Sublimating My First Tumbler

I started FlingsTees by making T-shirts with vinyl to fundraise for my Olympic journey. I never thought about learning how to make other items or taking the idea and trying to make it into a business. I am still in the early stages of setting up my business and looking for ways to make it profitable. That’s (unfortunately for me) the boring stuff, I love learning how to make things and I dedicate most of my time to that. I’m still working on finding a balance between learning, marketing and selling. I pray I’ll be able to find that balance.

Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of makers and creators on YouTube doing sublimation. I did a lot of research, ie watching entirely too much Youtube and decided to try my hand at it. I knew I wanted to decorate mugs and shirts. After making some sales with my T-shirts, I decided to take the leap and buy a sublimation printer and a mug press.

I’ve made a lot of mugs and though I still need a lot of practice, It’s definitely coming along. I’ve even been able to sell some! I bought a tumbler attachment along with the mug press and have been yearning to learn to make tumblers. After another course at Youtube University, I finally ordered some blank tumblers to decorate. I made a bunch of mistakes, and wasted a lot of ink and paper but finally finished the product. I’m always scared of imperfections and always hard on myself when the finished product has mistakes. I constantly have to remind myself of something a mentor and friend said to me last year “done is better than perfect”, as I would never actually put any of the skills I learn to physically produce anything if I don’t take the leap, imperfections and all. I’m glad I allowed myself to push ahead and try something new, albeit slower than I probably should. Here is the first tumbler I completed! Can you spot the Flingstees logo on the tumbler?

check out @FlingsTees and @Flingstones on IG to see a reel of how the tumbler was made!