Iron-On-Ink Pillow Case

Hello! I’m Alison Heikkila and I’m excited to share Artesprix’s May Blank of the Month with you today. How would you like to create your own custom pillow case? Think of all the fun possibilities! I decided to hand paint flowers all over mine, and it came out so pretty. Let me show you how.

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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.

Materials:
Artesprix Pillow Case
Artesprix Acrylic Paint Set
Paint Color Mixing Chart
Protective Paper
Heat Tape
Heat Source: Home Iron or Heat Press
Paint Brushes
Optional: Plastic Storage Cups for paint

Step 1: Normally, we would start off by tracing our Blank with a pencil onto paper, but since the Pillow Case is so large, and we’re hand painting, we don’t need to do that. So you can begin by painting your first flower. I used a flat brush and painted the petals with Hot Pink paint. I kept my strokes super brushy.  

Step 2: Add detail strokes from the center and work your way out using the Red, straight from the bottle. If you add too much, you can always add in some strokes of Hot Pink on top.

Step 3: Using the back of a fat brush, or even a pencil, dip into the Black paint and apply dots to the flower center. Try to make them different sizes.

Step 4: Using a Filbert shaped brush, let’s paint in some leaves. Start with Lime and then use Green. Use a sweeping motion to create the shape, allowing one side to be a bit longer than the other.

Step 5: Here’s our first finished flower. Trim around the flower and leaves loosely, so you can get an idea of the shape when you start placing them on the pillow case.

Step 6: Paint some yellow flowers. I used Yellow as my base, and then Sunshine for the detail. Repeat the same painting techniques as with the pink flower , then cut it out when it’s dry. 

Step 7: Next is the purple flowers. Paint the base with Violet and the details with Purple. 

Step 8: The last color is orange. Start with Sunshine as the base, and then Orange for the detail. Paint as many of each color as you’d like.

Step 9: Arrange your flowers on the Pillow Case to get a general idea as to where you want them. You may want to take a photo of the arrangement, and perhaps put them off to the side in the way you want them sublimated. You’ll need to flip them over later, but at least for now you can get the colors where you want them to be.

Step 10: This part is a little time consuming, because the platform of the Heat Press isn’t huge, nor is a home iron. I taped 3 flowers down to start, but I wound up removing one because it didn’t fit. So try sublimating only 1-2 flowers at a time. Tape your flowers down well with Heat Tape. 

Step 11: Let’s make the Sublimation Sandwich! Put a layer of Protective Paper on top and underneath the Pillow Case. This will ensure that the paint won’t transfer anywhere but on to our Pillow Case.

Step 12: Have your heat press ready to go at 375 degrees, and press for 35 seconds each time. You’ll have a lot of fabric hanging out each time, but that’s ok.

Step 13: Time for the Peek Test! Lift up a small area of the flower to be sure it sublimated properly. Look at how gorgeous that flower looks!

Step 14: Continue taping 1-2 flowers at a time, making the Sublimation Sandwich, and pressing the flowers until the Pillow Case is covered. I used 13 flowers on mine. 

Here’s a comparison of the painted flowers to the sublimated flowers. The colors are brighter and richer.

Look at how pretty it is on my bed! I love how it came out, and I think I am going to need to make a second one. Plus, I can still sublimate the back of this one! 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%. Thanks so much for stopping by. Have an inspiring day!