • Rolling - roll up the rain, and roll it down again
  • Buttoning - secure the rain when it is rolled up with the elastic and cloud buttons, button on the rainbow ribbon
  • Threading - thread the throne onto the rainbow ribbon
  • Colours - learn the colours of the rainbow
  • Tucking - tuck the animals into the ark
  • Using snaps - snap on and off the ground to make it appear to flood
  • Fine Motor Skills - all quiet books encourage fine motor skill development
  • Hand-eye Co-ordination - all quiet books encourage hand-eye co-ordination




Read the Chapter

Psalm 29.


Devotional

Maybe you feel like everything is out of control, but God assures us that He's got it. Sometimes trouble is what we need to wake us up and turn our course. When trial comes are we willing to listen to instructions and build an ark? Or do we insist on our own way?

This Psalm speaks about God twisting the oaks and breaking the cedars. Trees are often used as a symbol of men and strength. So the strength of men is nothing to God. Therefore, why worry about what man can do to you? Rather worry about pleasing God.

Not only does God rule over the kaos of The Flood, but He caused it.


Psalm 29 - HeartSong



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Have you made a Noah's Ark quiet book page? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

Sunday 11 February 2018

Sublimation Printing on Felt - Test

I have spent a lot of time researching the best AND most affordable way to print on felt.


Background:

I wanted a method of actually printing on felt, rather than using t-shirt transfer paper which leaves a plastic film on top of the felt. This plastic layer prevents felt from sticking to itself and makes layering difficult. Layering is very useful for felt board story play sets and quiet books, such as dress up dolls and the like.

Sublimation printing transfers the ink directly into the felt fibers, and because it uses pigment based ink instead of dye based ink (which is water soluble) it tends to last well even after washing. A sublimation printer prints the pigment ink onto sublimation paper. After it has dried, the paper is layered on top of the felt and pressed in a heat press. This heats the ink so fast that it quickly turns to a gas and transfers from the paper onto the item - in my case felt.

After I came to the conclusion that sublimation printing was most likely the best way to go, I set about finding a way to make it affordable.

There are a couple of companies that offer such services online, such as Bags of Love or Contrado in the UK. It is rather expensive, particularly if you do not live in the UK!

I considered buying my own sublimation printer and heat press - which would have been more affordable than buying from overseas. I joined as many sublimation printing groups on Facebook as I could to find out what were the good brands and such. Most importantly, I wanted to check that sublimation printing on felt does actually work before I made an investment in a printing system.

I quickly discovered that an affordable machine does not come with the most vibrant inks. And the ink can dry up and clog the printer if you don't use it regularly. Since my use would only be as a hobby, I decided it would be better to let the professionals deal with those issues.

In a couple of the local sublimation printing groups I asked if someone might be willing to do a test for me. Thankfully Leonie from Digitextiles offered to test some felt samples for me at no cost!




Digitextiles Test Sample Results:


Club House felt roll (Spotlight) - was SUCCESSFUL and improved the fiber quality (I was worried that it was not good enough but the heat press tightened the structure of the fibers)

Acrylic felt packaged roll (Spotlight) - was SUCCESSFUL

Arbee 50 pack A4 felt sheets (Spotlight) - was SUCCESSFUL

Acrylic felt by the meter (Spotlight) - was SUCCESSFUL

Arbee stiffened felt sheets (Spotlight) - was SUCCESSFUL but became a lot thinner than it was originally, although it remained stiff

Sullivan's A4 felt sheets (Lincraft) - was SUCCESSFUL and remained around the same thickness and quality

All felt was heat pressed for 45 seconds at 190 degrees Celsius with no preshrinking.


Screen printed fabric on heat press to sure
 ink in studio by Scrud123


My Felt Printing Plan:

In an effort to make printing on felt affordable, I asked Leonie if she would be willing to print and post me sublimation paper only. That way I would only have to buy a heat press and I would also be saving bulky postage and providing the materials and manpower myself. Transferring individual parts of an image to stiffened felt can be done as required and would not be causing too much mucking around for a sublimation printing business (which would also put costs up).

She has agreed! Printing costs are around $20 per 1 x 1.48m area plus postage. This area fits around 21-25 A4 sheets of images. She prefers images are sent via email or drop box. They should also be sent as individual images rather than as a 21 page PDF (which suits me perfectly).

If you are interested in using this method, here is a great buying guide by STAHLS' for what to look for in a heat press.




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If you have any suggestions of what I could make using sublimation printing I'd love to hear from you!