These fun and festive beach hats are all the rage this summer! I have seen hot glue with sequins, ribbon, paint, and even embroidered! So we knew we had to use our favorite medium...Heat transfer vinyl! And we have a great tutorial for you showing you how to curve text!

Step 1: create your shape.

Since my hat was a circle I did a circle shape. (you can also do an oval or square or even a star using this technique!)

Step 2: Add your words

Click on the Text button and create your saying or words. (I chose Hello Sunshine...using the font HELLO SUNSHINE! Make sure it's the correct size and font.

Step 3 Curve a font

Once you have your words and fonts--double click and you will see a little circle pop up right by the word.

You are going to drag it close to the circle and it will "jump" onto the shape.

It can go on the inside and the outside --where ever you drag it too!

Once the font is on the shape, you will notice that the shape turns from red to gray--which means it will not be cut out (so if you WANT the shape cut out, you may want to duplicate it before adding the text!)

Step 4 Adjusting

Sometimes the font is too big for the shape, or too scrunched up. You can adjust it a couple different ways. The shape and text are combined so you can click on the circle and adjust the size--the font in this picture is the same size I just made the circle smaller.

Another way to adjust it is by clicking on the font. The text option will open on the right side and at the bottom you adjust letter spacing. I usually spread them out a little more. And then you when you click on the text...there is the slider bar. This text was on the outside of the circle and I slide that little oval tab all the way down to get it on the inside. 

The more you play around with it you will see that it can really do a lot of fun things! 

Step 5: Flip and cut

If you are cutting this out of heat transfer vinyl you will need to right click and flip horizontal.

Load it so the front faces down and cut it out on the back side (which is why you need to flip horizontal) and cut!

Step 6: Weed and Apply.

Weeding means to pull away the extra vinyl.

You will notice that there is a plastic sheet over the front of the vinyl. This is the carrier sheet and is what you iron on! (and why we cut on the back and flip horizontal!)

Lay it where you want. (This hat is really textured--so I picked the glitter vinyl because it is a little thicker than the smooth heat transfer! and I knew it would lay nicer on the hat) and Press with an iron (My iron is on medium setting and I press each section for 15 seconds) 

You can go HERE to see a great resource for heat settings!) After it's all been ironed, you peel off the carrier sheet and admire your cute new hat!