I sent out a new password to access the free adult coloring sheets page yesterday. In the email I mentioned several ways these sheets could be used besides as a coloring sheet. One idea was to use them as iron transfers for fabric. Today I’m going to show you how to reverse a PDF document without Adobe & get it ready to transfer to fabric.
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Reversing a PDF Document
If you have Adobe Acrobat, reversing an image is easy because it’s in the edit options. Most people {like me!} use Adobe Acrobat Reader, which doesn’t really have any editing options because it’s free. All of my coloring sheets are in PDF format, so I’m going to show ya’ll a little trick to reverse the images. The first thing to do is open the file you want to reverse & set the size to 100% or Actual Size.
This is very important if you want your image to be the correct size! Next, click on Edit, then Take a Snapshot.
Start at the top corner & window around the whole image. A box will pop up to let you know the area has been copied to your clipboard. {I have my size at a different percentage in the following pictures to make it easier for y’all to see}
Click OK. Now open Paint, which is found on most computers, even my laptop! I usually just type in “paint” in the search bar to find the program.
Once it’s open, click on the Paste button to add the copied image.
I like to go to the File menu & open Properties to make sure my size is appropriate to the image. Be sure to check Inches under Units instead of Pixels. You can also set it to the paper size to see how the image will fit.
If all that looks good, click on Rotate & Flip Horizontal. This will give you the mirror image!
When it’s time to print, go to the File menu & click the arrow beside Print & choose Print Preview.
If things are looking funky, click on Page Setup to make some adjustments. I set all Margins to “0” & center the image horizontally & vertically. Also, make sure to select Portrait or Landscape as needed.
Once print is selected, you may want to make some changes to your Printing Preferences as well. I selected “HP Iron-On Transfer” for my Paper Type & Normal for Print Quality.
This should give you the mirror image you need for fabric transfers! It took me a minute to figure out that size thing, so hopefully I worked out all the kinks for y’all!
Fabric Transfer
I used Avery 3271 Light Fabric Transfer Paper for this project. Please note that I’ve had this stuff for a really long time! I think that may be what caused some of my issues you’ll see below. The fabric I’m using is actually a cotton place mat I got at Ollie’s for $1.50. I chose my “feathered” print to use as a transfer.
The instructions are fairly clear about what to do, so be sure to read them! I cut out the image close to the edges & placed it on the fabric. Using a hot iron, I pressed & pressed & pressed some more, as the instructions suggested.
Well, the transfer paper left a yellowed looking image that I did not like very much! I also noticed that the fabric kind of yellowed at first from all the ironing, so this may have been the fabric, not the transfer. This image was taken after a hand washing & drying. Also, I had started coloring it in….oops!
You can still see the yellowed look it has. I tested a smaller image on a different white fabric & it did not look so yellowed. This was a different pack of paper & different fabric, so I think the above was just not a good combo!
I was going to open up the seam of the place mat and turn this into a pillow, but I don’t know about that now. I did have fun coloring it with crayons & Sharpies though!
I’m still pondering what I want to do with this. It’s looking better with the color, but not what I was going for exactly!
Sometimes you just have to try things out to see how it goes! I’m going to try some different {and newer} products to see which one works best. This little transfer pen looks like something fun to try…
Pin it for later!
