Supplies:

1. Puffy HTV

2. Normal HTV or Iron on vinyl

3. Sweatshirt with at least 50% cotton. I bought my sweatshirt from Michaels.

4. Heat source. The clam shell heat press is best because it can provide more pressure, which will make your 3D vinyl puff up more.

5. A wood board, like a cutting board.

6. Lint brush

7. Cricut machine or similar machine to cut vinyl design.

8. My design

9. Optional: shirt guide.

10. Optional: weeding tools

Steps:

1. Select which design you would like to use, then delete or hide all other pieces of the design you do not want to use at this time.

2. If you would like to add names on the sleeve, then add all the names now. I used the font buttermilk.

3. Measure your sweatshirt or clothing you are applying this design too and size everything accordingly. I used a medium size sweatshirt and made my design 10 inches wide since it was a smaller design. For the name on the sleeve I made it 2 inches wide, but this may vary depending on the length of the name.

4. Cut out all HTV pieces according to their packaging. Make sure to mirror your HTV design typically.

• Normal HTV should typically be placed shinny side down. Usually puffy vinyl is placed shiny side up, however the puffy vinyl I used needed to be placed shiny side down. Just identify which side has the carrier sheet (clear protective sheet) and place that side down on your mat.
• I used iron on vinyl as my setting to cut both my normal HTV as well as my puffy HTV. I also selected more pressure.
• Before unloading your mat/material make sure the cuts have gone all the way through the vinyl, but not the carrier sheet. If not, then hit the go button again to run the cuts another time.
• Sister HTV is not mirrored. You place the patterned side up. Once it is cut out you will need to weed out the unwanted areas, then transfer your design to the provided carrier sheets, similarly to how you transfer normal vinyl to a transfer sheet.

5. weed out any unwanted areas of your design.

6. Use a lint brush to remove any extra lint and hairs on the shirt.

7. Preheat your shirt at 305 Fahrenheit for 30 seconds. I did 315 F since that was what I needed for the normal HTV. For the best result with the puffy HTV you need to insure all the moister is out of the shirt, that is why it is good to preheat the shirt longer than usual.

• Apply all of the normal HTV first as you normally would. Heat set to 315 Fahrenheit for 30 seconds. The carrier sheet should be facing up. Wait for it to cool before removing the carrier sheet. Apply more heat if needed.
•  Place your puffy HTV then place the HTV carrier sheets back over the normal HTV to insure it is protected from the heat source.

8. For the puffy HTV place the wood board under your shirt. A solid and hard surface like a wood cutting board works best for this type of vinyl.

• Puffy HTV should only be pressed one time otherwise it will lose some of it’s puff. So, try to press all of your puff HTV in one go or ensure it will not get pressed a second time when pressing another area.

9. Puff HTV should be pressed at 305 Fahrenheit for 10 seconds, with lots of pressure. The key to getting puff HTV to puff up is to apply a lot of pressure to it. The wood cutting board also helps with this.

10. Remove the carrier sheet while it is still warm. Your puffy vinyl should look puffy right away.

11. Wait at least 24 hours before washing your shirt. To wash the shirt, turn it inside out and hang dry it.

It is a lot of fun to watch the puffy vinyl puff up immediately. It looks like regular vinyl until the heat is added. This puff did not puff up as much as my previous shirt, because there was not a lot of area to see the puff. It also helps if you use a clam shell heat press instead of the easy press, because the more pressure you can apply while it is being heated, the more it will puff up.

I also forgot that some HTV shrinks a little when heated. So, you may want to make the inside letters slightly larger to compensate for this. If you use the same type/brand of HTV to make this shirt, then they should shrink the same, in which case you should not have to do anything, but just remember when lining up your second layer of HTV that they will not fit exactly till the heat is added.

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