My new Yudu, and my first not-so perfect shirts.

Hello All!

Last August, I went to the Circle meet-up in Wisconsin. At the meet-up we used the YUDU machine and made shirts and tote bags there with the Circle Logo on it. I was immediately smitten and I had flashes of all the fantastic things I could make with the YUDU. This was the beginning of my obsession with getting a YUDU. It took a while to convince my hubby that I needed this machine. He wasn't really buying it, but when I found out that Michaels was having a special on the YUDU for 100 bucks...well he finally gave in. Yipee!

So I parked my booty outside Michael's a full 30 minutes before they opened on Thursday, just to be sure that I got one! I laughed all the way home from the store on the super high you only get when you know you scored a great deal on a toy you really wanted!

Well fast forward 36 hours after coming home with my new treasure and some of my euphoria has worn off. Sigh..

Well I watched the entire DVD that came with the machine as well as numerous videos on YouTube. I felt like I could attempt a project. I was scared of using the emulsion sheets because they are pretty pricey, so I tried to use vinyl.

WELL...that didn't go so well. My vinyl's adhesive wasn't strong enough to stand up to the ink.

OK..Second attempt with a different vinyl...NOPE...

Okay, for my third attempt I used one of the emulsion sheets....ummmm... NOPE, and let em tell you..THAT HURT! Wasting an entire $10.00 sheet of emulsion because I didn't have the screen wet enough. I figured out that I didn't have it adhered to the screen well enough, so it just washed right off. I have since learned that my screen needed to be much wetter than I had it the first time so....

Attempt #4...Second and last sheet of emulsion. It appears that I correctly adhered the emulsion and burned my image on it OK. At least mostly OK.

I attempted to pull a screen onto some scrap material I had and the ink bled all over. I think the material was not absorbent enough for the ink to stick to it to well. When I tried to pull another screen on the back of a old tshirt, the image came out better, but there was some haloing effect in certain areas that had bled in the first attempt. I think, now that the screen had extra ink on the material side from the first attempt, so I washed offthe screen and re-dried it in the machine.

Well over an hour later, and I again tried to make a shirt. The same thing happened, but to a lesser degree. I have come to the conclusion that my emulsion wasn't perfect and some of the edges are loose. I pulled a few shirts as a trial and I am only getting a small halo effect in the loose areas. Luckily these were meant to be sleep shirts anyway, so the girls don't really care, but I obviously need to practice some more.



My friend, Missie, over at Created By Missie, also just got a YUDU and she used an outdoor vinyl to make her screen, and it worked perfectly, so I have ordered some GT5 Vinyl and as soon as it arrives I will be trying that technique.

Also as I was washing the ink off of my screen for the second time, some of the Emulsion was starting to peel up, so it really cinfirmed that the emulsion wasn't on that great.

I will say, my first attempt was very much a let down, but I am certainly not giving up on screen-printing just yet.

I welcome any tips or techniques anyone has to offer, as I am beginner, but I really want to make the most of the YUDU.

Thanks

Have a Great and Crafty Day