Iron-on-Ink Blank of the Month Satin Ribbon

Hello! I’m Alison Heikkila and it’s time to show you the December Blank of the Month from Artesprix! Each month, Artesprix releases a Blank or substrate that will only be available during that month on their website. It’s always something fun and different, and this month it’s ribbon! It’s white, 2.5” wide, and 10 yards long! You can do a lot with that much ribbon. I decided to sublimate lots of candies on mine and turn it into a bow. This definitely took a good amount of time, but it was so worth it!

What is Iron-on-Ink?
Artesprix Sublimation Markers, Ink, and Paint are specially formulated to allow you to use basic copy paper to: color, stamp, stencil, and monoprint anything you wish and turn it into a heat-transferable design. These designs are then applied to a polyester or polyester coated substrate with heat and pressure. You can use a heat press or a home iron! These designs, through this process of sublimation, will become permanent on your substrates.

Supplies:

Ribbon
Black Ink Pad
Red & Green Sublimation Markers
Protective Paper

Heat Tape
The Rabbit Hole Designs: Candy Twist Die

Acrylic Block

Craft Foam Sheet
Double Sided Adhesive Sheet
Copy Paper
Pencil
Heat Source: Heat Press or Handheld Craft Press
Scissors

Step-by-Step Tutorial:

Step 1: Trace the ribbon onto copy paper with a pencil. I fit 3 rows onto my paper, even with leaving an "bleed" area for my design. I repeated this 4 times to get 12 strips, and then I cut them apart.

Step 2: I decided to make a stamp from a die. I took a piece of craft foam and added a double sided adhesive sheet to it. I put the Candy Twist die on the side with the craft foam and ran it through my die cut machine. When I removed the die cut, I was able to stick it right to my acrylic block because of the adhesive sheet.

Step 3: I began to stamp the Candy Twist on my strips. I stamped them at an angle with the Black Sublimation Ink Pad. What’s nice about this die is that it’s pretty easy to make a repeat pattern with. I worked my way up the strip and finished it with a fully stamped image.

Step 4: I began to color the candies with the red and green Sublimation Markers. I was careful to keep my pattern precise, but I did make a few errors along the way. Luckily, this is a pretty forgiving pattern, so I doubt anyone will notice.



Step 5: After I colored the first strip, I fussy cut around the top row of candies, so that I could properly line up the next row of stamping. Again, this is a pretty forgiving design, but I did want to line it up as close as I could.

Pro Tip: Because each strip is slightly different, I labeled each one. I assigned each a number, and then marked off the bottom with the number of the previous strip, so that I didn’t misalign anything when I started to sublimate the ribbon. I ended up with a dozen stamped and colored strips because I wanted approximately 3 yards of ribbon to be sublimated.  

Step 6: Once the design is complete, it is important to secure the ribbon to the design using heat resistant tape.

Step 7: Let’s make our "Sublimation Sandwich"! Add a layer of siliconized paper to the top and bottom of your Blank. Your sandwich will be: Protective Paper, Colored Design, Blank, Protective Paper. The Protective Paper prevents any ink from accidentally transferring to either side of your Heat Press or pressing surface.

Step 9: Let’s sublimate that first strip! We’re going to have our heat press set at 400℉ for 90 seconds.

Step 10: It’s time for the "peek test". I lifted up part of the ribbon to make sure my design transferred well. It looks amazing, so I can remove the rest of the paper from the ribbon and move on to the next strip. 

Here you can see how vivid the red and green have become from the original design. I love comparing the two. The colors just pop once they’ve been heated.

Step 11: I repeated the process of sublimating each strip.  

Pro Tip #2: I put a piece of white card-stock under my design and the ribbon so that I could line things up properly since my work surface is black. Be sure to flip the design to the top when you sublimate!

Here it is! 3 beautiful yards of sublimated ribbon! It came out so good, and I really love that the design looks seamless.

Pro Tip #3: I fussy cut the ends of the ribbon around the candies to give it a really finished look.

I decided to make a bow with my ribbon. Admittedly, we haven’t decorated for Christmas yet, so I don’t have any wreaths out. But it looks so pretty just hanging on my door as-is!

I really love how this ribbon turned out. And I still have plenty more that can still be sublimated! I plan on using it for other things beyond just Christmas. What ways can you imagine using this ribbon? I can imagine using it to wrap gifts, perhaps as a sash for a prom or other special event, etc. How would you like to get more ideas on using Artesprix’s Sublimation Ink Pads, Markers, and Paint? There’s a Facebook Group that’s just for fans of Artesprix! You can click HERE to join. Also, don't forget to visit the Artesprix store to see all of the available blanks and bundles, so you can get started with sublimation.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Have an inspiring day!

Alison Heikkila 

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