Introduction: Beginner Heat Press Printing (HTVRONT Review)

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About: Hi! I'm an Austrian small Youtuber living in the UK. I love upcycling trash into treasures, especially creating small things like jewelry and gems. Fandom related crafts are a lot of fun for me as well.

HTVRONT was kind enough to send me the HTVRONT Easy Heat Press, Heat Transfer Vinyls (HTV) and a Sublimation kit to play around with. Here is my honest experience printing that way for the first time! And everything I learned. There was a lot of research to be done!

Supplies

What I used:

Step 1: What Are Heat Transfer Vinyls? (HTV)

They are a material that can be transferred onto fabrics using heat. You can cut out designs by hand or using a cutting machine (like a Cricut). Then you can transfer the design with a heat press or even an iron.

Step 2: What Is Sublimation?

Actually it's a term from physics and "is the transition of a substance directly from the solid to the gas state, without passing through the liquid state." (Wikipedia)

Dye-sublimation printing is when sublimation ink bonds with polyester (normally) and permanently bonds with it (as far as I understand it). You can use it to print on polyester fabric, but also polyester-coated things. That way you can print mugs, coasters and much more. Google "sublimation blanks" and you will find all kinds of things!

Step 3: Can You Use an Iron?

It depends:

Heat Transfer Vinyls are more forgiving and a normal home iron can be used, but on bigger designs you have to spend more time to make sure everything transfers well.

Sublimation can be trickier with a home iron. I have seen both positive and negative experiences online. You have to make sure to get the iron hot enough and it's probably better to stick with smaller designs, since moving around with the iron can mess up the image.

Step 4: Do You Need a Cricut / Cutting Machine?

No, you can also cut out shapes by hand - either with scissors or with a craft knife. I've seen people make really detailed designs with a craft knife - but of course it will take some time and precision.

You can stick paper templates onto the glossy side of HTVs using a gluestick - just peel them off before you transfer the design and remove the glue residue.

Your design will have to be mirrored so it transfers correctly!

Step 5: HTVRONT Easy Heat Press

If you are thinking about doing prints like this on a regular basis, you can consider getting a heat press.

Here is what I liked about using the HTVRONT Easy Heat Press (I did get it for free, but it's my honest opinion):

  • You can see the exact temperature of the heat press (both in Fahrenheit and Celsius)
  • You can set a timer that tells you how long to press
  • You can see how much pressure you're using
  • It's a good size for bigger designs


Step 6: Preparations

  • Before printing anything, make sure to clean your fabric with a lint roller or some tape.
  • Use baking paper or sth similar to protect your heat press and fabric.
  • I worked on an ironing board.
  • I put a piece of a cereal box under my fabric.
  • Preheat the fabric for a few seconds to get rid of wrinkles and moisture.

Step 7: Using the HTV

The HTVs were quite easy to work with and there are so many options out there - matte, glossy, shimmery, glittery, holographic, iridescent, neon, glow-in-the-dark,...

I cut out this design using a Cricut.

HTVRONT provided the instructions with the right temperature and pressure.

Step 8: Sublimating Without a Sublimation Printer

Normally, I believe there are two common ways to do sublimation:

  1. Use an inkjet printer filled with sublimation ink and print on sublimation paper.
  2. Use sublimation markers on regular paper.

But I tried out another option, which doesn't seem very common:

I bought sublimation ink that's normally used for a printer and painted with it on sublimation paper.

Did it work? It did! I had to go through some trial and error, but here's what I learned:

  • The colors look different before they are transferred. Cyan looks more like indigo, magenta looks more like red. But just ignore what they look like and remember that they are cyan and magenta.
  • The inks are quite concentrated. For example, if you use the cyan straight out of the bottle, it will be a dark blue color. But if you water it down, it turns into a nice cyan color.
  • You can mix the inks, but it's a bit hard to guess the outcome - do experiments first! For example, the yellow was much more potent than I thought.
  • There is a coating on the sublimation paper. That's why it doesn't react to ink like normal paper. It dries pretty fast. For covering larger areas, I recommend using a sponge instead of a paintbrush. Stamps work well too.
  • I believe you can sketch on the paper with a normal pencil and it shouldn't get transferred.

Step 9: Sublimating a Moon

I drew a moon shape onto sublimation paper using some bowls and cut it out. Then I sponged ink onto the paper - I used watered down cyan sublimation ink and for the second color magenta with a little cyan and water.

Step 10: Sublimation HTV

Sublimation mainly works on polyester fabrics. Many fabrics these days are made from cotton. That's where Sublimation HTVs can be used: You first transfer the Sublimation HTV and then sublimate on that vinyl. That way you can sublimate on pretty much any fabric! I got a glossy clear version, but there are white ones, matte ones or even glittery ones.

No heat resistant tape? No problem. I didn't have heat resistant tape, so I used some of the sticky heat resistant backing that I peeled from the HTV I used before. I cut it into strips. It wasn't super sticky anymore, but it helped!

So that's all I learned from my first prints with a heat press. Thanks to HTVRONT for helping me learn something new. Will definitely use this for gifts and personalizing things.