Bling Your Band

Quick link page for application instructions!

How to apply the vinyl decals

How to protect your decals with mod podge

How to paint the cranial band

How to apply heat transfers

How to apply googles or large decals

Quick Links

How to apply the vinyl decals

How to paint the cranial band

We offer matching heat transfers that you can apply to your own clothing!  This guide will walk you through how to do that using an iron.

The iron-on transfer

You can easily apply the designs to cotton clothing, but because the transfer bonds to clothing at 300 degrees Fahrenheit, you can also apply them to blends or pure polyester.  However you need to be more careful not to overheat polyester during the ironing process.

Step 1 - iron your item of clothing.  The design needs to be applied to flat fabric.  If you are applying to new cotton clothing, it should be pre-shrunk or pre-washed by you.

Make sure the clothing is wrinkle free

Step 2 - separate the plastic films.  Start with the design face down, and at one corner.  Yes it can be a little painful to get the films initially separated.  I usually use a pocket knife to get it started.

Then slowly pull back.  The vinyl is slightly bonded to the top film, but the bottom film is sticky.  When the films are separated, we want all the vinyl on the sticky bottom.

But as we separate the films, some of the vinyl might want to stay with the top film.  We will fix that with two methods.

Notice in the leftmost picture below, I have sharply bent back the plastic film.  This really helps the vinyl stay with the sticky bottom.

In the middle picture, that didn't work with the red letter you see.  So in the right most picture, you see that I pushed the films back together, with my finger pressing down on that trouble letter.

Then  I pull the films back apart, and then the letter stuck down as I wanted.  Worst case, if a piece of vinyl gives trouble, move to a completely different edge and start from there.  A different angle also usually fixes trouble spots.

Separate the plastic films

Step 3 - center the transfer on the shirt or onsie.

Center the transfer

At this point the design should be all on the sticky sided vinyl.  Work in a clean area and protect the sticky side.  The next step will be ironing this onto the clothing, and you don't want to iron anything 'extra' into your shirt.

Step 4- iron the design onto the clothing.  If you have a heat press, the recipe is 300 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 seconds at medium pressure.  For your iron, Wool/Silk is perfect, Nylon will need a little more time, and Cotton a little less.

Don't put water in the iron!  You will just be using the iron for heat!

How much time?  If you have a wool/silk setting  Your iron should use about 20-25 seconds on each portion of the design with you pressing down and keeping the iron moving.  As your iron probably can't cover the entire design in on go, work a section, and then move to the next.

Keep the iron moving!

You want to melt the design into the shirt, but way to much temperature and way too much time will start to darken the design and blur it.

The correct setting on your iron

Iron the design onto the shirt

Step 5 - after you are done ironing, let the shirt cool down from super hot to very warm, and then slowly remove the top plastic starting from one corner or side.

Inspect the design for proper bonding.  Trouble spots will be at the edges of lettering or thin designs as shown in the picture.  If the design is not firmly bonded, put the plastic film back over the design and re-iron till it is.

You want the design to be like the image below - all of the design is firmly into the shirt.

As the design was ironed onto the shirt, it is a little sensitive to heat.  The clothing will last longer if dried on low heat, and turned inside out.  If the decal starts to age, it can be refreshed back to new just by putting the film back over the design and re-iron it!

We save a little time and effort if you purchase more than one decal set, so we pass the savings on to you. Buy two sets, get a third set free! Add the third set to the cart and the system will show the discount.

Add a fourth set to the cart and it is half price!  All the sets beyond four are also half price, and the cart will show the discount.

If you know you are going to change out designs over time (easy to do, we have a help page)  then this really good deal for you.  It is also a great way to put in a holiday design or two.

Welcome!  The Trails Club of Oregon (TCO) would love to have you visit Tyee Lodge!  As a space that hosts events and provides meals and overnight accommodations, we have procedures and practices to make sure everything runs smoothly.

While the club owns and operates Tyee Lodge, each weekend/event is hosted by a specific TCO member.  If you have a question or would like to attend a specific weekend/event, please contact that TCO member in the method proscribed in the writeup.

RSVPing - Just RSVPing on meetup.com is not enough
Each Meetup.com Tyee event will have an email address or phone number to RSVP to.  That instruction is important and there for a very important reason - sometimes event details change, and it will impact you.  We want to be able to tell you.

Due to low demand, an event may change from TCO providing meals to you providing for yourself.  Or maybe the host became ill at the last minute and the lodge is now opening on a Saturday morning instead of a Friday night.  Real life happens.

Second, Meetup is not the only platform people see Tyee events.  If 44 people RSVP on meetup, and 25 people heard about the event another way (say our monthly newsletter), and everyone shows up, not everyone gets a bed.

The email/phone RSVP system guarantees you have a space.

We have tried using the meetup.com platform to send messages to event participants, and most people, for whatever reason, are not getting them.

You may have forgotten to pay for TCO provided meals.  We want to be able to remind you.

Last, please do not RSVP on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/other.  Please remember that each event/weekend is hosted by a specific TCO member.  They are not looking at each social media platform looking for your RSPV, they are checking the phone number or email that they provided and asked for you to use.

Staying on the property - Lodging costs
Staying on the property costs $25 for adult guests, $15 for adult members, $15 for guest children, and $5 for member's children).  We have a family cap - member family pay no more than $40 for a night, guest families pay no more than $60 for a night.

Please note, tent camping outside the lodge counts as staying on the property, and the same fees apply.

Staying at the lodge - Meals
Some events are advertised as bring your own food.  We have a full kitchen with two stoves, pots, pans, dishes, silverware, and basic staples.  During the bring your own food events you are welcome to cook and eat with the community.

At other events, particularly at popular events, the club will provide a cook.  Except for very special diets, we ask that you participate with the club's meal, as there is limited kitchen space and 'too many cooks in the kitchen' is not practical.

Dinner is $8, breakfast and lunches are $5.  TCO provided meal prices are set by the club.  Hosts are expected to spend about that much on food for meals, per person.  Please check which days and meals are provided.  It is common even on TCO cook weekends that Friday dinner and Saturday breakfast to be bring your own.

Kids are half price.

We ask that you prepay for TCO provided meals.  You can send money to tyeewinter@trailsclub.org.  You do not need a paypal account to do this.

We ask that you prepay for meals because of course the host needs to buy the food before the event, and if you don't end up attending and pay the host for your share of the food, you just cost the host money out of his or her pocket.

Hosting is not a paying gig.  They do not make any money from providing meals, it is a service they extend to others because they enjoy enabling others to spend time at the lodge.  We won't have hosts or meals if hosting takes money from their pockets.

Spending the night
The lodge sleeps 22 in the men's dorm and 22 in the women's dorm.  The women’s dorm is a lot like restrooms.  You won’t send your 3-year-old boy into the men’s bathroom.  He is welcome in the women’s dorm.  As a single mom, you might not even want your eight year old boy in the men’s side.  Be reasonable and we will too.  The lodge is family oriented.  Bring a sleeping bag and pillow, we have mattresses.

We have electricity/full kitchen/flush toilets.

Community feel
The TCO is a community – not a hotel.  The host is there to maintain order and be a manager - we the people enjoying the space together also clean up together and do dishes together and restock the fire word together and play board games together and meals generally are a community event. If there is one rule above all others at the lodge, it is: Please play well with others.  Reasonable people can generally sort things out and come to good solutions.

How to get to the lodge (winter directions)
0. During the winter you need a snow pass to park!
1. Head to Government Camp.
2. Take the left up to Timberline Lodge
a. There might be line of cars stopped right at the turn from Highway 26. As soon as you can speak to a flagger, tell them you are going to Tyee Lodge and not to Timberline. Some flaggers don’t know there is a Tyee Lodge, tell them it is next to the boy scout lodge.
b. They will waive you through
c. About 0.25 miles up the road, you will see a parking area to your right. Park there, and not in a Do Not Park section
d. This is your first opportunity to park, and there won’t be another one for miles so you won’t confuse it
3. The lodge is across the road, about a quarter mile walk slightly uphill
a. Walk to the bottom of the parking area (towards Government Camp) and then cross the road when it is clear
b. You will see a little trail and rope to get you up the bank
c. At the top of the bank you will see a trail left – take it. The trail right goes to the boy scout lodge.
d. Follow the ropes to your left up to the lodge
4. It is generally a trip you only want to make 1-2 times so pack accordingly

There are a lot of things in my life that my second experience was much better than my first.  My second tile job?  Much better than the first.  The second room I painted?  Better.  Second marriage?  Much better.

That can be true with decorating your helmet.  We have decorated many helmets, and if you would like us to decorate yours we would be happy to do it.

Our service includes helmet paint (optional though), decal application, and then sealing the band to the proper thickness.

You still order a decal set, we still send you a proof and you can customize the design to your liking.  However we will take care of getting the sizing exactly right!

It is not uncommon for folks to ask for a custom helmet look that can't be done in vinyl but needs to be done with paint.  Ms. Strawn is a fantastic artist, but everyone knows her and not everyone can wait the 1-2 month that she is booked up.

And different artists have different styles.  Vincent van Gogh amazed the world.  There was still room for Pablo Picasso.

How much detail can I have?

Bling Your Band has partnered with an experienced artist to offer helmet painting!  The way it works is we will ask you to pick the helmet theme - say vintage explorer, or flowers, or fixing my melon, or a new design.

Tell us if the helmet is a for a boy or a girl, and you are free to pick a secondary theme.  It might be a Disney character, or your favorite team, or something meaningful to your family.

And then (optionally) pick 1-2 specific elements.  Maybe dog tags, a specific character, a message to the world, a specific logo, or a particular event.

Last, feel free to share some details and your ideas for the design with the artist.  Once you place the order, the artist will see all these details and will talk to you to be confident that she has captured your vision.

The artist needs a full day with the helmet and can ship it out the end of that day.  Part of the fee includes Priority Mail shipping.  Yes the helmet company asks that your child wear the helmet 23 hours per day - painting the helmet will delay the start of the treatment by 4-5 days, but the helmet treatment will simply extend 4-5 days longer than it would have.

Plagiocephaly treatment can seem like an emergency to get started, but it is a long term process.  Once you start with a band, you will soon see that it is worth having a band that you are proud off and makes your experience better at the cost of delaying the treatment by less than a week.

Our artist had a child with a band, she can talk to you about this if you are still concerned about time needed to paint and ship the band.

Once the helmet is returned to you, you will continue to clean the inside as normal, wiping it out with a cloth dampened with rubbing alcohol.  The outside of the band at most needs wiped with a wet washcloth.  No routine maintenance is needed.

We have been working with metallic vinyls for a little while and we are ready to start shipping designs.

Silver frost vinyl with teal printing

Not every design will work with metallics.  Our traditional vinyl feels pliable.  The metallic vinyl feels harder.  This means that larger elements like goggles are not a good choice for metallic vinyl.

Our traditional vinyl is bright white, and colors print on it as you would expect.  Our metallic vinyls are silver or gold or copper, not pure white, so colors appear a little different, like this teal oval on the crown.

This however is half the advantage to the metallic vinyl.  The printing ink is transparent, so light reflected from the band gives depth to designs.  The other half of the benefit is unprinted (white areas) or lightly colored areas of vinyl is shiny and really catches eyes.

Our metallic vinyls are still new for us, and there are still probably things to be learned about working with them.  If you have issues, please let us know what they were, if you solved them, how, and if not, what can we change up?

We will support you if you need a reprint.  In exchange, we ask for picture pictures pictures!

Order metallic vinyl direct from some product pages

There are two ways to order decals with the metallic vinyl.  Some designs can be printed on both white or metallic silver, in which case we will start adding a checkbox.

Other designs might have a lot of dark ink, and we will instead offer a separate design that takes better advantage of what metallic vinyl can do.

In this case, look for a design that has "METALLIC" in the name.

Don't see what you want in metallic?  Email us!  It takes time to make all the changes and if you want a particular design, that work will get done now!

Other designs will be a new product

This decal set is a little different from out typical offering.  The resulting band will look like a complete wrap!  However the process is a little more complicated and this guide will walk you through it.

Step 1.  Start at the lowest points of the helmet.  Scales should overhang the band and band structures.  The extra that overlaps should be trimmed off with a sharp knife (I use a x-acto) to make a clean edge.

Try to keep the scales even around as you go around the band so that when the pattern joins at some point, everything looks even.  However the scales are forgiving.

Speaking of forgiving, we started with painting the helmet black because the band curvature might cause a small gap between two scales and you can't see it with a black base coat.

Step 1 & 2 - start at the lowest points of the helmet

Step 2.  I worked my way up and around the band.  I tend to trim as I go, as the overlapping scales are sticky on the back side and want to stick to everything.

Step 2 - work your way around and up the band

Step 3.  All the scales are on and I just have some trim work left.  The white on the band is are foam covers and I have just left them alone.

Step 3 - most of the scales are on now

Step 4.  Apply the eyes and the text.  This helmet has many holes drilled in the top, and I used my fingers to find them and my knife to cut the vinyl covering the hole.

Step 4 - apply the eyes and text

Step 5.  Apply protection.  Normally we recommend modge podge only on our regular decals, but as a 'wrap' this design suffers from wrap issues.  LOL did you expect that wraps were perfect and no issues?  The weakness of wraps is the edges where the wrap comes to the edge.

Kid movement and wear wants to lift those edges and peal back the wrap.  Wraps need a lot of maintenance at these points.  We recommend a layer of permanent varnish and then the five coats of mod podge as per our application instructions.

If there is peeling at the edge, catch it quickly and trim the lifted up edge off and back to the flat portion of the vinyl, and treat the edge with more varnish and mod podge.

This page is a special subset of our full decal application instructions.  Getting glasses and goggles to lay flat on a helmet isn't hard - if you apply the decals with the correct process.  This is a step by step application guide for goggles and glasses.

Step 1 - cut around the goggles as closely as possible

Step 1 - Separate out and cut around the goggles or glasses as closely as you can.  The transfer tape is not as flexible as the vinyl, so excess transfer tape just hinders the goggles laying flat around the edges.

Step 2 - Stick the goggles down in the center

Step 2 - stick the goggles down in the center.  You can check if the goggles are centered as you want them on the band, and lift the goggles off and stick it down again if it is off center.

Then use a squeegee, credit card or large coin to start sticking the decal down in the center.

3 - Keep working out from the center

Step 3 - keep working out from the center, tacking down the goggles.  Work in small, firm strokes.  You can apply a lot of pressure to the vinyl.

As you get more and more of the decal down, the more you will see excess vinyl building up at the edges.

4 - Get the goggles nearly all down

Step 4 - you have slowly worked from the center of the goggles to the edges, so where all but the edges is down and smooth.  You worked in small strokes, a little at a time.

As you get to this point, you will see the edges looking wavy, with vinyl lifted up at the red arrows.

Take your squeegee/credit card/coin, and start at the inside and push these mountains (tip of the red arrows) down, a little at a time.

Don't try to push one mountain flat and then move to the next one.

Instead, push a little on a mountain, and then move to the next mountain and push a little on it.

5 - Nearly all the mountains are gone

Step 5 - I have worked the left side top here to where almost all the little mountains are down.  The red arrow is pointing to what could turn into a crease if I don't address it right.

To fix the crease, use the sharp corner of the squeegee to apply a lot of pressure to the start of the crease (tip of the red arrow).  Apply a lot of pressure, and slowly slide from the start of the crease, to the edge of the goggles.

6 - All of the decal is down

Step 6 - I worked all the mountains.  By being aggressive at the start of a crease, I eliminated it.

This example shows why I don't make decals beyond a certain size.  Applying a flat decal to a rounded helmet works up to a 2-3 inches, but it takes more and more experience and technique to get large decals down flat.

You can go back to our full application instruction guide here.

A great customer photo example of a goggles applied flat!

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