DIY Baby Blanket Tutorial with Silhouette CAMEO and Electric Heat Transfer Vinyl

I've been scratching my head recently trying to think of a unique baby boy gift for a friend's second baby.  I came across the baby month blankets that are gaining popularity right now - but still cool and different...and then the inspiration hit!  I love when I can take an idea and totally make it my own which is what I did with this Texas theme baby blanket!

This is a sponsored post, but all opinions are my own.

My struggle with this project was the fact that while I had a whole set of this beautiful new (as in just released yesterday) Easyweed Electric Heat Transfer Vinyl from Expressions Vinyl...I only had 12x12" sheets in each color.  (Believe me you want all the colors - they're all stunning!  You can check out Expressions Vinyl's full selection of Siser Easyweed Electric HTV here.)




The muslin blanket I was working with was 45"x45" which means the design needs to be pretty big! Fortunately I have a few tricks up my sleeve and was able to pull off the baby month blanket with just two 12x12 sheets of the electric htv (and one more for the horseshoe).

I started creating the design in Silhouette Studio by using the Draw a Box tool to draw out a box the was the exact same size as the blanket.   Then I added the numbers, "months", and name to the blanket to sized them.  In an effort to make this blanket even more custom, I changed out the "4" for Texas, since the family is from Texas.  This also helped determine the colors of Electric HTV I would use: red and blue.

Now...clearly both the red and the blue portions are larger than what would fit on a 12x12" sheet of HTV so I had to get a little creative.  This is where the nesting tool in Silhouette Studio Designer Edition comes in really handy. Before you start nesting though - make a copy of the entire design - you'll need both versions!

Move one set off to the side and only work with the other.  Now you'll want to ungroup everything  with the exception of double-digit numbers.  Select all shapes in the same color (red) and click "Nest - On Cut Area".

Want to learn more about nesting in Silhouette Studio? Check out the Silhouette Studio Nesting tutorials for beginners.

The software automatically positions the selected shapes to fit into the smallest possible area on the cutting area.  The same process was done with the blue designs.  The best part is there's very little waste and I only used two sheets so I have all the rest of this awesome HTV to make lots of other projects!




I then sent both to cut.  The default HTV-Smooth settings in Silhouette Studio worked perfectly with a blade on a 2.  Of course you'll want to test cut though to ensure you don't waste an entire sheet of this specialty heat transfer vinyl by cutting with the wrong settings.

Once cut, I weeded the designs.

They weeded easily and quickly.  I then cut apart all of the letters and numbers so I could prepare them to be applied to the blanket.

Of course, the problem you face now is that all the letters and numbers are scrambled up.  In order to get them correctly placed on the blanket I would have to do a whole lot of measuring and waste a whole bunch of time trying to get them perfect and I'm sure my OCD would kick in because it wasn't exactly perfect.  That's where the genius HTV and Freezer Paper trick comes in handy!

I re-cut the copy of the design (with a small offset) that was still set up exactly how I want my blanket to look on freezer paper.  For this cut I did not mirror the design!! This freezer paper will act as a placement guide for my HTV.  You can read up on exactly how and why you'll want to use this freezer paper HTV hack in this Silhouette School tutorial.

Once everything was cut I was all ready to apply the freezer paper and then the electric heat transfer vinyl to my muslin baby blanket using my heat press.

Just look at how pretty this electric htv is...

After the HTV was placed on the blanket I was struck with a stroke of genius (kidding).  Instead of using a picture frame or some other type of marker to indicate the baby's month milestone, I decided a horseshoe would be perfect!  And guess-stinkin-what!!! You can put HTV on chipboard, as I found out!

I found a horseshoe shape and traced it in Silhouette Studio.  I made sure to size it in Studio so it would fit around the numbers when placed on the blanket. Then I cut out five copies of the horseshoe on Silhouette chipboard.  I ran four of the chipboard horseshoes through my Xyron to apply adhesive to one side so I could stack them.

The last step was to cut the same horseshoe design out of the gold Electric HTV - twice - and use my heat press to apply it to either side of the chipboard horseshoe.

I set the temperature for about 280 an applied pressure for about 15 seconds.  It turned out great!



Now every month the baby can be laid down on the blanket and the horseshoe can be moved around the appropriate month age of the baby!

And I officially have love the size of Texas for this baby months blanket.

Want to get your hands on some of this awesome Electric Heat Transfer Vinyl you can grab it now from Expressions Vinyl! Go make a DIY baby blanket or some other awesome custom creation wit your Silhouette CAMEO or Portrait!
 Note: This post may contain affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing products through my links, I receive a small commission. That's what helps fund Silhouette School so I can keep buying new Silhouette-related products to show you how to get the most out of your machine!

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