How to Sublimate Neoprene Car Coasters

Welcome back to the craft room and today’s How to Sublimate Neoprene Car Coasters post. Have you seen all the fun car coasters on the market lately? Or are you more like me, and didn’t realize until just recently that they were a thing? Because they seem so popular right now, I thought I would make some for an upcoming craft bazaar I will be doing in October. Let me take you along as I learn how to sublimate neoprene car coasters.

The Images

I have seen so many different options for decorated car coasters. They can be anything from a simple pattern to beautiful flowers, and even a snarky comment or two. For my first attempt at the craft, I am using some butterfly images that I designed on Bing AI a few months ago. I don’t recall the exact prompt I used for the butterflies, but I did want a stained glass look. They both turned out beautifully.

I also found some pretty Dream Catcher images on Creative Fabrica. These designs are ready for printing onto car coaster. The file also includes images with and without the notch. I chose to use the full circle images to make placement easier.

Creating the Template in Canva

While the Dream Catcher images are already sized correctly for car coasters, my AI created images are not. So, it is off to Canva to create a template. This is a very simple task that can be done on the free version. We will begin by Creating a Design.

Next we will click on Custom Size.

Then we will enter the width and height. Remember to change the units to Inches, if that is what you need. I am making a 3” square.

Now that we have our square, it is time to add the frame. To do this, choose Elements from the left hand menu. Click on Frame and if necessary, See All. Then click on the circle frame to add it into the square.

Let’s resize our circle frame now. My car coaster is approximately 2.75” in diameter. I don’t want to waste a lot of extra ink, so I am making my frame 2.8” in diameter. We then need to align the frame in the center and middle of our square. Our template is now complete. I duplicated the template and then locked the first one to ensure it cannot be adjusted in any way.

To add our image, open the Uploads menu and upload your image if needed. I already have several images, so I chose one of the butterflies to use. Click on the image of your choice to move it to the center of your design. To attach it to the frame, click and hold your left mouse button and move the image slightly. That will snap the picture into the frame.

You are now ready to download and print your car coaster! I always download sublimation images as PNG files and print them in Word.

Preparing the Coaster for Sublimation

Now that our images have been printed, let’s get the coasters ready. With all sublimation crafts, it is very important to clean the surface. For today’s project it is even more important as I had been working with glitter a few days before. With that in mind, I paid close attention as I used my lint roller over the front of the coasters.

When I was sure they were clean, I laid the car coaster over the image and lined it up carefully. Because the design is just slightly larger than our coasters, it is important to take your time. Tape the coaster to the image with heat resistant tape, keeping in mind where the notch in the coaster is on the image. I will be selling these in sets, so I want to make sure to place the notch in the same location on both coasters.

Heating the Sublimation Image

Before I started this project, I looked at the recommended time and temperature guide from the manufacturer of the car coasters. The suggested temperature is anywhere from 356 to 428 degrees with times ranging from 20 to 60 seconds. Not helpful! After watching several different videos, I settled on a temperature of 385 degrees for 50 seconds. Rather than doing the first pair of coasters at this time/temp combination I decided to do only the one. This would give me the chance to see the results with my HTVRont Auto Heat Press and make any changes from there.

While the first coaster came out beautifully, I decided to up the time to 55 seconds for the second one. It too came out beautifully. In the image below the first coaster is on the left and the second on the right. There may be a slight difference in the shades, but not that much.

Let’s Keep it Real

I was so looking forward to seeing that first car coaster come off the press that I was unprepared for the cupped piece of neoprene that laid on my lower platen. It was even more odd that not a bit of ink transferred from the A-sub sublimation paper to the coaster. At first, I thought it was because I had not pre-pressed the coasters. So, let’s fix that by pressing two of them at 385 degrees for around 10 seconds. As I got ready to place the coaster back on the image, it finally hit me!! If you know about sublimation, then one look at the image below will tell you all you need to know! Yuppers! That coaster is Upside Down!!

I wish I could tell you that was the only time this happened. But sadly, I cannot. I don’t know what happened to my brain, but I did it again on another set of coasters. Unfortunately, this time around I made an even bigger mistake by just turning them over and repressing them right away. As you can see, while they flattened out and sublimated, the coaster and image shifted. Oh well, my husband now has them in his work truck!

The Finished Coasters

While I did have one fail, I had more wins! The first set is stunning! I also am so happy with the second set of dream catcher coasters that also sublimated beautifully. I’m not 100% sure about the last set of coasters though. I made this design with a piece of wood plank digital paper and a sunflower. To me, the wood has a bit of a green tinge to it. I’m not sure if that is the color of the design, or if maybe I need to up the temperature or time a bit more.

Because I am going to be selling these at a Craft Bazaar in October I wanted to have some nice packaging for the sets. The Car Coasters I purchased from Amazon came with cellophane bags as well as cards to mount the coasters on. This is a very professional looking set. Before I seal the bags, I will also be stamping the back of the cards with my information, and I will also add a care card for the coasters that I also found on Creative Fabrica.

Thank you so much for joining me for today’s How to Sublimate Neoprene Car Coasters post. I hope you learned something new today. If nothing else, I hope you got a chuckle out of my mistake placing the coaster upside down in the press. I mean really, you would think I had never sublimated anything before today! If you would like to check out some of my other projects, you can find them here: Sublimation Crafts. Until then, have a fantastic week and I will see you back in the craft room again soon!

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