Artesprix Grungy Rainbow Tie

Hello! I am Alison Heikkila and I have a project that uses Artesprix’s Blank of the Month to share with you today. The Blank is a necktie, and I knew right away that I wanted to fill it with color. I spoke with my husband about what he’d like in a tie, and ultimately he wanted a full rainbow of color…but I decided to add some grunge to it to make it more unique. Artesprix’s line of Iron-On-Ink makes it so easy to create any type of look you want.

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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:
Artesprix Ink Pads
Protective Paper
Heat Tape
Acrylic Blocks or MISTI stamping tool
Gel Press (I used the 8×10 Plate)
Brayer
Stampendous: Mixed Mesh Cling Stamp
Isopropyl Alcohol 91% (in a spray bottle)
Heat Source: Home Iron or Heat Press
Pencil
Copy Paper
Bubble Wrap

Directions:

Step 1: Apply Artesprix’s Ink Pads directly to the Gel Press Plate. I went for rainbow order. You don’t need a ton of ink to get a good monoprint.

Step 2: Spritz the inked up Plate with Isopropyl Alcohol. This helps blend and move the colors. Use your brayer as much or as little as you like to further blend the colors.
***Pro Tip: you can adhere acrylic blocks to the back of your Gel Press Plate so that you can pick it up to swirl the colors around when you apply the isopropyl alcohol.

Step 3: Lay your paper on the plate and rub the paper. Ensure your paper is in contact with the whole plate, then pull the paper to see your print. You can see in the photo above that I made several prints. We have a lot of area to cover on the tie, so having multiple prints is helpful. The print in the lower right corner was made with the excess ink on my brayer. I will use that print on another project at some point.

Step 4: Stamp the Mixed Mesh (or other background stamp) on to your dry, completed monoprints with the Black Ink. Fill in empty areas by inking up bubble wrap and stamping it with Black Ink too.

Step 5: Lay the tie on to your finished design and outline it with pencil. Be sure to keep the tie moved over to one side, so that you can get at least two strips out of the paper. 

Step 6: Cut the paper into strips. You can get at least 2 stips that can sublimate a good portion of the tie. In the end, I wound up needing 2 full sized monoprints cut down to fill the tie with my design. 

Step 7: Take the first strip and lay the necktie facedown on to your design, following the pencil lines you added before. Tape the tie down with Heat Tape. 

Step 8: It’s time for the 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 images accidentally transferring to either side of your Heat Press or to your home iron.

Step 9: Sublimate the first part of the necktie for 60 seconds at 400 degrees.

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 art out of place.

Here is what the first part of the tie looks like. I think it came out great!

Step 11: Repeat the process of taping the design to the necktie, adding Protective Paper, and sublimating the tie until you complete the entire piece.

My tie is done and it looks awesome! And check out how handsome my husband looks while wearing it. I love that we can make truly wearable art with this necktie and Artesprix’s Iron-On-Ink! 

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. You can use my code, ALISON10 to save 10% off of your purchase. Thanks so much for stopping by. Have an inspiring day!