Dear Santa T-Shirt

Hello Friends -

I'm unbelievably excited about a little project I created today.

I'm certain you are now looking at this and thinking, "Yeah, I've seen those before.  She needs to get a life."  Well, we can debate whether I need to get a life or not but...

The reason I am so excited is this is a piece of paper the Wonderkid wrote on.  I then took his actual writing and scanned it into a JPEG.  The JPEG was then traced directly into SCAL and voila:

The Wonderkid's writing on his own shirt.  Don't you absolutely love it?  I will say, it took awhile to cut so I think I might want to figure out if there is a way to even it out so it cuts ALOT faster.

I'm just so pleased with myself.  I really can't see straight.  What do you think?

T shirts for a new little person

Hello Friends -

Today I have a series of t-shirts for a little guy in the family.  I should have done these a couple of weeks/months ago but I'm going with "better late than never".  While doing shirts for the new baby, I had to make something for his big sister.

Here are the brother/sister shirts.

The font I used is my favorite for little kid stuff.  It is called Kristin.  I normally make it a little wider for cutting purposes but it isn't a requirement.  You can't tell in this picture but the lettering on the t-shirt is pink on brown.  The onesie is cream on brown.  I would have liked to use light blue on the brown but I didn't have any handy.

Here is a close-up of the lettering.

One more shot of the onesie.  I think this one is simple but fun.

The little one's Dad and uncle both went to St. Ignatius (a Catholic boy's school in the same town as they live).  Not long ago, Dad tweeted the year of his son's graduation from Ignatius so I thought this would be a fitting shirt.  I used the Cricut Varsity font for this shirt.  I must say, I love that cartridge for so many different things.  I needed to put the Wonderkid's name on his soccer(football) jersey.  Instead of hauling it all off to some store where they would have charged me $1 per letter, I just cut the letters out and stuck them on.  Voila, personalized jersey.

Back to the onesies for the little one.  The little one's Dad played/s Lacrosse.  So, this seemed fitting.

Of all the shirts, this one gave me the most grief.  I didn't have too much trouble finding an SVG of the lacrosse sticks but then I wanted to arc the letters instead of putting them in a straight line.  Well, that is easier said than done.  I asked over on the SureCutsALot Users board and the wonderful Kim gave me a great recommendation.  You create what you want in Word, using Word Art, and then make a jpeg of it and trace it in SCAL.  In the end I hand placed the letters on the bottom arc.  The top arc I used the path feature.

Weeding the nets of the lacrosse sticks was a bit of a pain also.  It was a matter of being able to see each section and pull it out.  In the end, I really like the way it came out.  I'm having trouble deciding which is my favorite.

I have a few shirts in the works for the Wonderkid.  They should be a little more fun and the types of shirts other people might want to scraplift (I can't imagine anyone wanting to use these ideas but ...).

Tomorrow, I have some cards I made and some subway art I designed for a birthday.  Until then...

St. Patrick's Day T Shirt

Last night I made the Wonderkid's t-shirt for St. Patty's Day.  I was feeling very together since I have another two days before he needs to wear it.  This is what I ended up making.

The shamrock is from a shape card I won from The Cutting Cafe.  Regina has some fantastic items in the store.  I'm especially happy with her sentiments in a circle and some of the background papers.  The shamrock originally had a mirror image attached to it but I "hung" it off the edge of the mat and only cut one shamrock.

I would have preferred a different color of green for the shamrock but I ran out of the dark green.  As soon as I'm done with this post I'm off to order more Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV) from Nick at CraftVinyl.com.

The "100% Green" and the recycling symbol are from the Spring Holiday Cards cart.  A little hint if you are cutting it out using vinyl or just looking for the "off cut", put a smaller box around the design so you don't waste all of your vinyl.

Here is a screenshot of what I mean.

You can click on the picture to make it larger.

The original design has a box that is much bigger.  You can see I used the "hide contour" feature for that box and for the face on the recycle symbol.  The edge of the original box is between th 6 and 7 inch marker.  I put a much smaller box around it using my George and Basic Shapes cartridge.  I have that cart and the Plantin cart in my Jukebox at all times.  That way I don't need to switch it back and forth because I use it constantly.  

The other reminder, don't forget to flip your design when using HTV.  You will be cutting on the "wrong" side which is the side that is less shiny.

For this shirt the white layer went down first, the green layer was next and the black was the final layer.  The Wonderkid has already given this shirt his approval.  He told me this morning it is "Bootiful".  I was afraid we would have a fight about whether he could wear it today or had to wait.  Delayed gratification is not his strong suit.  I wonder where he gets that?

Pop back tomorrow for a couple of cards (I think I'm going to be up to my ears in green this week) and maybe a banner or some fun stuff for this weekend's Farmer's Market.

Love Bug Shirt

This is what I made for the Wonderkid to wear to school today.  I thought he needed a new shirt for Valentines Day.  I partially chose this because one of his teachers refers to him as a love bug.  The bug and the words "love bug" come from Simply Charmed cart.  The "I'm a" is Mickey Font.  Using Design Studio I added the heart to the "o" on "love" instead of the smiley face from the cart.

I used four colors of heat transfer vinyl (htv).  I use my regular iron but I iron it on my washing machine as opposed to an ironing board.  I've heard other people say they used a cookie sheet, I think that is likely to work also.  I also use a small sheet of teflon to make sure it gets good and hot. 

Here is a close-up of the shirt. It is tought to tell in these pictures but the lettering is pink and the heart is pink.  It looks pretty cool in person, a little washed out in this picture, though.

What do you think? Is this fun or what?

Just a couple more t-shirts

I have a couple more t-shirts for you today and then, I think I'll take a break from the t-shirts for a while.

These t-shirts continue on the theme of personalized shirts.

The Wonderkid is in love with fire engines.  On a daily basis he informs me that he wants to be a fireman when he grows up.  So, I made him this shirt.

You can find these letters on Cuttin' Up.  The fire truck comes from Everyday Paperdolls.  Everyday Paperdolls is good for shirts and other vinyl pieces because it is fairly basic.  There aren't a lot of details and cuts that are tough to do in vinyl.  Any of the designs that require slits for details are not good for vinyl and I normally end up using hide contour to get rid of them.

The other set of shirts I want to share today were mailed off to a former pastor in Moma's church.  The pastor (Pastor Kristin) recently gave birth to her third child.  When Moma and I went off to find a present for the baby we just couldn't find what we wanted (little girl clothes are tough when you aren't a fan of pink, frills and flowers).  After a bit of searching, Moma says, "You could make something, couldn't you?".  I agreed and this is the design.

We made one for each of the kids.  The oldest, a boy, gets the gray one but if it survives him his sisters could easily wear it in the future.

Here is a close-up of the shirts.

It still looks plenty girly.

This is one of those times when I used Sure Cuts A Lot or SCAL.  On the message boards you will see folks referring to "the other program".  This is made using one of the other programs.  The name of the font is ... Kristin.  It is a great font for kids, almost as good as Mickey and Pooh font.  I ended up using the shadow function in SCAL so it would be a bit thicker and cut nicely.

I believe these shirts prove my belief that folks won't realize you designed and made them at home.  I'm fairly certain Pastor Kristin believes they were bought.  She has planned out when the kids will be wearing the shirts for the first time.  I can't wait to see pictures.

Personalized tshirts

One of the reasons I love making t-shirts is it allows me to personalize them.  While the Sesame Street characters are fun, they aren't as meaningful as this next set. 

Lets start with a little back story.  Growing up, my youngest brothers would have a milkshake made by our Dad almost every night.  It is one of the few things Dad makes.  You know how some people remember Dad making breakfast on Sunday mornings or that one special dish that Dad would make?  Well, in my family, Dad makes milkshakes.  This tradition continued on to the Wonderkid.  He would ask PopPop for a milkshake most nights.  The funny thing is, he really just wanted to eat the ice cream but suggestions that he could do that without PopPop making a milkshake fell on deaf ears (or the ears of a three year old). 

So, I made the Wonderkid and PopPop t-shirts. 

First the Wonderkid's t shirt.

The milkshake can be found on the From My Kitchen cart.  I forgot to flip the image when I cut it so it is actually backwards.  This is OK as long as none of the image is flipped. I made this shirt 6 months ago.  As you can see, the letters are all in place after many many washings. 

Then I made this shirt for PopPop.

The lettering comes from Pooh Font.  The graphic of the earth (I've used this in so many formats.  I'm almost getting tired of it.) comes from Going Places and the milk shake is the same one I used in the Wonderkid's shirt. 

What do you think of these shirts?  I can promise you, they won't be wearing them out at the same time.

Mommy's Little Monster t-shirt

When I was pregnant with the Wonderkid I was sick the ENTIRE time.  So, I started referring to him as "Mommy's Little Monster".  This was said only in the most affectionate terms... most of the time.  When he was little, I was able to buy all kinds of cute onesies with dinosaurs and such that said, "Mommy's Little Monster".  I haven't seen any in his size for quite some time.  

The first time I saw the Mini Monsters Cart I fell in love with it.  I'm not much of a pink flowers and fairies kind of a gal.  Provo Craft seems to have a dozen carts of princesses and fairies.  I'm sure they know their audience and they are great sellers.  I am not the one that is buying those carts.  

picture from the Cricut website

Do you see that monster hopping out of the hole.  It spoke to me immediately.  

When this cart arrived last Saturday,  I immediately pulled it out and designed this.

Isn't it adorable?  The lettering is Mickey Font cut at 1 inch.  The monster is cut at 5 inches.  

The layering on this is very easy.  After I designed the shirt, I cut it all in paper so I knew how it would piece together and to make certain the colors would work the way I had them.  

In this picture you can see a slight mistake in the green piece.  I chose a piece that was a tad to small.  You can see the edge of the black where you shouldn't.  However, the Wonderkid doesn't normally stop moving long enough for anyone else to see it.

Here is a closer shot of the front.

Here is the Wonderkid wearing the shirt so you can see where the tail falls on his back.  

Whenever you are layering heat transfer vinyl (htv) you should use a hot iron without any steam.  It needs to be very dry.  I iron the shirt first to get out any moisture (which is pretty darn tough in Georgia in the summer).  Then I place the first layer on the shirt.  Remember that the "backing" belongs on the outside.  The sandwich is shirt, vinyl, backing and then the teflon sheet or a pillowcase/piece of cloth. You don't want to iron directly onto the "backing" as it will melt.  I iron it in a circular pattern for about 30 seconds then I move onto another small section.  Some htv can be peeled while it is still hot, others need to cool.  I normally use the type that needs to cool.  So I wait a few minutes (this is not easy for me so I like to do a couple of shirts at once so I have something else to do) then I peel off the "backing".  I put the next layer down and then I place the backing on top of the entire design.  Continue until you have finished all of the layers.  

The only problem with htv is no one will think that you made the shirts yourself.  They look that good.