A little over an hour ago, my lovely daughter (and I) put together Folding Multipurpose/Sewing Table Craft Table Sturdy Computer Desk by Sew Ready. It’s been in its box since Monday. It arrived one day early. This desk is sturdy, and we assembled it quickly. I’m delighted with the purchase. The table is portable. It was the main selling point in my purchasing since when it’s not in use, I’ll collapse the table and place it in the closet in my office/crafting room. After putting the table together, I broke it down,  carried it upstairs, and placed it in my office/crafting room.

I’ll mainly use it for sewing, cutting, and other crafty things. It’s almost midnight, and I’m wide awake—no surprise there since I’m a morning and night person. I have blanks (sweatshirts and sweatpants) in the dryer, and I most likely will do some sublimation before going to bed. I’m making a shirt for my nephew. He likes the Manga/Anime called One Piece. With my daughter’s help, I found a few suitable .png images that I’ll use. One, I’ll place on the 20oz skinny tumbler, and the other, I’ll put on the shirt. I’ll see him later today. I’m hoping he likes them.

A few weekends ago, I purchased an annual membership to Maker’s Gonna Learn. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I breezed through the 30-day class of Getting to Know Your Cricket within five days. My work laptop was down, so I had plenty of downtime. I used that to my advantage and finished the course. I also learned a lot about my Cricket in a short time.

Yesterday, I bought their Design, Make, Sell – Professional course. It was $100 off the regular price.  Since I enjoy the lesson format at Maker’s Gonna Learn, and I genuinely love Tanner’s enthusiasm. I did not have to think too hard about purchasing the professional course.

This morning, I had a chance to do some sublimation. I used two of the tumblers that I purchased from Michaels. The first one that I created was Jack & Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas. Unfortunately, I kept it in the oven too long. I was able to get it to fade a lot more by putting it in the oven at 400 F for an hour. I’m actually thinking of placing it in the oven again to see if I can get it to lighten a bit more.

Here’s the second tumbler I created, IT! I read the book by Stephen King when I was about 12 years old. I finished this tumbler about ten minutes before I started work this morning. This tumbler turned out better than the first; however, it still was in the oven too long. The colors are still muted. I had it in for seven minutes. Both images were purchased from sellers on Etsy. The next tumblers I buy will be straight tumblers. Speaking of ordering blanks, I have a few places that I want to check out and perhaps buy a few blanks to see my impression of them.

Besides the Cricut Maker 3, I’ve purchased supplies for Sublimation printing. Supplies for sublimating have been arriving over the past few days. Yesterday I picked up the Cricut Press 2 from Michaels; it was on sale. I haven’t taken it out of the box yet, and the more I think about it, I might return it and purchase a heat press. It’s what I’d planned on doing anyway. We’ll see.

After extensive research, I decided not to buy the Cricut Mug Press, and I purchased the Gourmia Digital French Door Air Fryer Toaster Oven. It’s tall enough to stand the tumblers inside the oven if I choose to do that. I also bought an in-oven thermometer. I’ll be picking up both of those items today, along with a few tumbler blanks from Michael’s.

I bought the Epson 4700 Eco Tank printer from a local store yesterday. Thanks to Amazon, the Hiipoo Sublimation ink, A-Sub Sublimation paper, and heat-resistant sublimation tape arrived yesterday afternoon. I set up the Epson printer and installed the sublimation ink without issues. I had every intention of creating a few sublimation blanks last evening. Unfortunately, I was too tired, and after taking my daughter on our traditional viewing, the Christmas lights drive. We view Christmas lights several times during the holiday season. So I settled down to a leisurely evening of creating stamps in Cricut Design Space that I’ll be giving to a friend who loves stickers.

This morning I watched a few more videos on how to sublimate tumblers properly, and I honestly believe that the numerous video/written tutorials that I’ve observed will be helpful for when I start making them myself. I know there’s still a lot to learn; however, the video tutorials have been beneficial. Hopefully, I’ll have a chance to do some sublimation later today. But, of course, it all depends on when my shrink wrap sleeves from Amazon arrive.

Edited to add

Well, I had no time to do any sublimation printing today. My shrink wrap arrived on time. However, my brother and nephew stopped by the house for an extended visit. My daughter and I had just returned home, picking up a few more sublimation supplies, about ten minutes before they arrived. Once I got home, I finished the pot roast in the slow cooker, and I added prepared baked potatoes and hibiscus tea.

After they left, I picked up the convection/air fryer oven that I’ll be using exclusively for sublimation. And although I did not get a chance to create anything today, I’m happy to say that I have all the tools/accessories needed for sublimation. Now, I need to add a few more blanks. Although I did not feel that I had the time to print on the mugs that I purchased about an hour ago, I used my Epson Eco-tank 4700 (that I’m using exclusively for sublimating) to print the design that I bought on Etsy onto sublimation paper. I find it fascinating that the colors appear muted on paper; however, they’re incredibly vivid once placed on the designated item.

I most likely won’t do any printing until this Thursday. I’ll be back to work tomorrow. The good news is that I work remotely from home. I love my job. Last week, my laptop computer stopped working. I had to reach out to IT; they attempted to walk me through various scenarios; however, those were useless since the computer wasn’t starting.

 

Although Threadlover has been quiet for a few months, I have been extremely busy with a variety of my hand crafts. The one I’ve been engaging in most is knitting.  It’s portable and has followed me a variety of places. During the Christmas holidays, all the gifts that I gave were handmade.  Of course, some were knitted, some sewn, others machine embroidered.

 

 

I also made naturals skin care products and I made beaded jewelry on my Mirrix Loom – Big Sister. I didn’t go overboard with the handcrafted  gifts; however, the recepients were definitely craft worthy and appreciated what I gave them.