Hello! I’m Chelsea Rose and this is my last post from this term as a Design Team member with Artesprix! This company rocks, small business values and super professional quality of their products, customer service and just so lovely to work with. I’m a Mom, baker, artist and military spouse currently living in Japan! Today we will be working with a super cool sublimation blank, the reversible sequin pillow. I wanted to paint a design that correlates with a series I made starting in college in my Painting class! These sublimation acrylic paints are just ground breaking, they only came out this year (May 2022) and are perfect for this outer space/galaxy/underwater vibe I wanted to create on a pillow. Bonus, my kid is obsessed with smoothing the sequins back and forth to hide and reveal the design!
What is Artesprix Sublimation Acrylic Paint?
Sublimation is a process where a design, once heated to specific temperatures for correct time, is able to chemically fuse to a polyester or poly-coated substrate (also known as a “blank”). Artesprix has recently developed sublimation acrylic paint, and if you’ve read any of my previous posts you know I’ve been playing with it a lot! The paint comes in red, yellow, blue and black and there is a white lightening medium. Lean on your white heavily when mixing colors to experience the full range of these awesome paints! The best part about sublimation, is once your design is transferred, it is life time permanent.
Materials:
Artesprix Sublimation Acrylic Paint Set
Mixed Media Paper or Copy Paper
Lint Roller
Paint Brush
Paint Palette
Heat Source: Home Iron or Heat Press
Step-by-Step Tutorial:
Step 1: This Pillow Case is 16 inches by 16 inches square, you could easily sublimate the whole surface. I chose to use a 9x12" piece of mixed media paper and started to paint! Build up your light colors to your darks. Pure white can be left from your paper, but adding white on top of darker paint will not “erase” your underpainting completely.
Step 2: There is a helpful color mixing chart from Artesprix here. The tricky and extra fun part of the sublimation acrylic paint is that the true colors are only revealed once the design is pressed onto the blank. When choosing a design to make on your sequin pillow case, keep in mind that the sequins will likely never lay down the exact same way they did when it was sublimated. Keep any text bold and thick!
Step 3: After the underpainting is down, I added dimensional cloud/coral-esque structures organically going towards the center. You can also splatter with this paint, either straight from the bottle or add a bit of water to get it to a more fluid state. Here is a time-lapse of a portion of painting this abstract design.
Step 4: When your painting is dry, set your heat press to 400°F. I usually wait for my design to dry overnight.
Step 5: This is a very important step for the Sequin Pillow Case! Flip all the sequins to ensure the white side up, otherwise you will have missed a white side to sublimate. The pillows come mostly flipped to the white side when shipped. However using a tool like tweezers can help cut the time it takes to flip the ones that aren't on the white side.
Step 6: Using heat tape, secure the design to the sequin pillow case (aim to be centered) face-down. Avoid placing the tape on the parts of your design that have the paint or the tape’s heat resistant qualities will interfere with the ink transfer.
Step 7: "Sandwich" the blank sequin pillow case and the taped on design between two pieces of Artesprix protective paper bigger than your pillow case. This will protect your machine from any blow out ink, the top piece will protect your heat source, and your bottom piece will help ensure the velvet side stays clean.
Step 8: This project presses at 400°F for 60 seconds with heavy pressure. To double check the recommended press times go to Artesprix’s directions site.
Step 9: Take a "peek" without removing the tape, that way if the project needs more time, your design is still lined up. Keeping the design in place will help prevent ghosting.
Step 10: Once you have confirmed your transfer was a success, reveal your design by removing the paper completely. Our finished project is 100% permanent on the pillow.
The possibilities with this sublimation acrylic paint and with this sequin pillow case makes it extra fun. There are three different color options of the sequin pillow case on the Artesprix website to fit other aesthetics: rose gold sequins and lavender velvet, silver sequins and white velvet, or the black sequins and black velvet.
Look for other tips and tricks on the Facebook group or for inspiration on the blog from the other designers.
If you want to see what I’m up to as a Navy spouse in Japan, come follow along over on instagram (I put lots of fun foods that we try in my stories). Thanks for reading and hope you get inspired to create.
I’m so honored to have been able to create with these products and write these blogs over the last six months!
Keep in touch and keep creating!
Chelsea Rose
**This post may contain affiliate links. That means that I may receive compensation if you purchase through the links I have provided. The price you pay for the product or service is not higher, but I may get compensated.**
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