Heat transfer vinyl (HTV) is an amazing way to create custom t-shirts, bags, and other projects with your Cricut machine. With HTV, you can make custom designs for yourself or for others that look professional and take very little time to create.
Before getting started, it is important to understand the basics of how HTV works. Heat transfer vinyl is a thin sheet of vinyl that has a sticky adhesive side.
When you place the vinyl onto your project material and heat it up with an iron or a heat press, the adhesive activates and transfers the design onto the fabric or other material.
Using HTV with your Cricut machine is easy once you understand the basics. The first step is to create your design in Cricut Design Space.
Once you have finished designing your project, select “Husky” as your material type in the top menu bar. This tells the machine what kind of material you plan to use so that it cuts correctly.
Next, place your HTV on your Cricut mat and load it into the machine. Make sure to place it in such a way that when it cuts through the vinyl, it doesn’t cut through any of the backing paper as well. Once loaded into the machine, hit “Go” and let the Cricut do its job.
Once finished cutting out your design, remove it from the mat and use a weeding tool to remove any excess vinyl from around your design. Keep in mind that for detailed designs you may need to use tweezers instead of a weeding tool. Once all pieces are removed from around your design, place them on top of whatever fabric or other material you are using.
Heat Application
Now comes time for heat application! Place parchment paper over top of your design before applying heat so that there are no direct contact burns on either side of the vinyl or fabric. Then use either an iron or a heat press at 340-360°F (172-182°C) for 15-20 seconds depending on how thick your fabric is.
Conclusion
Using heat transfer vinyl with a Cricut machine allows anyone – from beginner crafters to experienced professionals – to easily create custom designs for t-shirts and other materials quickly and efficiently! It’s easy once you understand how HTV works and know all steps involved in working with this type of material: creating designs in Design Space, cutting them out with a Cricut machine, weeding away excess pieces around each design, then finally applying heat for 15-20 seconds to finish off each project.