Expert: Valerie Randall - 12/2/2006

Question
Hello,

We wanted to make some home-made gifts for the holidays and thought that using iron on transfer paper would be a good idea to make shirts and other things with cotton fabric.  I was wondering if you could use that paper on different materials other than cotton, such as foam (the material used for drink koozies).  Any help or referrals would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

Answer
Hi Sarah,

I think that's a manufacturer question. I believe that those papers are specifically and chemically created to work with high heat on cotton. Applying that product to a foam (plastic) would most likely result in a melted mess. Dangerous, maybe a fire hazard, would certainly ruin your iron.

You might want to do an online search and see if there any products designed to work with plastics aside for going to silkscreening.

One idea might be to create travel mugs. This can just be printed out on paper. Here's a link for a template:
http://www.scrapgirls.com/store/product.php?id=1911&cat=

Happy holidays.
Valerie