First Attempt Series: Sublimation Kitchen Tumblers

So these are the supplies that we'll be using today. Go ahead and take a screenshot. So this is a score for me because I was able to get this printer from Staples at a very low rate. I think I paid $150 for it and it's typically $250. So I captured a sale which was really exciting. And this is a refillable cartridge type of printer. So you'll see that I purchased printer ink, that's sublimation ink, from this place called Cosmo Ink. There it is right there. And what I did was instead of putting in the ink from Epson, I put in this ink instead. I'm not going to get into all the details of installing the printer to your computer. But basically, you just go and install the driver, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So my first mistake was I did not mirror my image. Okay, it is very important that you do that. So we're going to try again. These are my printer settings. Go ahead and take a screenshot. I am using Mac or iOS software. So keep that in mind. But my image is now mirrored and I am ready to place it on my cup. Before I do that, I want to show you the oven that I used. You will see that I did not find success in using an oven. So you know, I would hold off on buying one. I'd suggest buying a cup press instead. But I'm not going to return this oven because one, I used it for sublimation, so now it's no longer usable for anyone to cook. So consciously, it wouldn't be a good idea to return it to the store after doing that. And so now I'm just going to repurpose it for clay because that is something else we're going to be doing in our, you know, first time, try it series. Now I'm just positioning the sublimation image to my Tumblr. Now I am not doing it. I don't think I'm doing it correctly or the way, you know, some of the people that have done this for a long time are doing it, but this is literally my first time doing it. So I was kind of playing around with, you know, how I would place it on the Tumblr. So please don't come to me in the comments or come for me in the comments telling me I'm doing it wrong. I know. I'm going to be practicing more and more, but I just wanted to give you guys my first time attempt at doing something. So I purchased this Tumblr set from Amazon. It came with six Tumblrs and it also came with six of these shrink wraps. And I did find that the shrink wrap was a very useful tool to assure that my sublimation paper was really pressed onto my Tumblr. Now with a mug press or a Tumblr press, I should say, um, a professional looking one, I don't think this is going to be necessary, but if you're not going to use one and you're going to use an oven, I highly recommend getting some of this. Yeah, I burned it. I didn't do it right. My temperature was either too high. I had it on the burner too long in one section. I don't know. Whatever the case is, I don't feel like the oven is a viable solution. So we're going to move on to something else. The mug press. I hopped on YouTube and looked at other people who use their Cricut mug press to supplement their 20 ounce skinny Tumblrs and there's tons of videos out there, so make sure you go check those out. They were very useful and that's what I'm going to do here. So I got those silicone wedges or a silicone pot pad or whatever from Dollar Tree and I cut it up so that it can serve as a buffer between the mug press and the Tumblr since there was some space in between. You know, the mug press isn't made for the 20 ounce Tumblr, but it worked as a viable solution so it made it nice and snug. There's a lot of rotating that goes along with using the mug press and you're having to time it on your own. I timed it for four minutes each time, so you don't use the timer on the mug press. It's not even going to activate. But watch the videos from other people using the mug press and you'll see. I wish I saved the audio to me actually talking as I was peeling off the paper because I was really elated. I was super excited. I feel like it went really well. It came out really, really nice. I didn't notice any flaws or burn marks or anything. So I'm excited about it and I think that the Cricut mug press is a very suitable option for the 20 ounce Tumblr. So of course I tried it out with a Tumblr with my logo on it and also I tried it out with a Tumblr with my husband's book and all of his information for his book on there. My husband did write a children's book. I will link that in the description below. Make sure you check it out. It's called Now I Can See For Myself and it is about a young boy that does not want to go to the doctor because he's afraid and it turns out to be an eye doctor. It's a really cute little book. Make sure you check it out. Thank you so much for watching. Make sure you watch some of my previous videos. Watch my next videos. Let me know in the comments what else you want to see me do. I will be doing a lot of Try It For The First Times. My next thing might be working with clay which is really exciting. I've wanted to do that for a long time. So make sure you check that out and I will see you next time. Thank you so much for watching. Bye.