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DIY Boys Valentine’s Shirt

01/29/2015 12 Comments

DIY Valentine's ShirtI love making custom tee’s for my boys, usually for holidays or if I need something specific and can’t find one I like in stores.  My favorite method for making custom t-shirts is with freezer paper stencils.  If you haven’t tried them yet be sure to add it to your crafting to-do list.  This DIY Boys Valentine’s Shirt is pretty easy to make, so let’s get started.

Supplies:

T-shirt, Walmart – Target – and American Apparel all have great prices
Fabric paint, DecoArt SoSoft brand is my fave
Freezer paper
Cutting machine or Xacto knife
Cutting mat if using the cutting machine
Round foam pouncer paint brush, medium and small
Small detail paint brush, optional

Note:  If you don’t have fabric paint you can use acrylic paint with fabric medium mixed with a 2:1 ratio per package instructions.

DIY Boys Valentine's Shirt

When creating t-shirts I try to come up with clever or cute designs that I haven’t seen in stores.  I then use a program like photoshop, or picmonkey to create my images.  

I own a Cricut Explore cutting machine, and love it.  It allows me to take my own custom images and upload them into their Design Space software and create a cuttable image easily.  After creating my cuttable file and sizing it to fit my t-shirt I just hit GO on the machine.  When using freezer paper to cut a stencil with a machine be sure you place it shiny side down on your mat.

Once the image is cut you can weed out the pieces and set them aside for a second because you’ll need them again.

Note:  If for some reason you don’t have a cutting machine you can cut the image by hand. Simply print our your design on a piece of paper, lay the freezer paper over the image and using a fine tip marker or pencil trace your image.  Then cut carefully on a cutting mat with your Xacto knife.  

DIY Boys Valentine's ShirtPre-heat your iron to a no steam setting.

Using a ruler be sure your design is centered shiny side down on your t-shirt, you can use a small piece of masking tape to hold the freezer paper in place on the shirt until your ready to iron.  Just be sure to remove the tape before you actually iron anything.

Once you have the large outline piece centered hold in place and carefully press it with the iron.  Do not move iron around in circular motions, it’s best to lift and move it.  Iron for a few seconds until it’s mostly adhered.

This is where your negative pieces that you weeded will come back, you can use them to fill in the whole design to be sure everything is aligned.  Ironing each piece back in place for a few seconds until the image is whole again.  

DIY Boys Valentine's ShirtNow, once again weed out the pieces you don’t need and you’re left with the design centered and exactly where it’s supposed to be.  Be sure to put back any small letter details too.  

DIY Boys Valentine's ShirtPressing firmly in 20 second intervals go over the entire design until you feel the edges are sealed down to the t-shirt.  Let it cool for about 5 minutes before painting.

DIY Boys Valentine's ShirtUse small round foam pouncer brushes to gently tap / pounce paint on to your t-shirt design.  Do not press too hard or you will cause excess paint to seep under the stencil possibly.  

For the white on the jaws I needed 3 coats of paint, the black lettering only needed about 2 coats.  I used red on the small heart and just used a small paintbrush to apply it.

Let your design dry 5-10 minutes between each coat, and let it dry for 24 hours before washing or wearing.

DIY Boys Valentine's ShirtOnce everything is dry you can peel up your freezer paper stencil.  

At this point you can leave the design alone and be done.  Or you can be like me and grab a small detail brush and some more of the black fabric paint and add a finishing detail to the edges of the shark jaw.

DIY Boys Valentine's Shirt

DIY Boys Valentine's ShirtThere you have it…a custom and  fun DIY Boys Valentine’s Shirt!  These shirts can be washed in cold water, turned inside out and dried on normal heat in the dryer.  Over time they will get a worn look to them which makes them even better.  

DIY Boys Valentine's ShirtI just adore this kiddo!  You see this look below?  That’s the look I get all the time…not because he wants something, but that’s how he tells me he loves me from across the room or at school. It melts me every single time.

DIY Boys Valentine's Shirt

DIY Boys Valentine's Shirt

DIY Boys Valentine's Shirt

Want to check out some of my other custom t-shirt designs?  

The Crafted SparrowDIY Geek Inspired Shirt  |  DIY Hunger Games Shirt  |  DIY Halloween Shirt

Looking for an fun wreath idea?  Check out my Easy Felt Feather Valentine’s Wreath.

Easy Felt Feather Valentine's WreathEasy Felt Feather Valentine’s Wreath

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Filed Under: crafts, Cricut Explore, holidays, Tutorials, Valentine's Day

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Comments

  1. Adrienne says

    01/30/2015 at 9:17 AM

    Rebecca this is adorable! I love it. My boys would love this shirt. I may have to make a few up! Thanks for a great tutorial!

    Reply
    • craftedsparrow says

      01/30/2015 at 12:50 PM

      Thank you so much friend! Your boys will love it! xoxoxo

      Reply
  2. Torrie says

    01/30/2015 at 7:20 PM

    This is so adorable. Such a good idea.

    Reply
    • craftedsparrow says

      02/01/2015 at 8:52 PM

      Thank you so much Torrie! Have a super week. ๐Ÿ™‚

      Reply
  3. Kimberly says

    02/09/2015 at 12:34 PM

    Hello gorgeous! Iโ€™m just stopping by to let you know that Kimberly has chosen your post as her favorite from the last party. Woo Hoo! We will be featuring it at our party tonight at 7 pm. I hope to see you then. Happy Monday! Lou Lou Girls

    Reply
    • craftedsparrow says

      02/09/2015 at 8:29 PM

      Oh that’s so sweet Kimberly, thank you so much. I won’t be linking up tonight since I have no new projects since I’ve been sick the past couple of weeks. I hope to be back at it next week though! Thanks again. xoxoxo

      Reply
  4. Lindi says

    02/09/2015 at 7:47 PM

    I LOVE this Rebecca!! Did you design the jaw in Photoshop then? Before transferring it to the cricut design space? I can’t figure out how you could do that design in picmonkey. Thanks! You are giving me so much inspiration for my cricut! I even did my first leather cuts this week ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply
    • craftedsparrow says

      02/09/2015 at 8:27 PM

      Hi Lindi. Thank you so much! The shark jaw was something I found through a google search that had a very simple black design. Then I uploaded the image in to Design Space and created the cuttable image that way. ๐Ÿ™‚ The wording design was all done in PicMonkey, I personally just find it easier to design my text images there or in photoshop and upload them to Design Space, even though I could have done it all in Design space. Hope that helps. And I’m so glad you are loving your machine! Yay for leather!

      Reply
      • Lindi says

        02/10/2015 at 9:21 AM

        Yes! That does help ๐Ÿ™‚ Thank you! I assumed you did the wording with PicMonkey, but just couldn’t figure out the rest! Thanks Rebecca!

        Reply
        • craftedsparrow says

          02/10/2015 at 10:57 AM

          Oh good, glad it helps. Have a great day Lindi!

          Reply

Trackbacks

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