The Smart Kid's Guide to Life (thus far): Totally Terrific Tees!

I'm more of a jeans and T-shirt kind of girl.

~Tara Reid

This was a pretty fun and inexpensive craft, although truth be told, I did most of the work. Maddie, however, did choose the graphics.

At any craft store in North America, one can find printable iron on material. I use Avery brand. It's the most widely available and probably the cheapest (and it comes with a boxtop for education for your school. Bonus). Using an ink jet printer, you find a graphic you like and print it directly to the paper. After that you can iron the image onto a shirt, tote bag, blankets (they make great customize quilt fabric squares).

The tee-shirts are available at most craft/fabric stores. I bought ours at A.C. Moore for about $3.00 a shirt and bought a few in case we messed up (which I did). The Inkjet fabric transfers cost us $8.50. It comes with six sheets so if you mess up (which I did), you have extra to work with.

Step One: Find a graphic. This is pretty easy. Google image search will do the trick. You can scan pictures of loved ones, pets, or friends if you prefer making it a more personal item. This is also a fast and easy gift for Mother's Day, Father's Day, Grandparent's Day, birthdays, and Cupcake Day. Anything goes. I think it's best to insert the image into a Microsoft Word program. That way you can get it to the right size and see how it will print. I don't have any real graphics program, but if you want to use one of these, go for it.

Step Two: Print the image on the transfer paper. Make sure you put the paper in the printer the correct way. Put your printer settings for "best quality" and photo on "plain" or "other" paper. The paper feeds pretty easily. When it's finished, give it a bit of time to dry before you start. We just watched The Fellowship of the Ring, so Maddie was hot to make a Galadriel tee-shirt. Make sure if there is any text on the graphic that you use a program and mirror the image before you print it. The image is going to transfer backwards from what you see.

Step Three: When the images are dry, cut them out carefully. The pack says to give it a little bit of white boarder. I didn't and it didn't hurt. I guess they just want to make sure you can grip it properly when you start to peel. Your choice.

Step Four: (Obviously for the adult!) Set your iron to the highest cotton setting and TURN OFF THE STEAM. This is a dry transfer. Steam will mess up the transfer (nope...this wasn't one of my mistakes). While your iron pre-heats, place a towel on your ironing board. Don't choose any with any relief patterns that might cause unexpected creasing (nope, that wasn't the mistake either). Place your tee-shirt squarely on the board and CENTER the image properly. DING DING DING! Mistake number one! Boy was my mistake a doozy. It was terribly crooked. Maddie said she's wear it that way, and until I made my second mistake, I thought I might let her. Make sure your image is right side up. DING DING DING! Mistake number two. I peeled off the paper to reveal one seriously upside One Ring poem. I couldn't excuse my way out of that one. I chucked the whole shirt and started again.

Step Five: Ironing! Hold your pattern by the corner so it doesn't move when you put the iron down for the first time. Once it goes onto the transfer paper, it won't move. Using sliding motions and a little pressure, move your iron back and forth without letting it settle on one spot for any extended period of time. The pack says about 45 seconds. That sounds pretty fair. Once you are finished let it alone for five or more minutes and allow the shirt and transfer to cool. If you try and peel it when it's still warm it will pull up.

Step Six: Peeling! Carefully pull up a corner of the transfer paper. Slowly pull it away from the tee-shirt. If any of the image stays on the transfer paper, but it back down and re-iron the spot. Once it's peeled away and your tee-shirt is complete, throw it in the wash to set the image permanently. Use cold water and either hand it outside to dry or use a cool to medium dryer setting.

Voila!