Sublimation Stained Coffee Kitchen Towel with Iron-on-Ink

Hello! I’m Alison Heikkila and I am excited to share my latest Artesprix project with you. I love kitchen towels. Whenever I am at Home Goods, I need to look through the kitchen towels. And I have a lot of them. They are a fun, inexpensive way to change up the vibe of your kitchen. And with Iron-on-Ink, you can design your very own! That’s what we’re doing today, and I decided to go with a faux coffee stained towel. My husband drinks a lot of coffee, and well…spills happen. So this towel was really made for him. The best part? You can treat this towel like any other in your kitchen once the design is transferred, these "stains" are lifetime permanent. 

**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.** 

What is Sublimation 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:
Kitchen Towel
Sublimation Ink Pads
Protective Paper
Heat Tape
A Colorful Life Designs: Peace, Love, Coffee Stencil (code AlFan10 to save 10%)
Rubbernecker Stamps: Coffee Bean Background
Erin Lee Creative: Coffee Stain Stencil (no longer available)
Blending Brushes (A dedicated brush for each color)
Heat Source: Home Iron or Heat Press
Copy Paper

Step-by-Step Tutorial:

Step 1: Ink up the Coffee Bean Background with the Brown Sublimation Ink Pad and stamp onto a piece of copy paper. We are going to make a border of coffee beans for the bottom of the towel, so we will need to stamp this design next to itself, twice, to take up the width of the towel. 

Pro Tip: Tape off the edge of the stamped design with washi tape. Align the stamp to slightly overlap the first impression, but don’t go past the washi tape. Ink up the stamp again and stamp on to the paper. 

Step 2: Cut the strip in half and set aside for later.

Pro Tip #2: We’re using separate paper for the border because regular copy paper isn’t big enough for the entire front of the tea towel. So by making the border separate, we will have enough paper for the whole front. 

Step 3: Adhere the Peace, Love, Coffee stencil where you’d like it on a new piece of copy paper. Tape it down backwards with washi tape and mask off the areas around “Peace.” Ink the word in a rainbow using the Sublimation Ink Pads and blending brushes. 

Step 4: Ink up the “Love” with the Pink Sublimation Ink Pad. Be sure to mask off the areas around it.

Step 5: Ink the “Coffee” with the Brown Sublimation Ink Pad. Then, the mug with red, yellow and blue. You’ll get a good range of colors if you blend the inks well. Use the black ink very lightly for the steam. 

Pro Tip #3: My brushes slipped under my stencil in a couple of spots (total user error!) and I don’t want those mistakes to sublimate. I cut some small pieces of Heat Tape and applied them to the areas that had ink in the wrong spots. Those areas will stay white now.

Step 6: Using the coffee stain stencil, apply the stains all over the background using the Brown Sublimation Ink. If you don’t have a stencil like this, you can use the Brown Sublimation Stamp Ink Refill, apply a few drops to your work surface, spritz with water, then dip a round jar or small cup into the ink and stamp it onto your paper.

Step 7: This blank is large and so is our design so we will press in sections, starting with the coffee bean border. Take one of the strips, and have the uncut side facing toward the rest of the towel. Tape the border down using Heat Tape. 

Step 8: Let’s make our "Sublimation Sandwich"! Add a layer of siliconized paper to the top and bottom of your Blank. The Protective Paper prevents any images accidentally transferring to either side of your heat platen.

Step 9: Sublimate the Dish Towel at 380℉ for 60 seconds, with medium pressure. 

Step 10: Time for the "Peek Test"! Carefully lift a small portion of your art off of the Blank to ensure a good transfer. If you need to re-press your piece, you can do it since you haven’t moved the tape out of place. Mine looks good, so I can remove the design from the Blank.

Step 11: Now we need to transfer the other part of our design. Repeat the steps above, ensuring to use protective paper to protect other parts of your project/ already transferred designs.

Here is a side-by-side comparison of the original design and the sublimated kitchen towel. The colors look amazing, and the masks we made with the Heat Tape prevented excess color where we didn’t want it. 

This came out fabulous! We already have a second border that we can apply to the other side. You can add more to the design, or just use the border. 

My kitchen towel is ready for action! No need to treat it ginelrgly, once your design is transferred it is permanent and ready to go. This was so much fun to make, and didn’t take much time. 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

**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.**