The Ultimate Guide to Sublimation Printing & Crafting!

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Ever wonder how to get those gorgeous, multi-colored designs on your t-shirts, mugs, and more? It&#;s a process called sublimation printing and is becoming popular in the crafting community. Here is everything you need to know about sublimation crafting!

Crafting trends go in cycles, and right now sublimation is HOT! I let a lot of crafting trends pass me by (hello resin!) but I got hooked on sublimation printing and now it&#;s evolved into a full blown hobby for me!

Join our Sublimation Made Simple Facebook group for tips, tricks, support, and resources!

I recently converted an Epson Eco-Tank printer into a sublimation printer I use for all my own designs. Now that I&#;ve done a ton of my own experimenting, I feel ready to answer all of the sublimation questions that come my way. If you&#;re curious about getting started with sublimation printing or perhaps have a few questions, I&#;m sharing everything you need to know to get started today! Then in the upcoming weeks, I&#;ll be sharing tons of tutorials, troubleshooting posts, and more to help you become an amazing sublimation crafter. (See all new posts listed below)

Full disclosure: I do not plan to get super technical in the ways of sublimation technology, large professional printers, specialized heat presses, etc. I&#;m here to help you make an adorable photo mug for grandma or that perfect gift for a friend. You can likely run a small online or craft fair shop using my tips and tricks, however I am not going to be able to help you run a big, professional sublimation shop. There are amazing companies that provide great support if you&#;re looking for that kind of thing. Sublimation Summit is a fantastic resource!

That being said, I hope you find this post helpful and informative. If you have questions you don&#;t see here, feel free to let me know in the comments. I&#;m always happy to help!

You can check out all of the posts in my sublimation printing series here (this list is updated as more posts are added):

Sublimation for Beginners Video

Start by watching my introduction video, then read on for even more details!

What is Sublimation Printing?

This is the most commonly asked question, and for good reason! Sublimation printing can be confusing and it has its own language and can be quite scientific.

If you want to get scientific (and feel free to skip this section if you&#;re like, &#;OMG Cori, I just want to make a t-shirt&#;), we most often think of matter states in two ways:

• Solid to liquid to gas (through melting and then vaporizing)
• Gas to liquid to solid (through condensing and then freezing)

But there&#;s also another way. You can go from a solid directly to a gas in a process known as sublimation. (You can also go from gas to a solid, in a process called deposition&#;which is how frost forms on your car on a cold morning).

In simplest terms, you print a design using a sublimation printer, and then use high heat (a heat press, which we&#;ll talk about later) to turn the solid ink into a gas which infuses the design permanently onto your substrate. I&#;ll walk you through your first sublimation printing project in a future post!

If you&#;re on my blog, you may be familiar with Cricut products. Cricut Infusible Ink is sublimation product. Read more about Cricut Infusible Ink. It starts as a solid ink transfer sheet and then is heated to sublimate the ink onto the substrate, like with this mug:

The beauty of sublimation printing is that you can print and transfer nearly anything! You are not limited to the colors of iron on vinyl or Cricut Infusible Ink. Have a photo you&#;d like to turn into a keepsake? You can print and use the sublimation process to transfer it! You can also use your own design programs or download free or paid designs.

Can I Use My Current Inkjet Printer?

Unfortunately, no. The inkjet printer you&#;re already using in your home or office will not work for sublimation printing. However, many crafters are converting Epson EcoTank inkjet printers into sublimation printers! I&#;ll be sharing how I converted my Epson Eco-Tank printer to a sublimation printer in an upcoming post (all of these photos were taken before my conversion). (See all new posts listed above).

You will want a NEW printer&#;specifically an Epson EcoTank printer&#;to do this. While it&#;s technically possible to clean an existing EcoTank printer, the process is difficult and results are hit or miss. So my recommendation is a new printer, all the way.

You can also purchase a specialized sublimation printer, however, they cost more and are geared toward those running sublimation businesses. Swing Design has a bunch of Sawgrass printer bundles, if you&#;d like to go the more professional route.

Do I Need a Cricut Machine?

No, you actually don&#;t need a Cricut machine! Yes, I know most of my tutorials here are for Cricut crafting, but all you need is a design, a printer, and a heat source, which we&#;ll talk about in the next section. You can, of course, use your Cricut if you&#;re using Infusible Ink specifically.

What Materials Do I Need for Sublimation Printing?

In order to successfully transfer an image from your printed design to substrate (i.e. blank), you need three basic items. I&#;ll review them below and provide you with a few options.

1. A Printer with Sublimation Ink

As I mentioned before, you can&#;t print with just any old printer. The most popular option is to purchase an Epson EcoTank printer and convert it to a sublimation printer. You will also need specialized sublimation ink. The inks I use are fairly inexpensive and work well with the converted Epson printer.

That being said, you can purchase a fancy sublimation printer. However, there are more costly and ink typically costs hundreds of dollars to replace. These printers come with their own software and are geared more toward the professional sublimation printer, rather than a hobby printer. I&#;m really focusing here on sublimation printing for crafting.

2. A Heat Press

Sublimation ink is transferred through high heat. Unfortunately, your household iron won&#;t do the trick. It doesn&#;t get hot enough.

Here are a few that I have used:

There are other options as well, like using mug wraps in a convection oven or SubliShrink and a heat gun. Depending on interest, I can do posts on those things as well!

3. Sublimation Paper

You need a special type of paper for your sublimation printer. Regular printer paper just won&#;t do the trick. Sublimation paper is meant to withstand high temperatures and release the ink during the transfer process. I will compare different brands in a future post, but I&#;ve been using Hiipoo and have good results.

How is Sublimation Different than Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV / Iron-On) or Printable HTV?

Heat transfer vinyl simply sits on top of your shirt or blank item, while the sublimation printing process actually infuses the ink into the fibers/surface of your item. That is what makes it permanent. If you&#;d like to see a project using both, check out this Summer T-Shirt.

While you can print directly on printable HTV and then use your Cricut to cut out the design, it acts the same way plain HTV does, being iron onto the substrate instead of into the substrate. While this may be a cheaper alternative to sublimation printing, after a while your design may start to crack or peel&#;even if you do everything right.

If you want a multi-colored, permanent image transferred into a shirt (or any sublimation-ready substrate), then sublimation printing will be your best bet!

How is Sublimation Different than Cricut Infusible Ink?

Like I mentioned above, Cricut Infusible Ink is a sublimation product. Both sublimation prints and Cricut Infusible Ink need heat to turn the ink into a gas and infuse the product.

Cricut Infusible Ink is a bit more limited, though. You can use either sheets of solid/patterned infusible ink, which you need to cut with a Cricut machine, or Infusible Ink markers to draw/color and image. For example, I made these Summer Coasters using four different Cricut Infusible Ink transfer sheets. I created the design but the colors were not editable&#;these are the colors of the actual sheets.

While you can make beautiful products with both, sublimation printing is limitless. You can print nearly any color and pattern with detail you just can&#;t achieve with transfer sheets or markers alone.

What Kind of Substrates Can I Sublimate?

There are sublimation blanks available for almost anything, from t-shirts, to keychains, to tumblers, and more. For an item to work with sublimation ink, it needs to be primarily polyester or have a special poly-coating. For example, your standard household mug won&#;t work because it doesn&#;t have the special poly-coating. I&#;ve compiled a list of the most popular sublimation blanks, which I&#;ll be sharing in an upcoming post. (See all new posts listed above).

Typically for clothing and apparel items, you want at least 75% polyester. You can go down to 50% but any lower than that and your ink may fade over time. The lower the polyester makeup, the more &#;vintage&#; and less bright your final design will appear.

Sublimation blanks are often referred to as substrates. You may see me use the word interchangeably throughout this blog post and future ones.

Can I Sublimate a Cotton Shirt or Regular Coffee Mug?

As mentioned above, in order to sublimate, the material needs to be mostly polyester or poly-coated. A standard coffee mug won&#;t work. It does not have the coating, which allows the ink to be directly infused into the mug. A poly-coated mug looks just like a regular one, though! So be careful not to mix them up.

If you are looking for more details, kindly visit Dye Sublimation Consumables.

Cotton shirts cannot be sublimated on directly. However, you can purchase a sublimation coating spray for use on shirts. This coating allows you to sublimate on materials you wouldn&#;t normally be able to. I have a test of a few different brands to share soon as well!

How Much Does Sublimation Printing Cost?

Costs can vary, however, the largest cost will always be your printer and ink. The printer is, of course, a one-time cost, but you will need to replace ink over time. An Epson Eco-Tank printer and Printers Jack ink for example, will cost you a few hundred dollars. A professional grade sublimation printer and ink, however, can cost thousands of dollars. It honestly depends on what brands you choose.

Then your other costs are substrates, which range from super inexpensive to quite pricey. My favorite place to purchase is Heat Transfer Warehouse, though I&#;ve found a lot of good blanks on Amazon as well. If you&#;re going to be be sublimating a lot of the substrate, make sure to buy in bulk to save money.

As mentioned before, I am a hobby sublimation printer, so I don&#;t need anything super fancy. I plan to stick to the basics and try to share products I believe are reasonable for crafters!

I hope you found this sublimation overview helpful! Stay tuned for more sublimation posts in the upcoming days, including how to convert that Epson EcoTank printer so you can get started on your sublimation crafting journey too! (See all new posts listed above).

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Learn all about the sublimation supplies, tools, and blanks recommended for crafters!

Sublimation printing is very popular for many crafters due to its vibrant colors and durability. From mugs to t-shirts, sublimation printing is a great way to create colorful products that stand out and last a long time. But where do you start when it comes to finding the right supplies? Read on to learn more about what you need to get started with sublimation printing. Here is where you&#;ll find all of my recommended sublimation supplies, tools, and blanks!

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This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience (which means if you make a purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission but it won&#;t cost you a penny more)! Read my full disclosure policy.

Sublimation Ink

Sublimation ink is required for sublimation crafting. You can get sublimation ink in different forms &#; as sublimation ink that goes into a sublimation printer, as sublimation ink in pens and markers that you can write out yourself or with a machine like a Cricut, sublimation ink in paints and stamp pads, or as printed transfer sheets that you cut into designs. Here are my recommendations for each one:

Sublimation Printers

If you get ink, you also need a sublimation printer. Dye sublimation printers differ from inkjet printers in that it uses special inks that are designed for sublimation printing. These are typically pigment-based, allowing them to withstand higher temperatures without breaking down or fading over time. Plus, since these inks are heat activated, they won&#;t run or smudge when exposed to moisture. If you&#;re just starting out, you may want to look into converting an inkjet printer such as the Epson EcoTank Printer. Converting an EcoTank is perfect for smaller projects and won&#;t break the bank either!

Tip: If you don&#;t want to invest in a sublimation printer yet, you can simply buy sublimation prints from Etsy &#; here&#;s a seller that will print a sublimation design for you to transfer.

Sublimation Paper

This type of paper is specially designed to work with sublimation inks and withstand the heat of pressing. It&#;s available in different weights and sizes depending on your project requirements.

• Recommended Sublimation Paper for General Purposes: A-SUB 125g
• Recommended Paper for Full Wrap Tumblers and Tiling Full Coverage Prints: A-SUB 105g

Sublimation Blanks

Another essential part of any sublimation setup is the blanks or substrates you&#;ll be using. There are all sorts of different types of sublimation blanks and materials available such as ceramic mugs, t-shirts, key chains, and so much more! Polyester counts are important too; be sure whatever material you choose is at least 65% polyester for the best results. If it&#;s not fabric, make sure it has a sublimation coating on it. Here are some of our favorite places and small businesses with years of experience to find blanks:

Tip: If you&#;re just starting out, some inexpensive 100% polyester fabric or sublimation garden flags are a great way to just test and play.

Heat Press

Once you have your printer and blanks sorted out, it&#;s time to consider what kind of heat press you need. There are several types available including traditional flat presses, mug presses, and convection ovens depending on your needs. It&#;s very important that whatever heat source you use, it can get up to at least 400°F in order to activate the sublimation process. For most projects though, we recommend a good quality flat heat press like the Cricut EasyPress or the Cricut AutoPress if your budget allows it! These will give you uniform pressure across your entire project which helps ensure crisp edges and smooth color transitions. Here are the recommended heat presses I&#;ve tried and love:

Tape, Protection, and Pressing Pads

There&#;s a few more supplies you&#;ll need for the best sublimation transfers. First, heat-resistant tape keeps your items perfectly placed on the transfer paper so that they don&#;t move around during pressing or after they have been pressed. Second, blowout paper prevents your designs from sticking to the bottom of the press or transferring onto the pressing pad. Here&#;s what I recommend for that:

I also recommend these accessories:

Sublimation printing supplies can seem overwhelming at first but once you know what you need it becomes much easier! Start by investing in a good quality printer capable of handling dye sublimation inks as well as some compatible blanks like T-shirts made from at least 65% polyester fibers for best results. Then add in a heat press that gets hot enough along with some simple blanks like key chains, mouse pads, or travel mugs and you&#;ll be ready to start creating beautiful sublimated products! From choosing the right type of paper and inks to finding the right blanks for your project&#;you now have all the info needed at your fingertips!

Sublimation Manual

One more thing you may find really helpful is a &#;manual.&#; Well, it&#;s not really a manual, so much as a COOKBOOK! I&#;ve tested hundreds of sublimation blanks, figured out the right times and temperatures and pressures for them, and put all of my results into a book called Sublimation Cookbook. It&#;s a collection of handy, one-page &#;recipes&#; for over 150 popular sublimation projects. Learn more and get free Sublimation Cookbook pages here!

Get my free sublimation test design and lots of free sublimation designs:

Please share your sublimation projects and ask your questions in my Sublimation Made Easy Facebook group where you&#;ll find over 100,000 sublimation crafters like you, sharing their tips, projects, and inspiration.

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