How to Layer Cricut Infusible Ink

Hello everyone, I am very happy that you are joining me today. I'm Heidi Cundin, owner and chief creative director of Happyhomemade.com, where we share lots of fun qriket projects and free SVG files, so be sure to stop by there after class to check it all out today. I will teach you how to

layer

qriket

infusible

ink now. If you've never worked with

infusible

ink before, you'll love it, but it works a little differently than traditional iron or heat. transfer vinyl, so let me tell you a little about this. Infusible ink is a super cool ink transfer product that produces professional quality results.

It uses the sublimation process to infuse colored ink into the base material so that the ink truly becomes one with the item. Instead of just sitting on top like heat transfer vinyl does and that means the infusible ink will never peel, fade, crack or warp, it actually becomes part of the shirt or other substrate you are using as part of the sublimation heating process. from solid to gas, so you can't

layer

the same way you would with the traditional iron or you'll end up with mixed colors and muddy layers. There are a couple of different ways to layer infusible. ink, but I like to use a method known as cut and set, so today I'll walk you through the steps of the cut and set process and guide you toward layering infusible ink with flawless professional results.

Let's get started. I'm going to use my qriket explorer air 2 for these projects, but you can use any of the explore or maker machines and in fact, if you're doing a small enough project, you can even use

cricut

join for these too. using the cut and set technique to personalize a baby bodysuit with a simple heart and baby's name, if you have never used the cut tool before this is a great place to start, upload the heart svg file and insert it into the baby onesie canvas, i usually make the heart about four inches tall using the text tool, add the name and adjust the size so it is about five to six inches wide.

I'm using the bfc christmas card font here now if I were to cut and apply these layers. as they are here, the infusible ink would blur and turn a brownish color in the areas where the two layers overlap. We definitely don't want that to happen, so we'll need to use the cutting tool to remove the areas. of the heart that overlap with the text to make sure things are perfectly aligned select both layers and use the align tool to center them horizontally use the slice tool to split the overlapping layers into different parts, resulting in four new layers, the name is now cut into two new layers and the heart now also has two layers, we need to remove the overlapping areas of the heart, so go ahead and delete that layer from the layers panel, then make the text a single layer again selecting both sectors and using the solder tool button to join them back into one, so now we are left with two layers, the name and the heart with a negative space that fits perfectly with the name, like pieces of a puzzle.

When you're ready, click the green button to do so, making sure to mirror each one. of your mats before cutting for the heart layer, I'm going to slide it out a little so there is enough room on the plastic transfer sheet to fit the heart and name. Use custom material settings on the dial of your explore air. 2 and then select the infusible ink transfer sheet from the bill of materials. I always like to use more pressure when cutting infusible ink, but that will depend on your specific machine. Yours might be fine with the default pressure, load the mat and cut, then repeat for your second color, you may notice that the color of the infusible ink sheet is much lighter than the color of the box, but don't worry.

Don't worry, it's totally normal, the ink will become much brighter and more vibrant once it has been heat pressed once the ink has finished cutting. It's time to weed it if you haven't worked with infusible ink before you notice that it is much thicker than iron and weeds a little differently. Lightly fold and roll the backing paper until the smaller pieces separate from the other pieces. and use your hands to remove excess traditional weeding tools such as a weeding hook which can press small amounts of ink back onto that plastic sheet and those small ink stains will transfer to your project so it is always recommended Skip the weeding tools and use your hands to remove the infusible ink.

If you need to use a tool to help you, I recommend using a pair of small tweezers and making sure to be very careful with them. Carefully remove the letters from the plastic backing and place them on. in its position. the other piece preheat your heat press or your qriket easy press to 385 degrees cover the bodysuit with a sheet of butcher paper and press for 15 seconds to remove any residual moisture and then let it cool completely place a sheet of white cardstock inside of the suit to prevent this ink from bleeding through to the back use a lint roller to remove lint or debris that may cause the ink to transfer incorrectly place the infusible ink sheet on top of the suit with the ink side down Cover the design with a sheet of butcher paper and press for 40 seconds, allow to cool completely and then remove the carrier sheet to reveal your design.

Look how much brighter and more vivid that infusible ink looks now, if you look closely you can see that the infusible ink has actually bonds to the polyester fibers of the fabric and becomes part of the garment, which means that You will never have to worry about this design peeling, cracking or fading and it can stretch along with the shirt Now that you know the basics of the cut and set method Let's try a couple of different variations that you may find useful First Let's add a white border around of the name in our heart design and then we'll talk about how to approach a more detailed project let's go back to the basics of our heart design, I uploaded the heart and added the text layer for the name to create the white outline, select the text layer and click the scroll button, choose the scroll size.

I'm using 0.10 here and make sure you've soldered. With offsets checked, you will now have three layers: the heart layer, the text layer, and the text offset layer. This time you'll want to use the crop tool on the heart and offset layer, move the text layer to the side for a minute and select the other two layers and use the crop tool as before. You will see that it splits the two layers into four new cut layers, delete the overlapping heart layer, and then delete the two offset layers. What remains is a heart. shape and a text layer that fits inside the heart with a thin white outline around it.

We will make this t-shirt using the same process we used for the baby bodysuit. Start by cutting the infusible ink layers and then remove the infusible ink. Using the same technique, be sure to always have clean, dry hands when removing infusible ink, as moisture from your hands or residue from any lotion you used can damage the ink and cause it to transfer incorrectly if you have problems with If your hands are not dry enough, you can always use a pair of thin latex gloves during this step. We will use the heart carrier sheet to hold both the heart and the name of this design when it comes time to place the letters inside the heart.

Make sure to leave a thin border between the letters and the edges of the heart. This will end up being the offset white border when you press the design onto a white shirt. The white scrolling around the text works especially well when you use stamped infusible. ink and helps provide additional contrast to the text. You can add hovers to text shapes and images in design space, so this trick definitely comes in handy. Infusible ink can be used on all types of polyester and polyester coated surfaces, so there are tons of different options and what you can do with them, so are you ready to tackle something a little more detailed?

Upload the heart pizza slice svg file and insert it into a new canvas. You'll see in the layers panel that everything is grouped together, so the first thing we want to do is ungroup it, all of this will leave us with a bunch of hearts that are still grouped together and three other elements that will be on their own individual layers, the bark and The layers of red sauce are already cut to fit together like a puzzle. pieces with the cheese layer, but those cute heart-shaped pepperonis sit directly on top of the cheese layer, so we'll have to cut through those two layers, select the entire group of hearts, and use the soldering tool to merge them into only one. layer, then select the welded heart layer and the yellow layer and click the cut tool, the cut tool will split the two overlapping layers into three new layers, the yellow base layer, red hearts and yellow hearts from where they overlap layers, delete the yellow hearts layer and you are left with red hearts that fit perfectly inside the yellow layer, size everything appropriately and click the green button to begin the cutting process.

Don't forget to mirror each of your mats, we are going to use the plastic sheet from the yellow infusible ink layer to hold all the different colored layers, so we want to add a little more space around the yellow layer so that the other pieces fit on the backing sheet select infusible ink from the bill of materials, load the material into the machine and begin cutting each of the layers, weed the yellow base layer and then place each of the pieces of different colors on the yellow carrier sheet. Use a lint-free cloth and lint roller to clean the mug.

Place the design on the mug and wrap it all up. a layer of brown paper to prevent ink from transferring to its heating element. Preheat the heating element of your choice. I am using the qriket mug press here but you could also use a heat press or you could even use a convection oven if you visit our site at happinesshomemade.com you can find a complete step by step tutorial on how to make infusible ink mugs on your oven. What I like most about the mug press is that there is no guesswork - the machine heats to the perfect temperature and presses. the cup for the optimal time depending on several different environmental factors, so it's really as easy as preheating the machine, pressing the button and waiting for it to beep and tell you it's done once the machine tells you it's done. finished, carefully remove the cup. mug and make sure you use thermal gloves because it will be very hot, then set everything aside to cool when the mug is cool to the touch, peel off the paper and reveal your design, the infusible ink really adheres to the lining of the mug to The results are long-lasting, dishwasher safe, and will never fade now that you know how to layer infusible ink.

I hope you have a lot of fun creating lots of new projects and don't forget that infusible ink can be used on any polyester or polycoating sublimation base so you can use it to create all kinds of things, like tumblers, bags, kitchen utensils, clothing, jewelry and much more. There are even wood and metal products made especially for sublimation. I can't wait to see what you do.