Hero Arts + Artesprix = A New Way to Play!
Hello friends! I am so excited to have my own day on the blog today, to share something a little different! I was lucky to receive a bunch of cool products from Artesprix. We met the fine people of Artesprix at an industry tradeshow last year, and they showed us how fun it is to combine the products we make - stamps and stencils - with their inks! Artesprix Iron-on-Ink is a complete line of sublimation products that allow artists and crafters to permanently personalize polyester-coated substrates with their own designs. With dozens of different sublimation marker colors to choose from, along with stamp pads, accessories, and blanks, you’ll never run out of ideas for custom creative projects to make personalized products that last a lifetime.
I decided to combine some recent releases with a fun little hexagonal "blank" they sent, which creates a decorative magnet. I began by tracing around the blank with a pencil onto plain copy paper. A pencil is used because pencil ink does not transfer or cause any problems with your final design.
Next, I inked up a butterfly from Beautiful Butterflies with the black sublimation ink, and stamped it onto the copy paper within the area outlined above.
I created a quick mask from scrap copy paper to put over my butterfly for the next step.
With the pink sublimation ink, I stenciled the Script Stencil onto the design. Because you transfer the mirror image of what you create on paper, I flipped the stencil over and worked from the backside. But honestly, the script on this stencil is so nondescript, it probably wasn't even necessary.
Next, I removed the mask and added color to the butterfly with the sublimation markers. Again, I'm working on the copy paper, not the blank. The markers are not Copics, they are sublimation markers, and I was coloring on thin copy paper. But I tried to do a bit of blending because that's what I do. 😉
One last step, I blended just a bit of purple sublimation ink around the outer edge of my hexagon.
Here's my design, before the sublimation magic happens. It looks sort of "dull", but this is normal. The inks look dull on the paper, but once you do the transfer, you get a totally different look!
So now it's time to bring in the blank again for my magnet, as well as Heat Tape, which can tolerate really high temps. I created a "sublimation sandwich" by first taping the blank to my artwork, with the white/polyester side of the blank touching the inked paper. Then I put this between two pieces of Protective Paper, with the blank/paper side facing up.
I put that entire "sublimation sandwich" on a Protective Project Mat, which Artesprix also sent to me. You can do this step with a special heat press from Artesprix, but I just used my home iron. I set my iron over the design - the entire thing fit under my iron so I didn't move it at all, just left it in place. The process with a home iron takes 3 minutes.
The hardest part is having a little patience and not trying to see the design immediately - the stack gets HOT! But the big reveal is so worth the wait!
It was so much fun, I made two of them! The set of blanks came with little self-adhesive magnets to add to the backs.
This is a fun, different way to use all those stamps and stencils you have in your stash, so give it a try! And be sure to visit the Artesprix blog and Instagram account, and tell them we sent you! ❤️
Happy Sublimating,
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2 Responses
Linda Wetterlin
February 24, 2023
Gorgeous hexagon magnet art, Libby! Thanks for the step-by-step and your lead-off photo staging looks amazing! Of course, the purple adds the perfect touch! :)
Alison Heikkila
February 24, 2023
Libby, these magnets look amazing! I really love how you combined that pretty butterfly with that stencil. The colors you chose were perfect too. Great job!