Thursday, July 28, 2011

Happy Birthday, dear!


For JJ's birthday I decided to make him a slogan t-shirt with his favorite Darth Vader quote on it.  Ever since he bought Owen a Darth Vader helmet that talks, he's been stopping the kids in the hallways and saying this.  So.  Obviously a t-shirt was in order.  We're big fans of slogan t-shirts anyway.  Cheesy, but fun.  For this I used a t-shirt (100% cotton) purchased at the craft store, black and white fabric paint, a black fabric pen and freezer paper.  I chose the font I liked best from the never-ending list available on my word doc program, printed it off, then traced the outline onto freezer paper (which I bought at the grocery store - Safeway, actually - and which is made by Reynolds - I know it isn't always easy to find, but it works great).  I cut the letters out with an x-acto knife, then ironed the waxy/plastic side to the shirt (no steam).  With a stiff bristled craft brush I applied three coats of white fabric paint and let it dry between each coat.  When the last coat was dry I peeled the paper off and touched up any bleeding with black fabric paint.  When that was dry I noticed a few places that needed some exacting touch ups so I used a black fabric marker for the detailing.  All told it only took an afternoon to do and the result is terrific!  I will definitely use this method again.

And JJ seems happy - and that makes me happy!  Hurray for birthdays!

4 comments:

Anki and Sassa said...

Wow, that's AMAZING! That sounds so fiddly and complex (you clearly have superior scissor skills. How did you ever cut out all those little itty bitty letters?)but it came out so fantastic. You're very clever. Love the slogan too...and a good slogan T Shirt.

Dana said...

Crafters rule!!!

Lynda said...

Hah! No wonder JJ laughed. I'm going to say that to Lynn all weekend until he is sick of it! Fantastic slogan for a t-shirt.
You did a super job. You are so clever.
Happy Birthday JJ xox

Oiyi said...

Cool crafty gift!