DIY Glitter Banners

Hey friends! Have you guys all adjusted after Daylight Savings Time yet? I’m still struggling a little bit – that extra hour really makes all the difference! Can’t say that I’m upset that we now get an extra daylight of hour in the evening, though. Now hubby and I can take walks after he gets home from work without being in complete darkness 🙂

I’ve been playing around more with my Silhouette and finally got my eager little hands on some glitter heat transfer material (!!) Oh my goodness, even fresh out of the box, this material is gorgeous. I just knew I had to use it STAT for a project. So, I may or may not get super into it whenever Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off” comes on the radio. I’ll admit it. Her songs are super catchy and “Shake it Off” is probably my favorite. It’s such a feel-good song and I actually really feel empowered whenever I listen to it. Haters gonna hate! And I shouldn’t care – I just need to shake it off and go to the beat of my own drum and be the best I can be. I try to take that outlook with the blog, and with my life in general. You gotta do you! In a similar vein, I’ve been watching Emma Watson’s HeForShe interview on FB, and if you want to feel empowered, you should definitely take a listen! At any rate, I thought I would take my gold glitter heat transfer material and make a banner to remind myself to let negativity roll off my back and to be confident in who I am!

DIY Glitter Banner Materials

– Glitter Heat Transfer Material in desired color

– Silhouette CAMEO

– Fabric

– Iron

– Old washcloth

– Dowels

– Hot glue

– String or ribbon

Step 1

I started off by opening up my Silhouette Studio software and spelling out my phrase. I also decided to make a couple other fun banners while I was at it (so as not to waste extra heat transfer material by only having a few letters on it) so I filled in the open space with some other shapes I downloaded from the Silhouette store. Knowing that I wanted these to be mini banners, I made sure all of my text and images weren’t more than 6 inches wide.

Step 2

This step is SUPER important – you need to make sure that you flip your text and images – otherwise when you go to iron it on it will be backwards! To do this, click on your text or image, click ‘Object’ in the tool bar, then select ‘Mirror’ and then ‘Flip Horizontally.’ This will give you a mirror image of your text so that you’ll be able to iron it on the right way!

Step 3

Configure your cutting settings! According to Silhouette School, your best bet for settings is to have the blade at 4 (or 3), your speed at 4, and your thickness at 18. I also selected the Flocked Heat Transfer Material setting, just to be extra precise.

Step 4

Load your glitter heat transfer material into your Silhouette Cameo by hitting ‘Load Media’ – no need for a cutting mat here! Just like with regular vinyl, the HTM can be fed straight into the machine! Make sure that the glossy shiny side is down and the duller matte side is up! Make sure your blade has been clicked to 4 and that the rollers are down. Then hit ‘Send to Silhouette’ on your computer and let ‘er go!

Step 5

Once the Cameo is finished running, hit ‘Unload’ and then cut out and weed around your text and images. Be careful when peeling away excess material, sometimes it will still stick to the cut edges. You don’t want to accidentally rip your project apart!

Step 6

I made a template for my glitter banners, using some cardboard. Feel free to freehand or make a similar template. Trace around your banner shaped cardboard onto any fabric you choose, using a pen. I just used some thin white fabric I had lying around the house. Then  cut out the shapes with some sharp fabric shears. Now on to Ironing!

Step 7

Take your weeded images and text and then place them with the dull side down and the glossy shiny side facing up. Place an old towel or t-shirt over the top of your design and then set a hot iron on top of it. I had mine set to 6 or the cotton setting.

It really takes a lot of heat for the design to transfer, so just leave your iron sitting on top of the towel without moving it around. I know that sounds crazy, but it works best if you let it sit for a couple seconds then move it a little and let it sit again. Just make sure to never leave the room while you are doing this!! My towel didn’t get scorched or burned at all, but if you left it and forgot about it, you could definitely start a fire! So please, please, for the the love of all that is good and holy, don’t do that.

Step 8

Remove your towel or t-shirt and peel off the plastic layer that is on top of your glitter heat transfer vinyl. It should come away relatively easily while your design stays in place on your fabric. If you notice the glitter starting to peel up, put the plastic sheet back down and do a little more ironing.

Step 9

Take your wooden dowels and hot glue the tops of your banners over them. I just used one big dowel from Michaels and was able to cut it into 3 equal sections for my mini banners. Just do little thin lines of hot glue or even fabric glue and press and hold in place.

Step 10

The last step is to take your string/twine/ribbon, and knot it around the ends of your dowel. Voila! Now I’ve got some cute woodland glitter banners and a fancy Shake It Off glitter banner to keep me feeling empowered and upbeat!

Here are all 3 of my mini DIY glitter banners completed:

I’m really happy with how they turned out! I’m now a BIG fan of glitter heat transfer material – I just want to get it in every color 🙂

There were a couple of different places that I tried my Shake it Off banner – which one do you think works best? I think I like it in my bedroom above my wood crate console table. That way I can see it when I wake up in the morning!

I decided to hang the fox banner and the antler banner on either side of my fireplace – don’t they go so nicely with my wood slice fireplace insert?? I think they just really add to the look I’m going for. Now to get rid of that dark green wall!

I’m definitely going to be making more awesome projects with the glitter heat transfer material – it just embodies all of my favorite things! What should I use it on next?

What song do you totally have on repeat right now? Other than “Shake it Off” I’m really digging “Uptown Funk!” 🙂