Recognizable characters on t-shirts

Soon after I received my Expression I saw a blog post on heat transfer vinyl at Platinum Scraps.  I'm a big fan of Tsrel over at Platinum Scraps.  This project was done by Nubian and I immediately fell in love with the possibilities for heat transfer vinyl (htv).  Here is a picture of her completed shirt:

Isn't it incredible?  Who would have thought someone made that at home? Nubian Crafter can be found here.  I recommend checking out her blog and some of her great SCAL projects.








I haven't reached Nubian's expertise, but with a little bit of creativity you can make some shirts that are soooo easy and yet evoke well known characters.  This first one, I wish I could take credit for the idea but the Wonderkid had a pull over with this design and I realized I could copy it when I first saw the Sesame Street and Friends Cart.

Most kids will immediately recognize this as Cookie Monster and it was incredibly easy.  It does require Design Studio so you can use hide contours.  If you don't know how to do that, Diane at Capadia Designs has some great tutorials.  On the right side of her blog scroll down to the links to "Hide Contours".  You won't be sorry.

This was one of my early t shirts and I learned a very important lesson.  Don't try to piece on bit of htv inside another part of the design.  Here is a close-up of the eyes.

I know the picture is a little blurry but I couldn't get a crisp clean shot and allow you to see the mistake I made.   See how you can see the blue of the shirt around the black of the pupil?  That isn't what it was supposed to do.  When you use htv it will naturally contract and expand.   It isn't a lot but it is enough that you really don't want to be piecing something inside another piece of htv.  What I should have done was cut a full piece of the white and then put the black in the appropriate place on top of the white.

Here is a shirt I did after the Cookie Monster shirt.  I decided that Cookie Monster was such a hit, I would try another Sesame Street character.