DIY Double Sided Table Runner for Thanksgiving and Christmas

I hope you haven’t mailed your Christmas List to Santa yet, because you’re going to want to add this tool to the top of it after you read this! The adjustable marker holder, made by Chomas Creations fits into your Silhouette blade holder so you can use almost ANY marker of ANY brand. You’re not limited to Silhouette Sketch Pens! Now you might be thinking, “That’s great news, Lily, but what do markers have to do with HTV??” Well if you’ve ever weeded Glitter HTV, then you know finding the cut lines can be challenging. Rolling the material can reveal them, or weeding on top of a lighted surface is helpful, but the best way to see your cut lines is to draw them with your craft cutter. And that’s what I’m going to show you guys how to do today!

Rolling Glitter heat transfer vinyl shows the cut lines.

How to Sketch Cut Lines with the Adjustable Marker Holder

The adjustable marker holder fits perfectly into any Silhouette machine’s blade holder. Lock it in and then place the popsicle stick (included with purchase) underneath. The popsicle stick is your guide to how far the marker should stick out. It needs to be out far enough to draw on the HTV, but not so far that it drags and draws extra lines. I used a regular sharpie, and when it just touched the stick, I tightened the black screw to hold the marker’s position. Chomas Creations makes a marker holder for the Cricut machines as well, so the basics of this method can be applied for those cutters too.

A ratchet blade in Tool 1 and the Adjustable Marker Holder in Tool 2.

Now that our blade and marker are set up, I can get my cut file ready in Silhouette Studio. I want to cut 1 with drawn cut lines and 1 without, so I made 3 copies of “Gather.” Two of the copies have red outlines that coordinate with Tool 1 (ratchet blade) and will be cut. The copy that has a black fill and blue outline will be drawn by Tool 2. Make sure to change Tool 2‘s Action to “Sketch”  and bring the Force down to 1 for best results. If your design is particularly intricate you may want to slow the speed down as well.

The cut settings pictured are a modified version of our recommended cut settings since my blade is slightly worn.

Now that my text and tools are set up in the Send panel, go back to the Design panel and use the Alignment Tools to center the sketch layer directly on top of the cut layer.

The Send screen should now appear like this, so you’re ready to cut (and draw!) The top “Gather” will be drawn and cut while the bottom will only be cut.

Notice how the text appears backwards in Silhouette Studio? This is a necessary step when cutting designs from HTV because the material is cut from the back. This means the pretty Glitter side with the clear carrier on top goes face down on your cutting mat while the adhesive back is exposed to the marker and blade. The blade will cut all the lines then the marker will go back and draw directly on top of them, so you can see where to weed. The Cameo 3’s dual carriage makes this process super easy. But you could do it with a single tool holder by cutting (do NOT unload the mat) and switching the blade to a marker then sketching over the cut lines.

Can you spot the cut lines? Even though they were cut with the same settings, the heat transfer vinyl on the right is going to be a much quicker weeding job since there’s no guesswork involved.

Use your Siser® Weeder to pick out the cavities and remove the outer excess. When cut correctly, the clear carrier will still be intact. For our recommended cut settings check out the Glitter product page or the Siser® North America app. Just keep in mind that a newer blade will need lower cut settings and an older blade will need high cut settings, but a test cut will help you find your best options.

How easy was that?! Quicker weeding means it’s already time to heat apply!

How to Iron on Glitter Heat Transfer Vinyl to Burlap

The first step in decorating burlap is to make sure there are no wrinkles in the fabric. Since burlap requires steam to flatten out make sure to run a dry iron over the smooth burlap afterwards to remove lingering moisture. Moisture in the fabric will prevent the heat transfer vinyl from fully bonding to the fabric.

When the burlap is prepped, place the first Glitter color with the carrier side up (the tacky side of the carrier should be touching the fabric.) Place a heat transfer cover sheet on top and press firmly in sections for 15 seconds. My iron is set to “Cotton” and is the typically recommended setting for Siser® products.

Remove the carrier while it’s warm, and repeat the process with the next color.

To make your table runner transition from fall to winter without hitch, decorate the reverse side using the same process outlined above.

Now you have 1 table runner with 2 decorated sides so changing the Thanksgiving decor to Christmas decorations is one step simpler this year!

If you loved this DIY double sided table runner idea then pin the image below.

Don’t forget this great weeding trick! Pin the image below.

P.S. EasyWeed® can also be applied to burlap. Check out the video here.