The Creative Versa-Tool: BEST Garage Sale Find, Evarrr.

At first glance, it looked like a soldering iron.  What I didn't know then was what I held in my hands was the most awesome garage sale find.  Ever.  And what made it even more lovely was that all proceeds from the sale went to supporting a very worthy cause.

What made me look twice were the numerous interchangeable tips that made it look quite attractive compared to the soldering iron I already had.  When I saw the fine point, I was sold--with the idea of putting simple wood burning details on the faces of our gallivanting cake topper couple.  So when George said she was giving it for less than a thousand pesos (she had only used it a couple of times), and that all proceeds went to a charity she had been supporting for quite sometime now, we were sold!

See those tips?  Beautiful!

I haven't even begun to get my feet wet in woodworking, so I wasn't aware of Walnut Hollow, and the numerous woodworking tools and accessories they had.  Now that I have though, I'm kinda dying inside for a set of this:

You can never have too many craft alphabet tools.

So anyway, apart from the obvious wood burning powers of this wonderful tool, I read through its label more closely, and saw that the flat tip can be used for heat transferring patterns.  Having no knowledge of how to do this, and a project with a tight deadline, I decided to give it a shot.

Working with the Good Food Community on their first anniversary giveaways, we were able to conceptualize little paper seed packets that would have wallet-sized cards with grains--or seeds, if you will--of "wisdom" or tidbits of thought or goodwill, that when read and taken to heart, can possibly germinate into actions that are larger than what we think.

Okay, this particular batch of "seeds" were love-themed, and supplied by the awesome folks at GFC.  <3

We were inspired by vintage seed packets, and originally toyed with the idea of having a stamp created for the seed packet envelopes.  With time running short though, we turned to the tools we had to get the job done.

First, we printed out the design in mirror-image, then we reproduced the design using a photocopier.  We cut out the seed packet designs to be transferred, and voila--with the heat press tip on the Creative Versa-tool, the design magically transferred!

You have to press down at the back of the pattern to make sure it transfers properly.  I think the outcome also depends on the type of paper you use to transfer the pattern on.  

The finished product!

A nice, vintage-y print was created.  You have to be careful using the tool--handling it, and on what surface you'll be working on.  For this project, I was using the wooden surface of my silkscreen table.  I placed sheets of paper over the table surface before putting the envelopes on, to keep the wood from burning.

I was so thrilled, I did a bit of research on the tool, and saw someone use the heat transfer tip on cloth!  That would make an interesting experiment.  Can't wait to try it.

Yay for the Creative Versa-Tool heat transfer tip!

Thank you George for this awesome find.  :-)  Rest assured, it'll be used A LOT.

Photos are from the Walnut Hollow website and HSN.

Oooh, correction.  George says she's NEVER used the tool we dug up at her garage sale.  Wow.