Applying Transfers to Cinch Sacks
May/120
A popular item with teens is the cinch sack. Cinch sacks are bags with drawstrings on both sides and are used to carry books, shoes and clothing. They are a perfect promotional item for teams, schools, and events.
Decorating a cinch sack is easy using custom transfers. Because the bags do gather at the top when closed, we recommend using a little smaller print so that it is visible when being carried. The size shown on the samples is about a 5” x 5” size print.
Cinch sacks are easy to decorate with custom transfers and are a popular item for teens.
If the bag is nylon, the CAD-PRINTZ® Opaque is the perfect decorating option. These full color prints are inexpensive at the size needed for these bags. You can send us your own art, or use one of our layouts to create your print. CAD-PRINTZ are not priced by the number of colors so this can be a great selling point.
Occasionally, the bags are polyester so any of our decorating options can be used. The best choice would be based on quantity needed, the number of colors and the size. Our dealer service team will help you choose the best product at the best price.
When doing the application, because of the strings, you will want to raise the print area with a polyester foam mouse pad or print perfect pad. Just place your bag on your heat press and slip the pad under the bag. This will allow even pressure to reach your bag. Put the transfer in place, and press according to the directions provided with your transfer. Your bag is ready to carry!
Stitches Offers Embroidery & Heat Printing Category In 2012 Golden Needle Awards
Apr/120
Enter your heat printing and embroidery designs to increase your company's exposure!
Have you ever combined a heat transfer with embroidery? If so, you may want to consider entering Stitches 2012 Golden Needle Competition™. This year there is a category for Embroidery & Heat-Printing Decoration. The winners will be featured in the November issue.
Now before you discount doing this because you may feel that you have not done anything exciting or creative enough to have any chance of winning, here’s a few things to consider.
Even if you don’t win, entering a contest creates an opportunity for you to increase your company’s exposure. Be sure and take several photos of every entry you submit. These photos should be posted to your website and your Facebook page with the announcement that you have entered them in a national decorating contest.
If you choose a garment you have done for a customer, you will want to obtain permission to submit the design. If the client grants permission, when you post the photo of the client’s shirt to your Facebook page, be sure and tag your client’s Facebook page so it also shows up there. You might also include a thank you for the use of the shirt as an entry. Your post will then show up on your client’s page, which brings your business to the attention of potential new customers.
While you may think that the competition is stiff in these competitions, in some cases this really is not the case. If you have ever viewed entries from other decorated apparel contests such as the Impressions Awards, you might notice that some categories attract only 10-20 entries. So you really have a much better chance than you think of winning.
If you do win, not only are you featured in Stitches Magazine, but you now have a reason to post again to your Facebook page, Twitter, Linked In, and submit a press release to your local media about winning this award. And of course, this should be on the home page of your website.
Ideally, you also create a nice framed piece of your published winning entry in Stitches magazine that you put up on the wall of your showroom or area where customers walk in and can see it.
Stitches is accepting entries until Monday, May 21. You can view the categories here:
http://cdn.asicentral.com/idesign/stitchesAwards/index0311.htm
You can download an entry form here: https://www.asisafe.com/asiinternet/htmlemails/stitchesAwards/form.htm
If you enter and would like to be featured in this blog (whether or not you win), please contact Deborah Sexton at dsexton@sbcglobal.net.
A winner from 2011 with a vibrant design.
Apparel Terms to Help with Heat Transfers
Nov/111
Terms used when ordering apparel can be confusing. A special thank you to team member Andy Curtiss who did some research on what they mean and how it comes into play when applying heat transfers.
Denier– A unit of measurement that indicates how fine the weave of a material. Specifically, denier references to the weight of a fiber. For example, 1 denier = 1 gram per 9,000 meters of a fiber. So this means that the higher the number, the heavier the weight of the fibers used. A lightweight garment has a lower denier. For example, a woman’s nylons could be 7 denier. But a heavy duty nylon awning could be 1,000 denier. This does not affect heat printing.
Moisture Wicking – This term refers to some fabrics abilities to absorb sweat from your skin and pull it through to the outside of the garment. This leaves your skin dry and comfortable and allows the sweat to evaporate more quickly. Both nylon and polyester have the capacity to wick moisture as noted above. This term alone has no effect on the adhesion of our product as it is NOT a special coating, but a natural ability of some fibers.
Dri-Fit, Aerocool and Cool Mesh – These are trademarked or brand terms that refer to a type of jersey in which nylon or polyester has been mixed with cotton or another natural fiber. These garments are advertised as not only good at wicking away sweat, but the added natural fibers like cotton make the garment more breathable and comfortable, allowing a person to cool down more quickly. So when dealing with these garments, we will always need to ask: polyester or nylon.
Porthole, Mini, & Micro Mesh – These are all terms that simply refer to the size of the holes and the denier (weight) of the mesh fabric. All three can either refer to polyester mesh or nylon mesh. The largest holes with the heaviest denier are generally the porthole mesh which is used for some football jerseys or mesh laundry bags. In contrast, the micro mesh has tiny holes and smaller denier and it is used for basketball and lacrosse jerseys. Mini mesh is between the other two and can be used in any of the sports previously mentioned as well as soccer. When a customer mentions any of these products we should immediately ask if it’s nylon or polyester and make the appropriate transfer type choices from there – don’t ever assume!
Tricot Mesh – Tricot is a term that refers to a style of knitting or weaving. The tricot style will generally leave one side of a garment smooth and the other side textured. Tricot mesh is this style of weave used in a mesh jersey. These are often times a higher end jersey in the sports world (it is also used in undergarments and sleeping bags). Tricot mesh comes in both polyester and nylon varieties so we need to ask when customers mention it – don’t assume!
Performance Wear – A garment that is worn close to the skin because of its wicking properties. Performance wear is made to be tight, but flexible so it can be worn under a uniform or as a uniform itself in some sports. Some performance wear is worn as a loose fit. These garments can be decorated with any of our products that are appropriate for polyester. However, other performance wear is referred to as compression fit. These garments are worn skin tight and will generally stretch to some degree. For this fit you should use Elasti Prints® or CAD-PRINTZ™. You will hear the terms moisture wicking, dri-fit and aerocool occasionally in conjunction with performance wear (see above for their definition).
Sublimation – A high end process of decorating garments that involves dying the garment with a gas process. Garments are polyester and start the process as white or very light grey. After the sublimation process is complete, the garment will show a different color(s) on the outside, but still show the original white or light grey on the inside. The only catch to the process is that it easily suffers from dye migration (see below). The only transfer type that can be safely used is CAD-PRINTZ Sub Block.
Sub Block on a Sublimated Shirt
Choosing Your Custom Transfer Product-Your Apparel Will Make Your Choice
Nov/110
When choosing what custom transfer to use, one of the most important factors is what apparel type your customer is requesting. If your customer wants to order a nylon jacket, your product choice is limited to the only product that works on nylon—CAD-PRINTZ™ Opaque. If your customer wants a compression fit polyester material, your product choices are CAD-PRINTZ Opaque and Elasti Prints®.
Shown here is a CAD-PRINTZ digital transfer used to decorate a compression fit polyester material.
If your customer wants a custom printed t-shirt, or anything cotton, polyester or cotton/poly blends your choices are unlimited. You will then need to consider if it is full color (digital product line) or spot color (screen printed transfer line). Another factor to consider is quantity. You can order as few as 1 of the digital transfers, but there is a 5 piece minimum when ordering the screen printed transfers using our layouts, or 10 if providing art.
Our customer service team will help you get the best product at the best price for your job.
Transfers Offer Solution For Hard-To-Decorate Items
Sep/110
Almost everyone is familiar with the fact that transfers are a great decorating medium for just about any type of apparel that is made of cotton, polyester, or a cotton/poly blend.
What you may not realize is that Transfer Express offers two distinct types of transfers: screen printed and digital. Screen printed transfers are limited to the traditional cotton and polyester fabrics, but digital transfers such as CAD-PRINTZ™ Opaque will go on almost anything you can fit in a heat press and can be created in unlimited colors.
This opens the doors to a much wider range of apparel and promotional items including nylon team uniforms, umbrellas, swim suits, and leather goods.
When Illinois Glove Co., Northbrook, Ill., was looking for a solution to print full-color logos on gloves for its promotional product customers, CAD-PRINTZ™ turned into a great solution for the company.
Prior to using Transfer Express, the manufacturer was screen printing one-color logos onto gloves. “Screen printing was a mess,” notes Jay Shmikler, director of sales and marketing. “Because the glove was made of a knit fabric, the print would fall into the little mesh holes. We could do only one color with screen printing, and then we lost out on orders to other products that could offer multiple color logos.”
Today, the company uses Easy Prints for one-color orders and CAD PRINTZ for full-color logos. Another reason digital transfers have been such a great match is the wide range of materials that gloves are made of.
“We offer gloves for automotive, construction, farm, ranch, trucking companies, freezer gloves for people who are stocking shelves in the grocery stores, and safety awards; you name it, we have probably done it,” says Shmikler.
So when choosing a decorating process, it’s important to match the right method to the glove material.
“We have certain types of gloves that we use Easy Prints,” says the director. “If the glove stretches, we have to make sure we get Easy Prints because that stretches. If the logo has a lot of detail, we use CAD-PRINTZ. So when someone comes to us with an eight-color logo, CAD-PRINTZ looks amazing. You can get shading that you really can’t get in a screen printed transfer.”
As a steady customer for the past four years, Shmikler has been satisfied with the product and the customer service. “They are good at returning calls, they are professional and they’re easy to deal with.”
If you have a customer come in with a hard-to-decorate item, next time, don’t turn them away. Investigate if using a digital transfer may be the perfect solution!
Switching from direct screen printing to screen printed and digital transfers solved several embellishing challenges for Illinois Glove Co. faced when decorating gloves for promotional product clientele. Photo courtesy of Illinois Glove Co., Northbrook, Ill.
How to Print Custom Koozies using Transfers
Jul/110
Looking for a great party or wedding favor? Or a giveaway for a tailgate party? A great, low cost, custom printed, ad specialty item is a Koozie. Koozies can be purchased for under $1 and printed with custom transfers for the event or to advertise your business.
You ask what is a Koozie? According to Wikipedia, “other names are can cooler, “beer sleeve”, stubby holder. It began as a marketing tool. The primary use of a beer koozie is to keep one’s hand warm while keeping the beer cold. A secondary use of a beer koozie is to easily identify one’s beverage from another. Many different companies have used the koozie as a promotional giveaway because it is not only inexpensive to manufacture, but its frequent use is more likely to bring the company’s name to a household presence.”
Custom transfers make personalizing a koozie easy—and it takes just 4 seconds. Be sure the koozie you purchase is either collapsible or the Velcro wrap type so that it lies flat in your press. Both screen printed and digital transfers can be used since this item is 100% polyester. Any color of koozie can be used; you are not limited to white only. Position the transfer on the koozie and press according to the directions provided with the transfer. Your custom printed koozie is ready for use.
Custom screen printed transfers work great on koozies and are perfect for parties.
Decorator Converts Home Into Shop, Showroom & Tiki Bar
Jul/110
When most decorators want to entertain a client, they might take them out to a nice local restaurant. But Tim Hoffman, owner, Hoffman Embroidery, had a better idea. He built a tiki bar.
After paying big rent at the Annapolis Mall in Annapolis, Maryland, for years, Hoffman and his partner decided they’d had enough of that. So the embroiderer, who lives in a three-level house, gutted 1,000 feet on the first floor and built his shop, a showroom, and an outdoor tiki bar instead. It’s now home to his one singlehead, one four-head, and two two-head embroidery machines and two Stahls’ Hotronix heat transfer presses.
The tiki bar garnered media attention from a local newspaper The Capital, Annapolis, Md., November 13, 2010 issue and March/April 2011 issue of Stitches magazine where it was the cover story.
“It looks just like a tiki bar you’d see on the beach in the British Virgin Islands,” says Hoffman. “We have water in the back yard. It’s enclosed in the wintertime so we can use it year-round.”
Although Hoffman doesn’t sell drinks, it’s used for entertaining clients and friends for all kinds of occasions. “It looks like a real bar, and we have mixed drinks,” he notes. “We throw big neighborhood parties and watch all the big sporting events. It’s a perfect man cave.”
In addition to offering embroidery, Hoffman also is a regular customer of Transfer Express. When he gets multi-color print jobs, he has found transfers the best way to go. “When we get an eight-color job for a dark shirt, if you screen print it, that’s eight screens plus a white underbase. When it’s a left-chest size design for 100 shirts, the only cost-effective way to do it is using Transfer Express CAD-PRINTZ™.”
“We’ve used them for a multitude of orders, and they have always done a great job with outstanding service at a price that is affordable,” says Hoffman. “We also get quick turnaround. We’re glad to have them on our team.”
Owner Tim Hoffman and production manager Amy Lynn Hall sit on a stool in the outdoor tiki bar that is used to entertain clients throughout the year. Hoffman built it at the same time he transformed the first floor of his three-story house into his shop and showroom.
Vector vs Raster Art: Which is Best for Transfers?
Jun/110
Vector vs Raster Art:
There are basically two different types of art – vector and raster (bitmap/jpg). Both are useful depending on your end use.
Raster art is made up of tiny boxes known as pixels. An example of a raster image is a digital photograph. Typically, rasterized files end with file extensions such as .jpg, .tif, .bmp, .gif, and .png. One of the most common mistakes made with raster art has to do with scaling (sizing) a rasterized image larger. Since raster art is resolution dependent, you can scale smaller, but you shouldn’t scale larger. This is because there are only so many pixels in the image. Raster images are measured by their dpi (dots per [linear] inch). A crisp, high resolution image will be around 300 pixels per inch. When scaling larger, the same amount of pixels remain, but over a larger area. Therefore, if you scale a high resolution (300 dpi) photo twice the size, you now only have 150 pixels per inch, which is half the resolution previously. When scaling larger, the pixels per inch decreases, which in turn makes the resolution decrease. This creates the distorted and pixilated look.
When zoomed in on raster artwork, you can see the pixels that create the image.
Vector art, on the other hand, is not resolution dependent. You can scale it larger or smaller and it will still look the same. Vector art can be used on a golf ball or the same art can be used on a billboard and either one will look clear. This type of art uses mathematical formulas to create the artwork. There are no pixels involved. Instead, it uses points and curves to create shapes. This type of artwork is created in applications such as CorelDraw and Adobe Illustrator, which can have file extensions such as .cdr, .ai, and .eps.
When zoomed in on vector artwork, lines and curves are smooth.
How does this all fit in to our transfers?
Rasterized artwork is fine for our CAD-PRINTZ™ digital transfers as long as it is high resolution at full size (300 dpi or higher). Also for our digital transfers, vector artwork is perfectly acceptable as well.
If you are interested in our screen printed transfers, the printing process differs some. In this case, you can send us raster artwork, however, it will only be used as a guide from which the artwork will be recreated. Vector art is preferred for screen printing.
What do you need to print custom T-shirts and apparel?
Jun/117
We are in the planning stages for the 2012 custom transfer Idea Book™ and offerings and need your feedback. We want to help you to continue to have success selling custom apparel.
Is there clip art, colors, or a layout category you think we are missing?
Would you want additional number styles or colors?
Any problem applications we can help you solve?
Just leave us a comment below and we will look into implementing it!
Give us your feedback and ideas!
Cover Me – The Use of Cover Sheets for Transfer Application
May/110
Screen printed transfers come on their own cover sheet (the release paper they are printed on) so a cover sheet is typically not needed. However, occasionally you are putting a print on the same side as an already existing print which does necessitate the use of a cover sheet. Also, many types of digital transfers require a cover sheet (Transfer Express does include a cover sheet with every digital order).
There are three different types of cover sheets.
Reusable Cover Sheets are sheets coated with the non-stick surface used on pots and pans. It is the most durable and long lasting of the cover sheets, but also the most expensive. Reusable cover sheets will change the finish of the print, too, creating a shiny gloss finish. These sheets are the heaviest and will take about 10 degrees away from the application so you may need to compensate for the loss of temperature when using this type of cover sheet by increasing the temperature. The sheet is reusable and can easily be wiped down for the next use. These sheets are sold individually through Stahls ID. The sheet size is 18” x 20”.
Kraft Paper is another type of cover sheet sold by Stahls ID. It is sold in packs of 25, and is 15” x 19” size. Kraft paper is also reusable. Kraft paper does not change the finish of the print.
Transfer Express cover sheets are the least expensive and sold in packs of 10. The sheet size is 12.5” x 15” so it is the smallest of the three. These cover sheets are also reusable and do not change the finish of the print.
So all three cover sheets do the job making your choice dependent on the desired finish, size you need covered and your budget.
Choose from a Transfer Express cover sheet, Kraft Paper or reusable cover sheet
