Sara Nicole Designs: DIY 4th of July Kitchen Towels

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

DIY 4th of July Kitchen Towels

One of my favorite holidays is 4th of July! I love to decorate the outside of my house and the inside of my house. I'm always on the look out for great 4th of July decorations, especially at Hobby Lobby, Target and Marshalls. My collection of decoration is growing and i'm ok with that.

One day while strolling through the dollar section at target, i'm sure with a Starbucks, I saw this set of 2 Kitchen towels. For $3, I couldn't pass it up! They were perfect for the 4th, and I had an idea to use Chalk Couture Ink to add a little extra to them.

I'll show you how I made them!

Supplies needed:

-Kitchen Towels - I got mine in the dollar section- 2 towels for $3!

-Chalk Couture Ink - I used Cadet and Candy Apple

-Chalk Couture Small Squeegee

-631 Vinyl

-Cutting Machine- I use a Silhouette Machine

-Transfer tape - I use clear shelf protector for the dollar store!

-Parchment paper

-Heat Press or Iron

Step 1: Get your towels ready- remove all tags and press them if needed if they are wrinkly.

Step 2: Choose your designs that you want to add and cut them with your cutting machine. I chose Let Freedom Ring by Dawn Nicole Designs and Retro July 4th by Sophie Gallo. When getting ready to cut your design, you make have to tweak it a bit. With the design - Let Freedom Ring- I had to remove the outer cutting line from the design. I learned this by cutting it and trying to weed it, and figuring it out the hard way.

Step 3: Reverse weed the design. Once all the weeding is complete, adhere transfer tape on the top on the design. Press it down firmly with your scraper.

Step 4: Place the design on the towel where you would like it. Press it down firmly with the scraper over and over and over. Start to lift the transfer tape up from the top and carefully pull down, watching out for the small pieces. You may need to take the end of the scraper and hold down the small pieces to keep them from lifting. After you have completely lifted the transfer tape up, I like to place a piece of parchment paper over it and run the scraper over it again just to make sure they all adhere to the towel. Place wash tape around the edge of the design to make sure you don't get ink on the towel.

Step 5: Time to INK! Grab your ink and open it up. Stir it well. Always stir! Dip your squeegee into the color and run over your design carefully. There is not mesh with this design so you can't be rough with it.

Step 6: Once you have completely inked your design, remove the washi tape first and then the vinyl from the top and pulling it down. Now take a sharp weeding tool and remove the small pieces that are left behind.

Step 7: Let it dry or use a dryer to dry it out if you want to use them ASAP. I always let them dry over night. But I did just buy a heat gun so maybe that will change ;)

Step 8: Once dry, now you heat set them. That way you can wash them and the design won't come off. I use a Cricut Heat Press but you can use an iron if you don't have one. I set my heat press to 300 degrees and set a 30 second time.